Scaling the Wall

I wanted to take a minute and say thanks to all of you who offered encouragement after I wrote my post about the butterflies and rainbows.   I also want to tell you that I am honestly feeling much, much better.  Actually, I have felt better since I woke up the morning after writing it.  I'm not sure if it was all of your prayers, the encouragement that so many of you sent my way, the fact that we welcomed a new family onto the field and I was able to serve someone else, or simply that the Lord has granted me an abundance of grace these last 10 days.  But, whatever it is, I feel more like myself than I have felt since about mid-April.  I'm not dreading getting out of bed in the mornings and I am actually looking forward to the summer and the weeks ahead.

I guess that maybe it was the infamous "wall" that we hear about in the missionary community.  I had heard that you can expect a horribly low point around the 3 month mark.  In fact, one of my friends here told me early on that she was basically bed ridden with depression around the 3, 6, and 9 month marks.  I hope that my waves aren't that deep, but I can say that the Lord's grace is sufficient and he knows how to minister to me when I walk through those valleys.  If valleys are necessary for greater intimacy with my Lord, then I just pray I walk them in a way that glorifies him.

At any rate, I am so, so thankful for those of you who wrote to tell me that you were praying.  I'm thankful for those of you who reminded me of God's word and lovingly told me the truth.  I'm also very thankful for the fellow missionaries who wrote and said, "Thank you for saying what I've felt, but haven't had the courage to say."  It's nice to know that my struggles are not uncommon and that others have walked this same road.  

I am so blessed to look across the span of my life and see how God continues to use the body of Christ from so many seasons of my life to minister to me, even from the other side of the world.  Blessings!  Christy