It was the summer of 2009 when Ryan would join the group from Greenwood Presbyterian down to work in Reynosa, Mexico. Those five days would forever change the course of our lives. Funny thing is, Ryan really should not have been there. By that I mean, Ryan did not want to go and I did not want him to go. The trip leader had been asking for months if Ryan would think about going to work with Isaiah 55 for the week. But at the time we were trying to sell a house. A house we had been trying to sell for three years. "Tell you what," he said. "If we sell this house, I'll go with you to Mexico." Well, you can obviously guess just what God did. He sold our house. And so Ryan paid his deposit and went to Reynosa with all the rest. I could not talk to him all that week. I had no idea what he was doing, what was happening, how he was feeling. But I knew the moment I saw him at the end of the week that it had been very, very good. They had worked hard laying the footing for a perimeter fence and wiring a new house for other missionaries. Each night they would come together as a group and worship and learn. They woke up early, slept poorly, sweated through the heat both day and night. And they came home with incredible joy.
I was so excited for him ... at first. I soon began to feel left out of the whole experience. I knew that I had missed out on a mighty work. God had changed my husband in the span of five tiny days. How? Why couldn't I have been there to experience the same thing? But as more weeks passed from the time of the trip, and Ryan's renewal began to prove to be a true change from God and not just a "mountain top high", I was no longer jealous but only grateful. Grateful to see the amazing way that God can move in a person. Grateful that we go to serve only to discover that God does not really need us at all, yet delights to see us work His will, and be changed by it. So when Ryan said to me one night after the kids had been put to bed, "What if I said we should move to Mexico?" I said ok. And I meant it.
Karen
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