This time of year always brings me to a place of introspection. It was 38 years ago this week that my life was changed radically and irreversibly, setting into motion, a series of events I could never have imagined.  I was a freshman in high school in a small northern California town, Red Bluff. At home, things were bad, and that Thursday night, so long ago, changed my life forever. I was woken by a knock on the door in the middle of the night and told by the police officer to get my younger brother and go next door. We were all taken to a safe house that night. After constant requests, my mom let me call, Mr. Colwell, that next morning. Mr. Colwell was the father to my two high school friends, Dara and Cyndee. He was taking us skating that Friday night. God knew that Mr. Colwell, would be the key that would unlock an entire new life for me.

Fast forward 18 months, and my mom and Mr. Colwell are dating. He was being transferred to Honolulu Hawaii and he was taking our family with him! Do you see it? How in the darkest moment of my life, God was setting into motion a plan that would bless me beyond my wildest imagination! Me…a young, poor, awkward girl, would spend the next year living in Hawaii! In Genesis 50, Joseph confronts his brothers who sold him into slavery. God had brought him from a slave to the 2^nd highest ranking official in Egypt.  “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.”

I have been reading a lot from and about Elisabeth Elliot lately. She is a woman who truly inspires me! She, her husband Jim, and their baby daughter, entered into the jungles of Ecuador to bring Christ to the Huaorani tribe, a violent and dangerous group of people. These missionaries were so excited when they found and eventually made contact with this tribe. But the next day, a group of men from the tribe slaughtered these five brave missionaries. Even though Jim and the others had guns that they could have protected themselves with, they didn’t fire any shots. Now, as miraculous as that is, God wasn’t done yet! Elisabeth and Steve Saint’s sister, Rachel, later would go back into the jungle, spend two years with this tribe, and bring that entire tribe to salvation in Jesus Christ! Those women, who had just lost their loved ones, still had passion in their hearts to serve Christ and to bring his word to the lost people of the Huaorani. The enemy had killed but couldn’t destroy and God used that to accomplish his divine plan.

So much in my life has changed since that December in 1982. I met the love of my life on a beach in Hawaii and we have built a wonderful life together. Satan took my dad from me in 1991 but that has only spurred me on to try to learn and grow past what Dad wasn’t capable of doing. The times we are now living in are uncertain and tumultuous, but God is still in control. Jeremiah 29:11, “For I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Don’t let the difficulties of the present, keep you from looking for the future that God has planned for you. Have the faith of Joseph and watch what God does to restore what the enemy has stolen from you.

If you’d like to know more about Elisabeth Elliot, watch this trailer. Beyond the Gates of Splendor (Official Film Trailer) – YouTube