Extraordinary Love

     God is calling you! He wants you! So you should be willing to change your life but not in such an extreme way as to become a foreign missionary...
     This message or one similar to it seemed to be presented several times and in several different ways during the months Bryce and I were quietly discerning God's call for us to become foreign missionaries.
     Lately it has been echoing around my mind again and the reason is this, Our God is Extraordinary! He is the creator of the universe, He is beyond time, beyond space! He knows all of his creations intimately! I am even more deeply aware of His extraordinary nature during this time of year. God chose to send his only son here as an infant so that Jesus could eventually save all of us from our sin and our death by dying on a cross and rising from the dead! In our Catholic faith, we believe God did all of this and allows us to partake of Him and be intimately united with Him when we receive Him in the Eucharist!
     I was reading the book of Luke in the Bible the other day and I came across the story of the two disciples on the road to Emmaus and I came across this verse Luke 24:15 "Jesus himself drew near and walked with them." It may not seem like much to you but when I read it, I was floored by the extraordinary love our God has for us! Jesus, who is God, chose to be close to us, so close in fact, He became one of us! He walks with us in our struggles, in our pain, in our sin and in our suffering just to unite us with our heavenly Father!
     So back to my original question, why would our God ask us to do something extraordinary? Because our God is extraordinary and He wants us to be like Him! He did not create any of us to be ordinary. He does not love us with an ordinary love. He calls all of us to the extraordinary so He can reveal even more of Himself to us, so He can pour even more extraordinary grace upon us!
     Just to clarify, I am not saying everyone is called to be a foreign missionary but I am saying God does have something extraordinary for you, just ask Him!
     Merry Christmas!!!

Dish-Washing Discoveries

With the noise and bustle of the kitchen and dining room around us, Mel and I start the dishes together after lunch one day. I wash, she dries. Mel is a new friend, a lovely lady who has two young sons and a kind and wonderful husband. She and I are talking as women do about motherhood, babies, our joys and our struggles. We are talking about how we try to control everything for ourselves and for our children and how often God has to remind us that He is actually in control.
As we are sharing it strikes me how we have many commonalities and yet we are so very different. Mel is from Asia and I am from the United States. Our cultures are drastically different from each other and our experiences are so very different, yet we have many similarities, many shared joys and shared struggles.
God made us both. He made us for Him. He made us both to need Him; His love, His grace, His joy, His forgiveness and His salvation. God made all of us and within all of us is a need for God. Here is a secret, when our family decided to become missionaries, I was uncomfortable with the Family Missions Company charism of evangelization. I did not really know what it meant and what it meant for me. Through many teachings, studying of the Bible and Church documents, I have discovered that I should not be afraid to share this gift of Jesus with others, this gift of eternal life. We, as humans, do have a variety of experiences and yet at our core don't we all have the same struggles, same joys, the same needs?  God wanted each of us to know Him and to know His plan.
God has destined us for acquiring salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. He died for us,  that all of us, whether awake or asleep, together might live with Him. - 1 Thess 5:9-10
If I truly believe in God's plan for my eternal salvation, shouldn't I not only be willing, but actually be seeking opportunities to invite others to know this gift, this love, this plan of ever lasting life?

 

My Real

Our good friend Kristin White asked Angel to be a guest blogger on her blog, if you are interested in checking it out, here is the link:
http://joyfulmysteries.me/2015/08/14/august-14-your-real/

Let it Go, Let it Go...

     As with many other homes across America containing little girls "Let it go" has become a much loved, and often hated, musical mantra in our home over the last year.

This running soundtrack of our life has lately become our life goal as well. After our year of discernment, doubts, denials, questions and finally, acceptance and joy in this call to be missionaries, we knew our next step was to learn to let go. It has been challenging to let go of our beloved family and friends, parish community, job, neighbors, most of our stuff, and home. One week ago we spent our last night in our home of 13 years. It was the only home our children ever knew, the home we fixed up, repaired, remodeled, and tweaked until we got it just right (well almost) - our safe place, our place of comfort, our place of peace (especially when the children were sleeping)...our Home. During this process, the idea of letting go of our home was particularly challenging for me.
     God has been so amazingly good to us! Thankfully a few months ago God transformed our hearts one major step further! There seemed to be less fear, greater zeal and more excitement for this calling. The morning of the move from our home to someone else's home, I awoke with another one of those, "Are we really doing this? This really is crazy!" moments. And as I was praying I realized that we were not leaving so much as we were following. "I will go before you" (Isiah 45:2). Although the end result may seem the same, the attitude seems to make all the difference.

    Throughout the week before the big move I finally took on the "big purge". Unlike my wife, I thought it would be best to wait until the end and just give it all away...well, yet again, I am shown the wisdom of my wife. So, as I was toiling through the nooks and crannies of the garage, the 13 years worth of "just in case" items as well as the tubs of childhood memorabilia and random stuff from the last 39 years, I found myself oscillating between wanting to hang on to as much as possible, and just wanting to let it all go. The morning of the big move was no different.
    After we moved all of our things to our new home (a nice little above-the-garage 3-room living space, with bathroom and kitchenette, so generously offered by our friends the Taylors), I was still feeling a bit off and perhaps a little sad about all the things we had let go of.

Then I had a few minutes with our new friend "Eb". Eb is the Taylor's huge chocolate lab who loves frisbees and even more than them, he loves to be pet and any attention you'll give him. "Eb" is short for Ebeneezer. I haven't had a chance to ask the Taylors why they named him that, but similar to the original Ebeneezer, he likes to collect and hoard. As you throw him a new frisbee, he will run after it, frantically yet skillfully flip it so it's facing the right direction and then add it to the collection in his mouth.

After he collects up to 14, or you run out of frisbees, he will go off and sit with his frisbees. He protects them and won't let you have any of them back. Even though he loves the game of catch, and he loves the interaction, he seems incapable of letting them go. Throughout the last few days I've also noticed that when he doesn't have his collection occupying his attention, he is free to come over to seek and receive attention from his master and others who pass by. Yet when he has accomplished his goal of collecting and guarding as many frisbees as possible, he seems hindered, conflicted, almost addicted. He wants to come back to be in community yet he doesn't know how to do both, so he whines within the moment of conflict and confusion and sits all alone with his hoard. 

    Then it dawned on me, here we are in this beautiful new "home", even though we can't officially call it, or any other place, "our home", in the way most people use the term, it is, for now, our home. It is beautiful and just what we needed! 

 With a play structure, watched over by mama Mary. 6 other live-in instant best friends for our kids. Basketball court. At least 2 acres of property to run around on.

 A beautiful view of miles and miles of the valley, 4 mountains, and a huge Christmas tree farm next door for the kids to play in and to remind us of the impact Jesus has had on this world. And best of all, a 5 foot tall statue of Jesus in the backyard!

It also seems to be the perfect transition to missionary life for us. Living in community, but with only one family for now. Smaller living arrangements, but still very comfortable with some of our own furniture. Great Catholic "neighbors". Just what God knew we needed!

     So, as I was lamenting the challenges of letting go, I thought of Eb and how burdened he was by his possessions. As they were possessing him, I realized how similar we are to that silly dog. How often do the things we "own" get in the way of our connection with our Master, with others who are passing by, with the the things in this world that really matter. Kind of like the clinched hand, holding something so dear that it can no longer open up to receive. And as we all remember from "Where the Red Fern Grows", that poor raccoon that just won't let go of the shiny thing, and therefore chooses to stay trapped. So, for me, letting go seems about as challenging as falling down a hill, it's just hard to muster up the courage to simply tuck and roll....knowing that God's at the bottom of the hill saying, "it's ok, go for it, I gotcha". 

    Thank you Lord!  

     Jesus, I Trust in You. 

Power Made Perfect in Weakness - Angel's Discernment Story

Angel shared with Ladies Bible Study this morning a bit about our journey to becoming foreign missionaries & had some powerful insights. Here are her notes:

Some of you may know and some of you may not know, but  Bryce and I along with our children have decided to become foreign missionaries. There is great excitement and joy that accompanies this calling and also a lot of trepidation. Today I was asked to share some of our journey over this last year. It has been a year of discernment, of struggle, of wanting to say “no” to God and at the same time wanting to run head long into this great adventure He has put before us. Truly what I have discovered through this mental and soon to be physical journey has been guided by many of the lessons we all have studied in John.

When Jesus says “You follow me” John 21:22. He means it and He is talking to all of us. So when we decide to do just that and listen everything should be perfect right ?!?

At different times this year I have experienced struggle, blessing, growth, loss, friendship, laughter, sorrow...there have been many doubts many, many doubts. This is the soundtrack in my head on a daily basis

* God we can barely leave our house without someone one getting sick, throwing a tantrum, fighting with each other , or getting yelled at and you’re asking us to take this show on the road and use it to help others draw closer to You. That doesn’t seem like a good plan!

* I don’t have it together Lord, how can I give it to others?

* Lord, I am an introvert and you are calling me to be a missionary - willing to open my life in such a way that it is completely exposed!

* I like comfort, I like chocolate, TV, shopping, fancy coffee! I need these things to cope on a regular basis Lord!

And yet, even with all that whining, I continued to hear God’s voice calling, patiently waiting me out, hoping that I would be faithful, that I would say “yes.” Of course, when I did say “yes” I had to change my coping mechanisms to planning exactly what clothing would be perfect for mission not annoying, ugly or uncomfortable - doesn’t that sound ridiculous and eating the very good things we have so abundantly here more often because soon I will have to do without.

My list of reasons to stay was huge and yet in many ways insignificant. “you follow me” God is Light in Him there is no darkness” 1John5

These anxieties, these doubts they are darkness. They are not in the light. When I put myself before God, when I expose myself to the light, my reasons fall away, they do not stand up in the presence of God and His light. Lately I have been doing a lot of thinking and praying about how I am supposed to be weak, to be vulnerable, to be naked, to be real and exposed fully to the Light. It is in and through my weakness, my vulnerabilities that God can work. “Your grace is sufficient for me, for power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor 12:9). The story of Doubting Thomas has alway been one of my favorites but I learned something new from it this year. Jesus, our model, showed Thomas his own wounds...He expects us to do the same. God does not care that I am not bold enough to be a missionary, He does not care that my children are not perfect, He does not care that I spend entirely too much time thinking about what I am wearing and how my hair looks or how many cookies I ate. He already knows all these things and more and yet He still chose to call me. He takes my “yes” my very meager “yes” and chooses to use it for His own glory. He wants me to be like the child who offers his 5 barley loaves and 2 fish even though there is over 5000 to feed. He will take my offering, my willingness and use it to do miraculous things for His kingdom, for His glory. If I were trying to be perfect, to be normal, I wouldn’t offer up so little in the face of so much but that is what God wants. He wants us with all our many imperfections and He wants to use us in spite of and because of our imperfections. Jesus will redeem them all if we are willing to offer, to expose, to be in the light. He will make us beyond anything we can imagine, beyond beautiful, beyond amazing. He will make us glorious, “I am made glorious in the sight of the Lord and my God is now my strength" (Isaiah 49:5).

So I said yes, we said yes, we will follow You, we will be vulnerable for You, be weak for You, exposed for you because of our desire for your Glory. Our yes just happened to be to Family Missions Company, an amazing, holy group of people who hold dear the values of the Catholic Church, who want to proclaim this amazing gospel of joy, and love and mercy, and who live in solidarity with the poor.

During this time here I have seen and heard many of your “yes’s” I have constantly been inspired, encouraged, and challenged by your faithfulness. If you have room or desire for one more “yes” we would love your prayers and your support on this journey. Either way you will come with me in my heart. Thank you!

A Desire to Share Joy - Bryce's Announcement to Parish

The cat's out of the bag. This past Sunday was the big reveal - I announced to the parish during, what we call, "Whole Community Faith Formation" (WCFF), our plans to become a family of foreign missionaries. We have been so blessed by our community here at Queen of Peace Parish in Salem Oregon! To all of the QP parish family, we thank you and hope to come back here again someday.
     For anyone who would like to hear a little of our story of discernment, here is a recording of this last Sunday's WCFF. The majority is a presentation on Pope Francis' "Joy of the Gospel", as well as some on St. Francis Xavier and a bit on the virtue of Gentleness (our virtue of the week), then the last  10 minutes or so is me sharing our discernment process & plans. Thanks for your support!
http://qpsalem.org/qofp/wp-content/uploads/WCFF-4-19-15-Bryce-Announcement.mp3

Here We Go!

Here we go!
As we prepare for this great adventure into a life dedicated to living in God's love and sharing the life that this transforming love brings, we would love it if you could please pray us! Please pray that we are strong enough to be weak - or better yet, weak enough that we can allow God to truly be our strength! And of course for safe travels, wisdom, patience with our children as we downsize, give away all our stuff, leave our home and drive across country....and most importantly, that our hearts may be formed to be the people God is calling us, has created us, to be.
     First and foremost we thank you for your prayers, they are what we truly need the most. Secondarily, if God puts it on your heart to help us with financial support, we would appreciate that as well. We are responsible for raising 100% of our expenses. We will also be using this money to minister to the needs of the poor, wherever we end up. If you are interested in doing so, you can make a one-time, or monthly donation here: herrmannfamily.fmcmissions.com
     We will be praying for you as well! Thanks for checking out our blog and we hope to keep you up-to-date as best we can.
May God bless you wherever Jesus may lead you this day!
+In the Peace, Joy & Strength of Christ,
Bryce, Angel & kids