It doesn’t feel like 30 years, but that’s how long it’s been. I was 18 when we left the Philippines and was highly distressed and in anguish. I was leaving life as I knew it and friends that have been there for me for years, to face a future that was completely unknown. We left to start a new life in Canada.
Now that I am 30 years older, I can look back at that point in my life and truly know that it made me resilient. We lived for 10 months in Montreal and then moved again to Toronto. Unfortunately, I responded to what I lost and went through a lot of bitterness. I wish I hadn’t; I’m just grateful I did adjust to life in Toronto and made new friends. After that, studying and working went a lot better. If I was told then that I would someday marry a Chinese Malaysian, have four sons and be a missionary to Davao City (Philippines) and then Chiang Mai (Thailand), I would have shaken my head in disbelief. How was that possible?
I have led an impossible life. If you knew what I was like and what I did, you would have agreed with me. Now I am His daughter. I am also a wife, mother, friend, teacher, counselor, worshipper and intercessor. Nothing is impossible for our God who transforms, heals, and loves. I wish I could say that I loved Him right back when I knew Him, but I didn’t. Yet the Lord kept loving me anyway until I did love Him back. Praise you, Lord.
I look forward to the next 30 years. Maybe I’ll be an author then, a counseling teacher, a mom to an adopted child, a speaker. Who knows? I don’t, but what I know is that I’ll be blessed and with the Lord in me and His help, I’ll keep doing the impossible. Future, here I come.
Linda I think of you often and lift you and your family up. Hope the new school year is going well for all of you!
ReplyDeleteblessings, Pam
Linda,
ReplyDeleteyes indeed our father is sure full of mercy and grace and SURPRISES!!! thanks for your sweet blog entry. Knowing you has blessed my life. for me, Our father has taken me to the washington dc area to teach for the rest of this school year...what a surprise! I thought I would be back in Asia by October, but instead, I will be teaching and ministering to young children and their families in a very poor section of DC. You and your family are in my thoughts and prayers.
Pam Thomas
Wow, over 3 years later and I just read this comment for the first time. It is now January 9, 2013. =)
ReplyDeletePam, sorry for the delayed reply. I bet you rocked while teaching in the poor section of DC. What a blessing you'd been to me. Lord, bless you even more. Much love, my friend.