Women’s Ministry Minute
July 7, 2020
With Natalie Brand
On July 31, 2017 I awoke to the sound of my alarm. Ugh... I thought.. its 6:00 a.m. already? I am not a morning person. I very slowly started my families morning routine. Eventually we were out the door and on our way to work and school. The day progressed as usual until around 1:30 pm. I was sitting in my office and the phone rang. It was Allen. I always love to hear his voice but this time it was different. I knew immediately that something was wrong. My mind began to whirl as I heard him say the words that would completely change our lives. “I have some not so good news”. He said, “They have decided not to continue the project. I am being laid off. “ Wait! What? What are we going to do? We just bought our brand new dream house. We have no savings. I do not make enough to support us! “God will provide,” he said. Truth be told, I hated this answer. While this answer showed my husband’s tremendous faith and trust in God, it meant that I could not control the outcome. It meant that I had to sit and wait and trust. That is not easy for me. I like to be in control. I always have a plan. Only, this time there was no plan. That ate at my very core. As I sat at my desk, tears began to flow and I did the only thing I knew to do: pray. Later on that day we found out that God was already taking care of us. Allen would receive a severance package. This would take care of our family financially for the next six months! Thank you Lord! Therefore do not be anxious, saying “What shall we eat drink? “ Or what shall we wear? “ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly father knows that you need them all. (Mathew 6:31-32) For the next few months we began to pray that God would open our heart to possibilities and that he would make it obvious to us what his plans were for our family. Let’s face it there is not a nuclear plant around every corner. We knew that moving far away from all of our family and friends and out of our new home was a very likely possibility. Sure enough Allen received an offer from Clinton Power Station. This Southern girl was not so sure about moving to the midwest. Then I began to worry again. What about the nice big house we had just purchased three months ago! You see we lived in a neighborhood where thirteen other houses were on the market due to the same layoff. Our whole community had been affected by the ending of this project. How on earth would be sale a house that we had only owned for three months with all this competition? As I shared my anxious heart with my husband, he again said, “Do not worry. The lord will take care of us.” Again, I shiver at the sound of that sentence. Again, I am not in control. What about my job? I love my job. It has been my ministry for five years now. I will have to leave it. Once again my ever so patient husband says, “God will take care of you.” Consider the ravens: they neither so nor reap, they have neither store house nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds! (Luke 12:24) Over the next two weeks we begin the painstaking task of moving. I leave my job and movers come in and pack all of our belongings. We say our emotional, tear, filled good byes to our church family of more than twenty years, as well as our physical family and we begin the twelve hour trip to our new home. I should mention that it was the end of September when we left our home in South Carolina and arrived in Mahomet, Illinois. I was wearing shorts and a sleeveless shirt. When we arrived at our new home in Mahomet, we were greeted with many helping hands and smiling faces ready to help us move in. Thank you Lord for the generosity of the Kingdom and our new church family. However, I was also greeted with the midwest late September cold and wind. I knew immediately that I was no long in the warmth of South Carolina and the shorts and sleeveless shirt I had on were not going to keep me warm. The next few months were difficult for our family. We grieved the lost of our previous life, our friends, our family and the routine that we had become accustomed to. We all learned that homesickness is real! As we began to settle in, I began having health issues. I had been having horrible pain in my stomach. After many tests and a night in the Emergency room, I was diagnosed with Celiac disease. Now I had to change my diet completely. Shortly after that it was determined that I needed to have a hysterectomy. This was a major surgery that would leave me down for at least two weeks and at half capacity for at lease two weeks. I began to cry out to God. “God this is too much! You move me away from my family and friends to a strange place where I know no one and now I have to change my entire diet and have a major operation!! Not to mention the emotions my children were expressing about being lonely and missing their loved ones. This became my theme scripture: Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed,” says the Lord, who has compassion on you. ( Isaiah 54:10) Isn’t that scripture amazing?! Fast forward a bit. The last two years have been difficult to say the least. but things are looking up, we are getting ready to go on vacation. We are going to my favorite place. The place where my soul finds rest and connection with God: the beach. As I am packing for vacation, I get a phone call. It is the sister of my best friend of over 25 years. She is in tears. I can barely understand her. She tells me that my friend was found dead on the floor of her apartment. I am in shock! I am lost for words. Tears roll down my face. We both began to sob. She asks me if I will be in South Carolina in the next week and if I can speak at the funeral. I tell her about our vacation plans and that we will be in South Carolina next week. Once again, I am grieving. This time it is the loss of my very best friend since sixth grade. We have been by each other’s side through all of life’s milestones: high school, dating, marriage, babies. Now all I have is memories. In all the sadness I saw Gods hand. I saw how much he cared about the details of my life. The timing allowed for me to speak at and help plan her service. I was able to show God’s love and comfort her family. Little did I know that while I was speaking at her funeral my heart was about to take another hit. I was about to experience grief in a way I never though possible. That very night, as I was tucking my children in to bed, my phone rang. It was my mom. She was crying. She told me that my dad was very sick and that the medical staff had said that he didn’t have much longer. It felt as if 1000 pounds had been placed on my shoulders and I was sinking under the weight of it all. How could this be, God? I just lost my best friend, and now this! God where are you??? That night, Allen and I drove to my dad’s hospital room. As I watched both of them sleep I went into the bathroom and fell to my knees. I begged God to take this cup from me. I can not bear it. I cried harder than I had ever cried in my life but even on my knees sobbing in that hospital bathroom. I saw God’s love for me. I had moved many miles away and yet God’s timing was perfect. I was able to be there with my dad and I would be there with him until the end of his life. What a privilege to be able to comfort the man who raised me as he left this world. God is our refuge and our strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea. ( Psalms 46:1-2) To say the last three years have been difficult is bit of an understatement, The pain and grief have been very real and ever present. However, I have seen and felt God’s love through it all. I am so humbled to be the daughter of such a good, good father.