A letter from Michael and Rachel Ludwig, preparing for service in Niger
SUMMER 2014
“Carrying Stones”
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Carrying stones on a recent hike
Our 4-year-old was picking up so many stones on our hike that she couldn’t keep them all cradled in her arms at once. So she kept dropping them and then trying to pick them up and dropping more. Rachel gave her the advice that sometimes we need to choose just the few stones that are the best and hold on to them to make sure we don’t lose all of the stones we’re trying to carry. Even though we were walking in the hills of North Carolina and haven’t quite departed on our “amazing desert journey” to Niger, I thought that was a perfectly poetic description of what we’re going through as we embrace being mission co-workers.
At a recent language training the leader quipped that God often calls missionaries, not because they are the most gifted to serve, but because they are the most in need of this certain type of refinement. In need of the humbling process of having things stripped away as we learn to depend more fully on God.
So now as we get ready for leaving in a month, we’re lurching ahead full steam into this process of refining. We left behind our house back in March, are now finally weeding out the last of our winter clothes for Goodwill, and with all the chaos of making final arrangements we’re still anticipating leaving behind things like the ability to communicate comfortably, to hold hands in public, to turn on the air-conditioning in the car, and so on... But we’re also trying to take Rachel’s advice of giving up the less important “stones” and trying to remain connected to the things in life that are most valuable. Hopefully this interruption from “business as usual” will allow us the renewed focus we need on relationships and things like family time, embarking on a two-year Scripture reading plan, and being thankful for having what we need to live another day.
As mission co-workers and in all of life, we’re seeing how God often interrupts us with refining moments to get us to focus on what is really important.
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A pastor teaching reading by writing on his church’s side wall
We see this in the situation we’re going into in Niger. We see local pastors being interrupted from the work of running a church to notice their Muslim neighbors, who are just looking for someone who can teach them how to read. I can only imagine the refining moments that went into the pictures we’ve seen of pastors responding to their interruptions. As pastors write sentences with chalk on the outside wall of the church buildings, under makeshift shelters to shield the intense sun, they are stepping fully into those interruptions. But by doing so they are able to focus on the valuable task of teaching their neighbors how to read and offering them the Good News through their practice material. In a land that is often defined by its scarcity, the stones that these pastors are cradling and passing on are the ones most valuable for their neighbors’ future.
Interruptions like these have also been a big part of our story of being called to work with literacy in Niger. Early last year we were being interrupted from our ministries in Columbus, Ohio, where we felt the mission focus of our family was on sharing our home through foster care. After going through several short-term placements, we had prayed so specifically for the right child to be placed with us after we returned home from a trip out of state. Within an hour of returning home a baby was placed in our house straight from the hospital! But then a little over a month later he was quickly placed with his newly located grandmother. This bittersweet interruption made real for us that God is able to answer specific prayers, and hears us—but also guides us for God’s larger plans, not ours.
Our foster care interruption then opened us to other interruptions of ministry in a larger way. As a result, we were open and thinking about our involvement in mission strategically when we happened upon a newsletter with information about this position in Niger—and were interrupted again!
Interruptions in our daily lives often come from our relationships, whether foster children, neighbors, or in-boxes full of mail, or from anyone else you let close enough to share a conversation. When these interruptions pop up, I often think of Jesus being interrupted by his disciples while he is focused on praying or healing or teaching. I’m amazed at how Jesus isn’t frustrated by them, nor does he treat them like things keeping him from what is really important. Instead he sees that they give him the opportunity to shift focus so he can work to develop these relationships or lead them out into sharing gifts in new relationships.
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Our family after our commissioning at the 221st General Assembly
With Jesus as our example, our goal then is to respond with Christ to our interruptions as opportunities for relationship, and to let that refine us further in our own relationship with God. So as our family takes the first steps in developing relationships with our Nigerien partners and their communities next month, we continue to invite you to be a part of this focus on relationship as well. We’d be excited for you to join us in relationship building through keeping us and our partners in the Evangelical Church in the Republic of Niger in your prayers (the EERN just elected new leadership, so pray for their transition too). You can also join us through reading our blogs, reading updates like these, sending us encouraging emails and emails with your prayer requests to share. Or through finding a time your church or small group can Skype with us to hear how things are going and meet some of our partners. Your financial support is another blessing that makes us able to focus on relationships when you contribute to the PC(USA) with any gift labeled with our identifier “E200513.” Thanks for the ways that many of you are already important partners in what God is doing in our relationships! You can email us to be on our list for more frequent updates or check for them to be posted on our PC(USA) profile at www.pcusa.org/ludwig-michael-and-rachel.
As you go on in developing those interrupting relationships in your life, we pray for wisdom for you too in the stones you decide to hold tight!
Peace be with you,
Michael and Rachel Ludwig
The 2014 Presbyterian Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, Niger, p. 125
Read more about Michael and Rachel Ludwig's ministry
Contact: Michael Ludwig (michael.ludwig@pcusa.org)
Contact: Rachel Ludwig (rachel.ludwig@pcusa.org)
Individuals: Give online to E200513 for Michael ad Rachel Ludwig's sending and support
Congregations: Give to D507575 for Michael and Rachel Ludwig's sending and support
