November 2005 Newsletter

Dear Friends and Family,

A few nights ago I was contemplating what the pressure of stress can do to a person, what kinds of changes can happen to people under stress. The other night I was laughing with a few friends about the situation we found ourselves in, yet it was no laughing matter. Were we laughing to cope with the stress, to make light of a situation that would break us if we allowed it to fully impact us, or have we just all lost our minds? Perhaps it was the lateness of the hour or just another impossible situation we found ourselves in during a seemingly impossible week. It was close to midnight and we were moving a family into our home. “A bed and a couple of TVs” had become 2 vans and a trailer load of stuff. We couldn’t start the move until 10 pm, when the man the family was with had left for work and the possibility of confrontation was diminished. A single mother, 3 kids, pregnant with a fourth, fearful, distraught, hopeless, and soon to be homeless. After a week of intense conversations between her and Joyce it seemed the best solution for all of them to move in with us. To be honest we had thought little about what it may mean to us. Perhaps it is why we laugh when we find ourselves moving a family in the middle of the night. How could we cope with what it all means? It is also a statement to the love of God. He doesn’t ask us to carry the burden. He in fact offers to do that, and so we laugh. I am not making light of the depth of the situation, the pain involved, nor what this means to all of us. I am merely trying to tell you that in situations like this, I really don’t know what to do, how to act, what to say. I only know that we have a house with extra room, and friends who will come at a moments notice to lend help with the move.

This family moved in two days after a family of 6 left, they were college friends of Joyce’s and were a blessing to have here. Before that we had a friend with us for almost two months. She had arrived late one night, distraught over finding a large quantity of drugs in her house, not knowing what to do. She moved in the next night to escape the situation and to clean her own life up. Unfortunately she chose to return to some elements of that life, and not wanting to offend us, moved out whilst we were away. I have wondered if we had not gone away would she have left. I have wondered if we let her down by leaving her alone. As in the previous story, I don’t know the answers, only that God promises to take care of things.

A third and final story for today… During our 5 week missions conference we ate lunch together as a church each Sunday. Almost everyone stayed and each Sunday was a great time. On one Sunday someone called me over and said “Hey, look, Samuel [not his real name] is eating.” Big deal, I thought, so is everyone else. They read my look and added “It’s Ramadan”. Samuel was, until a few moments before, a Muslim from Palestine. During Ramadan, Muslims fast during the day. Samuel had just prayed to receive Christ and was showing his decision by breaking his fast. He is now in a weekly Bible study and doing well.

Other recent events include a trip to Gulfport, a video of which you can see from the link “Wyoming Ave Baptist Church” at our website.
I almost forgot to mention we had about 500 people come to our Family Fall Festival, an alternate to Halloween. Most of the people were just walking past the church, and came in for food, fun, lollies and music. It was a great night.

This next piece is the hardest for me to write and is of course about Saiyeh’s adoption. Nothing has changed since our last update; the difficulty comes in thinking about something I try hard each day not to think of. As things stand we are awaiting the genetic test results for paternity of the guy claiming to be the father. It is a 50/50 chance that he is. If he is the biological father, than we will go to trial January 10-11. Before that depositions will be taken and our lawyer will build a case. It hinges on proving that he has abandoned Saiyeh for at least 6 months. There is a lot of evidence to all of this in our favor. However, with the current judge we have being rated as incompetent by the bar association and our previous experiences in family court, it is hard to have much confidence in anything. When I think of the situation and what may happen, my mind strays into thoughts that I don’t want to have. We are surrounded by people who love us (you) and are covered by a God who loves us fully. However, this is one area that I do not laugh at. Perhaps I avoid the pain of it in other ways.

“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine,according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.” Ephesians 3:20-21

In His Service,

Coz and Joyce