Well, just like that, 2016 is over, and 2017 is here.  2016 was hard, but God is faithful and good.  At the beginning of 2016, I heard, “no more coasting…” from the Lord.  Looking back now, I think I see a little bit more clearly what that meant/means, and it’s not at all what I initially thought.  Truly, as it says in Isaiah 55,

For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.

My way of interpreting “no more coasting” included trying to take initiative, work hard, and make the things I thought I saw on the horizon happen.  My way produced a very tired and frustrated Vanessa.  I wasn’t able to see much in the way of concrete plans past the end of April.  The rest of the year remained, through to the very end, veiled.  How could I take initiative and work hard when I couldn’t see what I was working on?  This has been a year like none other that I’ve walked through yet.

Don’t get me wrong, lots was done in 2016…but it’s really been in the waiting that the more important things have been accomplished.  I’m learning just how much waiting on the Lord is not a passive thing.

Activities and Surprise Provision…

• LOWPC – At Light of the World Prayer Center, things keep rolling as we do our best to faithfully steward that the Lord has entrusted to us.  In 2016, as a leadership team, we wrestled through part of The Advantage, by Patrick Lencioni.  Following the prompts and questions, we clarified and solidified, to a new level, our mission/vision/values/anchors at LOWPC.  As a result, our team is more unified than ever before.  I got the challenge and honor of being the primary facilitator for these discussions.  We continue to work to support and encourage our many volunteers who faithfully come week after week, offering praise to God and petitions on behalf of our families, community, nation, and to the ends of the earth.  In the summer, we hosted a week-long intensive called Ignite, lead by a team from Kansas City.  It was a great week of equipping and training for those in our house, and we gained some new-to-LOWPC committed pray-ers and worship-ers.  We also held a couple of in-house training days and leader huddles.  We’re so blessed with an amazing group of volunteer leaders!  Jason, our director, traveled to many US states as well as Australia, Germany and the Czech Republic to share our Day2Pray city/county prayer strategy, connecting with and encouraging leaders and communities all over the world!  I am amazed that what the Lord is doing here in Whatcom County is being used as a model for unified prayer all over the world!  Here is a video that summarizes this strategy.
• Promise 23 Ranch Ministries – In 2016 I continued to serve P23 as a board member, session leader, webmaster, and odd-job-doer.  We gained two more session leaders in the 2016 season, bringing us to 6.  Each ministry year is so unique and full!  If I were to use one word to describe 2016 for P23, it would be “overcoming”!  Many of our participants came to P23 with significant fear of horses.  They can choose to participate at whatever level they are comfortable, but each one pushed through and overcame their fear of the horses.  The victories at P23 are sometimes the first big personal breakthroughs for these ladies in a long time, which give them a little bit of extra strength and confidence to keep facing the healing journey they’re on.  It’s an honor to get to walk a small part of their journey with them.
• Surprise Provision – 2016 was the hardest year financially in quite a while.  I continue to be amazed and humbled at the generous support I receive.  Even though the monthly support amount I received through this year was less than the previous couple of years, the Lord provided.  Multiple times, I received unexpected gifts exactly when something was needed.  I also got to do a lot of pet/farm sitting, which was helpful and mostly un-disruptive of the rest of my responsibilities.  Truly, Jehovah Jireh – he knows our needs!  As he leads through this season, I continue to grow in trusting my Lord.  I have begun to realize that when he asks, “Do you trust me?” It is less of a test of my trust and more the Lord setting himself up to show his faithfulness in a specific area.
• Family Time – I am thankful for meaningful family time in 2016.  My parents were here for a few months, and I had the joy of introducing Kenta to most of my extended family through the summer.  While this has been a challenging year in many ways for my extended family, I am incredibly thankful for a running chat thread in Facebook Messenger.  Across the miles it has provided a space to share each others’ joys and bear each others’ burdens, and pray real-time as things were happening.  We took a quick trip to TX in December for my cousin Rachel’s wedding – and such a precious wedding it was!

Making Space

As I mentioned before, 2016 didn’t bring any of the big milestone-type changes that I was hoping for, and I do feel some amount of disappointment.   I’ve spent the last couple of weeks wrestling with that.  A few mornings ago, before I was fully awake, the phrase “making space” popped into my head.  As I’ve thought more about it, making space seems to be what the waiting has been all about.  It’s an important and intentional thing, and it takes a lot of work!  I came to this conclusion thinking about the pace at which I prefer to move compared to most others around me, including my dearly beloved boyfriend.  🙂  A good friend of mine wisely reminds me to “remember to turn around and check in on the people behind you every once in a while!”  I don’t actually expect anyone else to move at the same pace, so it’s actually up to me to slow down and work to create margin.  I see how this has happened some in the past year.  I also see how there’s room for more, and how it’s absolutely crucial to make space for relationships.  I think that I will be focusing a lot more on this concept in the months ahead.  I do believe that at some point this year there will be clear action steps and decisive movement.  When that time comes, I want to be ready to move!

Prayer Requests

As last year was a year of waiting, I have hope (and some more concrete things taking shape) that 2017 will include some significant “status changes”.  🙂  Please pray that I would continue to have patience and wisdom, trusting in the Lord’s perfect ability to bring things to pass in their proper times, and moving in step with Him.  With that in mind, here are some specific prayer requests:

• Please pray for the grace to keep “first things first”.  Pray from Ephesians 1:17-18 for yourself and for me too, as we pursue the most important relationship:
  

  that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you [me] the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your [my] hearts enlightened, that you [I] may know what is the hope to which he has called you [me]…

• Pray for Kenta and me as we continue growing together.  In the fall, we started meeting with our pastors to have “intentional couples’ conversations”.  🙂  This has been an encouraging, affirming, and thought provoking process, and we are so thankful to walk with good counsel and our precious church family.  Pray for agreement and clarity and provision as we move towards taking next steps together.
• Pray for wisdom as I continue serving at LOWPC and Promise 23.  At LOWPC through the summer and fall we began to define a few strategic roles that need to be filled in 2017, and we are now praying the Lord shows us the right people for those roles.  I/we am praying about what my part is in this and where to focus my time and energy.  We have some good initial ideas, and I will share more as those become more solid.
• Pray for continued financial stability and provision as I continue to serve in a support-raised role.

Thank you so much for journeying with me!!  I am thankful for your friendship, prayer support, and generous gifts!  I pray that this year you draw ever closer to Love himself.