Rochester L'Abri Prayer Letter - Nov, 2022
Even youths grow tired and weary,
and young men stumble and fall;
but those who hope in the Lord
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint. Isaiah 40:30,31
Dear Friends,
We have just started the last term for the year. Yesterday I walked into the living room of the main house and encountered a room full of new people listening to John Hodges playing the piano before our Monday morning prayer meeting. He was playing the beautiful slow second movement of Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 8, Pathetique, and it seemed fitting for the moment. All calm and peace and things right with the world. While these scenes are not uncommon in all the L’Abris around the world, here today it feels somewhat miraculous and a great relief.
As Queen Elizabeth once said, “It has been an annus horribilis”; or a pretty tough year to say the least. One week before the conference, I broke my right shoulder and was out for weeks. After a wonderfully uneventfully first summer term Mercy had her very serious car accident and broke her neck. (For those who missed the last prayer letter, she has now, wonderfully, fully recovered). But this left us doing the second summer term with volunteer help. One student then got too close to a lawn mower and cut and broke two fingers… and then I proceeded to break my foot. Yet we carried on. That seemed like more than enough, but would you believe, during our fall retreat, I then had my own car accident – thankfully far less serious - but I still managed to injure my leg. AND YET!
The way we think about and tell our stories is important. As in Beethoven’s Sonata, we have the extremes of highs and lows, joys and sorrows, intensity and peace. Very often, it is exactly in the midst of the trial that we experience the reality of Grace - and the complexity of life is met by the ever present and loving God. Rather than interpreting suffering as an absence of God, we can find his strength and help in the midst of it. As followers of Christ, we do have crosses to bear and we are not spared. Yet, we are helped, loved, encouraged and surrounded by His presence. We are not forsaken. The Hodges jumped in, along with others this Summer to help us. For our Fall Retreat at Ebenezer, we were still missing Mercy, but we had two wonderful helpers. Despite the limitations, it was lovely to see God at work binding the community of students and helpers together and they helped us as much as they were helped. Relationships were formed across all ages and walks of life and the oil of God’s spirit was the balm that not only healed but created real fellowship. There is a mystery that is greater than the sum of the parts through which God’s presence and reality can be tasted and seen. There is no formula or program, just our loving God at work. So, bones are healed, Mercy is back, and we live another day.
And, beyond our small circle, turmoil, war, rumors of war, illness, and political upheaval are all around and have been since the beginning of time. Yet by faith we persevere in this race that we are called to run, because in Isaiah’s Messianic promise “He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.” We do know this reality and God’s people have often been the means of His help.
One person who has helped us more than most this year has been Karen Alston. A retired teacher as well as friend since the 90’s. She has given so much to this work, tirelessly cooking meal after meal and helping me personally on many levels. She has been retired for a few years yet has the energy of a young person and we have certainly relied on her help. Please pray for her as she looks to settle nearer her family and hopefully get some rest.
Another potential source of much needed help would be the Lowe family. This delightful family of six hail from the UK and spent a wonderful three months with us earlier in the year. They would very much like to join us here as short-term workers for a few years and we would love to have them. Right now they are helping at the English L’Abri as we pursue the long and difficult process of obtaining work visas for them. We recently took a good step forward in this process, but we are very much in the hands of bureaucrats. Yet our God transcends government machinery, so we covet your prayers as we are conscious of needing young help.
We are also deeply thankful to be going to Australia in December to see my family for the first time in 6 years. We are anticipating a good time of rest near the beach, as we are deeply tired. Please pray for smooth and uneventful travels, especially for Jock as he will first be going to the Brazilian L’Abri for the December Trustees meetings.
Pray also for Jock as he pulls together the February Conference – he is running a little behind this year. The theme of post-secondary Education is increasingly critical, not only in the lives of our young folk as they enter the challenges of adulthood, but also in the influencing of hearts and minds in our wider culture. Our prayer is that the conference will help strengthen Christian witness in this vital area. We hope to have the details up on the website and the postcard in the mail by Thanksgiving.
In this life we wait for the resolution of the themes of joy and sorrow, highs and lows, peace and turmoil. A student today asked me why we have the book of Revelation, and I spoke of the importance of knowing the end of the story. We have a sure hope of peace, perfect love and healing and this hope empowers us. Beethoven and many other musical pieces fill us with an anticipation of resolution - and this longing will be realized, when, we don’t know, so until then we persevere.
In Christ,
Alison