grace and peace friends,
This past year our family has walked down some very difficult paths and through some very dark valleys that have really redefined so much of who we are and what we are doing. And in fact, SO much has happened in the last several months that it has made it very difficult to simply sit down and write a one-page letter explaining it all… but we will try! God has continued to challenge and change OUR versions of the “story of Tim and Britany” both in the areas of our family and our ministry.
our family…
For those of you who have missed some of the prayer updates… (BTW – please email us to get on our prayer updates) Britany has had some ongoing health issues over the past few years that have been more of an annoyance then debilitating. These led us to having her get 3 MRI’s this past spring to try and determine what the real issues were. A few weeks later, we met with the neurologist to discuss the results. He informed us that Britany had white “spots” in her brain. He told us that they could be nothing OR they could be something… they would have to do more tests to figure out which it was. Since then, the symptoms that Britany was having have increased in quantity and severity. (Whereas they were happening only once every couple months or so they are now happening multiple times a day.) One of her newest symptoms has been occasional blurring of vision…it is this one that has the most significant impact on her day-to-day living because it usually includes a migraine, headache or lightheadedness. On the 17th of September, Britany went in to the hospital for a battery of tests (including blood work, neurological/visual stimulus and a spinal tap). Please be praying for this specifically as the doctors look at the results of the nero/vision test, 4 samples of spinal fluid and 12 tubes of blood. It is our hope and prayer that we will get the (GOOD) results in these next weeks.
The biggest point of anxiousness/fear is the unknown. As weeks go on and new symptoms have continued to arise we have begun to realize that it is not “nothing”… as Britany had got in the habit of saying. Please be praying that we would get some answers to our questions. Pray that we would have healing. One huge answer to prayer has been Naudia Strudler, a friend, who is here just to be of help over this month. RHCC, one of our supporting churches, has generously paid for her to be here through this stressful time. What a wonderful blessing she is and God knew we needed her in this time.
our ministry…
As you know, this last year (and especially the spring) was VERY hard on us as a ministry. Along with the significant areas of sin, attacks from the enemy within and without (both which, amongst other things, led to the dismissal of a key staff member), there were also some poor choices and decisions made by us as a team. Though we have fought hard to make better and wiser choices, as the spring progressed into summer we began to sense the coming of a sad new reality... our time as a team was coming to an end. It was not that we were giving up; it was more like we were being released. Over the course of the summer this feeling was coupled with some dramatic changes to our staff. In July, JJ began to feel as if God was leading her towards a new role within CRM and soon afterwards Jason and Megan announced that they were going to need to return home because of personal reasons.
After much consultation and deliberation, Friday the 14th of September, with Rob and Laurie Yackley here, we did a "decommissioning" time for our team. Though the Libolt's and the McDonald's will still be doing ministry with our extended team (RE:hope), in effect all of the staff was released from the nieucommunities project. It was a time for us to say goodbye to "us"… and though it was only a formality for the Mills and JJ, I think it helped us all feel like we finished together on purpose. To be clear, our ministry here in Scotland is NOT finished. We will be continuing our mission work here; we will just now be changing the focus of our evangelism, discipleship, and leadership development to be more about the local Scot’s and the greater international community.
Please be praying for us. In spite of all the difficulties of this past year and the peace of the present it still feelings like saying goodbye to an old friend... and it hurts a lot. There are a lot of unanswered (unanswerable?) questions that we all have but I think that we can all now say that the feelings of loss are being covered with God's peace. God has been revealing Himself to all of us through this and we are all being changed as a result. Our last staff meeting felt as if we were leaving confident of God's hand in this decision even in the midst of much uncertainty.
So what’s next for us?
So, with the release of the nieucommunities apprenticeship, what will this next year look like for the McDonald family? First and foremost, as we are in the midst of much uncertainty with Britany's health, SHE will be the focus of the next many weeks at least. We are expecting to know much more clearly what we are dealing with by the end of October. Beyond that, (and in addition to “missionary life”) the McDonald clan will be focusing our energies in three significant directions:
