An empty calendar...
Airports and flights are my ‘normal’ - I regularly travel with my husband on pastoral visits to CMS missionaries, plus two of my three children live overseas. But COVID-19 changed everything! If things were ‘normal’, my daughter would have visited from the U.K. twice this year for ministry purposes, but that didn’t happen - and I didn’t get to see my grandchild.
Instead, the Lord allowed my hectic calendar to be wiped clean, leaving a year of unallocated time. This ‘gift’ freed me up to throw significant energy into previously neglected relationships. For example, I was able to connect significantly with both my neighbours.
‘Normally’, because I travel, I can only attend my ministries intermittently but COVID granted me consistency this year (albeit online). The Zoom ESL Bible Class I teach brought surprising fruit – as our regular ESL students zoomed into classes from all over the world, some even invited family and friends to join in.
This year, I’ve had the time to encourage my children in the U.K. and the U.S. through severe bouts of lockdown, particularly my son. It’s been a mental health challenge living alone in a downtown Chicago studio, as riots and a pandemic rage outside his door, with no end in sight.
And I was able to write my dad’s life story and share it with all his relatives. My dad became a Christian, three days before he died and it’s a story worth sharing.
Lastly, I’m thankful I’ve had time to face a personal pain that I had been avoiding. Doing this has meant it's been a teary 2020 and I haven’t always had the energy to face other people.
This year has been very different from what I expected but I wouldn’t say it was worse. I’m very grateful to have been freed up to deal with those things the Lord put before me.
Marcelle Rodgers met her husband, Peter, when preparing herself for missionary service at Moore College. Together they have served a decade in Indonesia with CMS, a decade in parish ministry at St Stephen's Newton and now a decade with CMS Australia.