KAREN SPANS THE GLOBE!
I (Karen) just returned from a 2-week trip to Malaysia to assist with another cohort of the training I ran in November (Programme Essentials Training). And I attended the annual conference of the Child Safety and Protection Network. It was a long, tiring, and expensive trip, and the joy of travel and adventure were not driving my train, so to speak.
Add to this knowing I barely have time to unpack and repack for an upcoming WorldVenture regional conference that Gary and I will be attending in Panama April 13-17, where I will be teaching our local WorldVenture kids the body safety training I helped write 4 years ago.
The near constant temptation running through my head of, “You’re too old, you shouldn’t be doing this! These long plane rides aren’t good for your health. You’re frail, what if you fall and break your knee/hip/back implants in a foreign country? Is this really the best way to ‘use the Lord’s money’? Haven’t you worked long enough? Don’t you get to stay home and relax? Couldn’t you teach this online? It would be easier and cheaper, you know. You could still paint the kitchen in the evenings.” (Yes, I’m one of the weird ones that find painting rooms and houses relaxing and refreshing and our spiritual Enemy knows it’s my weak spot!).
I collapsed on the bed of my hotel room after 40 hours of travel across the Pacific, not knowing whether it was day or night on my body clock, nor which meals I’d really eaten on the journey. Was I more tired or hungry? No matter, I was alone in a strange city and didn’t know where to find food, and the bed was right underneath me. Sleep would win!
The alarm clock woke me 2 hours later to meet my friend and co-worker for dinner. SHE knew where to find food, so I put myself in her capable hands. One of the first things she shared was that her trip here (from Lynchburg, VA) was WAY harder than mine, due to storms and ground-stops in many US cities. She arrived a full 24 hours late and barely got a night’s sleep before her first speaking engagement. She was even more tired and dazed than I was. But as she was speaking to parents of children in the local international Christian school, one of the women was obviously tearing up and becoming very emotional. She rushed up to my friend to speak afterwards.
This local woman shared that she had professed to accept Christ many years ago but was not allowed to go to church or have a Bible. She did the best she could but never knew how to grow in her faith. A month ago, she had been crying out to God for help, and he impressed upon her that she had to go to this specific workshop (which was not about growing in faith) taught by my friend. The woman got the sense that this was where she would get the answers to her questions. Something my friend said made her realize they had some things in common, even that they had once lived a few blocks apart, in a country very far from Malaysia, and yet never met. So, she asked my friend how to grow in her faith in Christ. My friend said “Well, for a start, you need to be around other Christians.” And as WE were talking about it, it occurred to us that God had actually made that very point by bringing my friend literally halfway around the world to meet this woman face-to-face! Community, fellowship, being in the same place at the same time to sing, pray, hear God’s Word, be taught and encouraged, love and BE LOVED, is a core tenet of Christianity. Jesus Himself put it into action by coming to earth as a complete man and sharing the Good News face-to-face with people who wanted to know God better.
Of course there are times when teaching and fellowshipping online has to make do, when there is no other way. I can’t fly to India every week to teach my friends there. In any given year I spend more time working with and teaching people online than in person. And I praise God that technology allows me to reach people that I otherwise would not be able to do!
But obviously there is still an important place for the expenditure of time, energy, and money to do in-person events. Sometimes we know why ahead of time, sometimes we find out when we get there, and sometimes we never know. But we missionaries have seen, over and over again, how God has a special place in His heart for bringing people together face-to-face to allow them to know Him better. His resources are infinite, and He obviously thinks his money is well-spent to fly a hundred of us to Malaysia to meet up with His Body there, and He has the resources to do it.
That wasn’t the last time this subject came up, either. A week later I received a message from our seminary in Costa Rica, ESEPA, asking if I’d be willing to create a new course for the bachelor’s level counseling program, on working with survivors of sexual violence. It has been something I’ve dreamed of for several years, so the answer had to be yes, in spite of the fact that the timing will make it nearly impossible for me to do on time. Since we were very busy, I didn’t even have time to start praying about the curriculum. But the next day, in the conference, I went to an interesting workshop on trauma-informed responses – this is a technical term that means, when we counsel people, we have to take into account what trauma they have endured. I sat there stunned, with tears in my eyes, realizing that this material would be perfect for my new course! Again, in addition to the miracle of God providing information I needed for the new job He had just given me to do, He had brought the speaker and me together by bringing us to Malaysia to attend this conference!
You are one of the ways He provides those resources to us. I want you to know that God is using your prayers and financial gifts in amazing ways! He is training up the next generation of child safety workers in mission agencies, Christian schools, and churches. He is spreading the message that His Word does address abuse, how to prevent it, and how to help when it happens.
I am also incredibly excited to share with you a new resource that just hit the shelves! My friend and co-teacher Lisa J. Radcliff has published another book! It’s called God is for Me: A Biblical Character Study of God’s Heart for the Sexually Harmed. I highly recommend reading it, gifting it to friends and church leaders, and leaving a review on Amazon to help spread the word about it as far and fast as possible!
PRAYER, Please!
PRAY for Gary as he continues through the Old Testament, giving the finishing touches to the Symbolic Universal Notation (SUN) Bible for the deaf and deaf-and-blind non-reader. He is about 40% through and would like to finish in 2026.
PRAY for Gary and Karen. BOTH will be teaching courses at ESEPA from May-August!
THANK THE LORD. Gary had one last book, already out in Spanish, that he wanted to publish in English. It’s taken several years, but he just now signed a contract to publish his collection of technical essays, WHEN THE COMFORTER COMES: THE HOLY SPIRIT AND HIS WORK IN THE CHURCH. See the Spanish version HERE.
PRAY for Karen, who will have her other knee joint replaced, in April.
Karen Shogren
Gary Shogren
Shogrens in Costa Rica 