Editor’s note: Rachel Grossmann, who serves with her husband and family in Alaska, wrote this insightful note in a recent newsletter to their supporters.
Dear Friends,
It seems that writing newsletters is one of the hardest things to get checked off my to-do list. I shared with my colleague that if I could just sit and write a letter, I’d be done in NO time! And she replied, “Then do it!” What a novel idea!
Why is it so hard to write a newsletter full of updates for my faithful supporters? I love keeping you in the loop; I appreciate your prayers, encouragement, and even financial support while we are living in bush Alaska.
But, I feel so unglamorous. I have too often succumbed to the lie that “they don’t want to hear about my life—it’s nothing special. I have no spectacular missionary stories to share.”
Instead of seeing this life of obedience through the eternal lens, I have slipped into the trap of living to please imaginary demands for wowing results (think whole villages converted, or miraculous survival of bear attacks while crossing the tundra to reach the lone Eskimo living off the land, and you’ll get the point).
I feel like I can rewrite about our lives only so many times before you start to nod off. Do you see the selfish bent in all of this? My focus has been so much on myself and providing great stories that I often overlook the story of God moving through faithful obedience.
My 98-year-old grandpa recently passed from this life to his eternal home with Christ! What a glorious celebration for him. His life story had some jaw-dropping moments, some sad parts, some funny parts, but largely, his story was one of faithfulness. He never stopped telling people about Jesus and asking them if they were walking “on the King’s highway.” His last conversation with me was no different: “Never stop telling people about Jesus!” he said. He reminded me to be faithful to that task. It is life-changing. He was living proof of that.
I’ll keep telling my story to you and to the people I live among. It is God’s story of faithfulness. A plot where he could take a content-to-be-a-farm-girl from Pike County, Ill., and transplant her to the middle of cold, desolate nowhere (where she NEVER wanted to visit, let alone live), and bring her peace, contentment, even JOY in living there. He continues to write this story, and I want my life to reflect faithful obedience to Christ, all the way to the closing line.
