Raising a Warrior Leader

Raising Sergeant Micah has been a very unique and challenging experience. We taught our kids early that safety is not in the absence of danger but in the presence of God and being where He wants us to be, in the center of His will.

Before our family came to the Philippines for the first time, my greatest fears was for the safety of Amos and Micah. I was overwhelmed at the thought of them riding a school bus without me through a city of some 15 million people. I had to learn to allow our children to face danger while trusting God to care for them when they go to places where I cannot protect them. When Micah was a junior in high school she wanted to go jogging in the early mornings before school. This meant about 4am when the streets are still dark and cars sped through on red lights. I remember having a discussion with Jeff and Micah about whether or not we were going to allow her to do this very dangerous thing. I was struggling with the thought of her being out there in such danger. Jeff asked her if she understood the risks and was she willing to accept them and be wise by being alert and avoiding trouble when possible. The risks would be things like kidnapping, being hit by a car, bit by a dog, being attacked and other such things. We talked about safety on the road and if she felt prompted by the Lord or if she observed something out of the ordinary that she would turn around and run home. She understood and accepted the risks. Because we couldn't think of any real reason to forbid her morning jogs other than our fears, I had to release her to this dangerous activity.

We raised our kids with danger all around. One night when she was scheduled to go ice skating at 9pm (she had to skate after the mall was closed because she was too skilled and fast to skate during public hours), she didn't want to go. She very unusually decided not to go skating that night. We later learned that someone had set off a bomb in a women's bathroom a couple floors above the ice rink which resulted in a panicked evacuation of the mall. Whenever we came home from ice skating, I knew we were always in danger just getting our car parked in our car port. It was not uncommon for people to hide in bushes or gutters and attack someone coming home at night as they have to open their gate. But there was no other reason to prevent her from skating at night. At 6pm one evening Amos found a taxi driver stripped, bound up, gagged and thrown in the gutter on our street but fortunately unharmed and alive. So the dangers here are real. Later when we were on furlough, a dead taxi driver was thrown into the same ditch.

As missionaries we have been through coup attempts, typhoons, floods, a volcano, theft, dangers on the road and probably other dangers we weren't even aware of. This morning as Micah and I talked on the phone, she prayed for our safety. Two days ago there was an explosion a couple miles from our house killing 8 people. Imagine, a soldier going off to war praying for her parent's safety. It boggles my mind.

I heard a mother say recently that she wouldn't let her daughter join the military--it was too dangerous. Hmmm. All I can say is that whether we are fools for letting our daughter go out into danger or not, God has not failed us. He may be preparing us for using our children in some mighty way that today we cannot imagine. We have no doubt that God led Micah into the military. If ever I am afraid that danger will befall her or Amos as they go where God takes them, I must trust God completely. All I know is that I must love God more than my children. I must entrust them to Him.

My prayer for myself and my family is that God would raise us up to where He wants us to be and not to dummy down His calling and standards to our level of capacity.