Karl and Debbie....NO and YES
Dear praying friends,
When is a “No” a “Yes”?
That isn’t double speak, which is sometimes common in our political world. Nor is it a cultural deference of some kind, which in fact does happen at times. What I am asking is a more practical and every day matter in many of our lives. Our lives for example, have been touched by several “no” answers that led to “yes”.
Just yesterday Debbie received the news that after close and prolonged exposure to the Covid 19 virus, her test was “no, not positive”! That was a big “YES” encouragement for us given that she is highly immune-compromised, has reached some magical age not to be mentioned, and has more difficult medical histories than I can keep track of (even she struggles with keeping up). Of course, we are now going to struggle with keeping her negative as the virus spreads around us like a lava flow in Congo.
Another huge “no” had come in December when the board of the International Graduate School of Leadership decided that they did not want to back the Peace Studies program. It put me into a rapid movement between frustration at having spent so many years helping them to establish the program, and disappointment that it was just bouncing off a wall of “no”. Then I received a prayer letter from a friend in Uganda who is working with a school I visited many years ago and that has grown and expanded greatly. I began to wonder if an entirely new design for the Peace Studies program was possible. This week I received another inquiry from a consortium of schools in India seeking help to do the same thing. I am slowly realizing once more that when God gives us a “no” answer, it may lead to a much more important “yes”.
I can think back to many times in our lives and ministry when the “no” has led to His “yes”. I am sure if you think about your life that you will find those times as well. It doesn’t take away the pain of the “no”, or the waiting if you were fearful of the worst before you received the “NO, not the worst” answer. Just remembering God’s faithful hand of guidance that carried us beyond the “no” to the “yes” is a good exercise in putting our story into God’s perspective.
This week has been crazy for the world. Airports trickling, cities locking down, economies plunging, and schools closing while looking to find some creative way to keep going. In the midst of the crazy “no routine” I had several “yes” moments. As usual I opened my computer this week to lead not one but two dissertation defenses. Both were the near-end points of the long journey of two participants who have been beset by deep health issues, family tragedy and regional conflict. Both produced stunning dissertations formed from amazing social research. Many times I have thought, “no, they won’t make it”. This week the examining committee welcomed a new “Dr Handy, PhD” in Sri Lanka (at 1:00 AM my time), and drew one step closer to doing the same in N.E. India.
If the virus lets up, then I will have the honor in May to attend the graduation of two PhD graduates from our program. They have and will make a difference in their areas, churches, and schools. Next year by God’s grace we should have three more step onto the stage for that final “yes” moment.
But while the world is scrambling, and while we have been dealing with the “no you cannot go out” of viral seclusion, Debbie has been writing away on manuals and guidelines in an environment that reminds us of the HIV/AIDS crisis on steroids, and I have been working away both to bring five candidates to the day of completion and to create a deeper and wider program that will move more forward as God’s agents of intervention in the pain of conflicted families and nations. In God’s odd way, the “no” to our living globally is now a “yes” to continuing to reach the world.
We have two new residents in the International House. Presently we serve residents from Nigeria, Pakistan, Egypt, and Singapore. Two of the five individuals are Muslim with their eyes peering into the Light. And no, we didn’t have to travel through closed airports to reach them or to leave them. I just go next door…but maintain my social distance.