Mothers, We Celebrate You

Ever since you became a mom, you haven’t gotten much sleep, have you?

• You had to sleep on your side during the latter months of your pregnancy.
• You endured hours of labor (or Caesarean section?) to bring us out to the world.
• You hardly slept those first few months feeding us while all we did was eat, sleep and poop.
• You wouldn’t be able to rest when chicken pox or the flu kept us up.
• You stay up when we stay out, even though by now, most of us are too old for a curfew.
• You get up early to prepare some of our favorite home-cooked meals.
• You share in our insomnia when we wrestle through issues (even when we haven’t told you).
• You have dreams about us that sometimes wake you up in the middle of the night.
• You worry and wonder if there was something you didn’t do or do enough of.
• You pray through the night for us.

Even if we aren’t your children per se – maybe you’re our aunts, our grandmas, our mentors, our neighbors, our teachers – you have come through for us with so much love, wisdom, compassion and grace. You tell us the truth, even when it’s hard for us to hear it and for you to speak it. When our hearts break, you ache with us, maybe even more so.

When we were little, you picked us up when we fell and scraped our knees. You’ve been our cheerleaders through our Little League baseball, soccer and (peewee) football games; you’ve been our biggest fans, beaming as you sat through our concerts, plays and recitals.

When we were little, you’d ask us, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” Now that we’re a grown up (a little bit), neither you or we expected that the answer would be, “I want to be a missionary.” Some of us are here out of sheer obedience to God’s call on our lives.

Many of you are surrendering your dreams for us and exchanging them for God’s dreams for our lives. Being on the missions field has taught us valuable lessons of sacrifice and surrender yet we can only imagine how difficult and how much faith it requires to release us to the Lord.

Mama. Madre. Mère. 母亲. 어머니. お母さん. Mamă. Матушка. माता. คุณแม่. Mẹ. Mum.

As missionaries overseas, we’ve learned many ways to say, “Mother”, but at the end of the day, they translate to the same thing to us. 

MOMs (mothers of missionaries) are:

• Our best prayer warriors. Some of them aren’t Christian, yet even then, they’re our chief encouragers and worriers.
• Our best blog readers and commenters. Perhaps it is for their own peace of mind more than it is for our egos.
• Our best students and teachers. Many of us can care for and nurture the children we meet, especially orphans, only because we were the recipient of your care and nurturing. And as we’ve been stretched to grow not just as children of God but parents to the next generation, you’ve encouraged us, you’ve been both challenged by our stories and you’ve encouraged us to keep going.

Behind many of the 90,000 missionaries Adventures in Missions (AIM) has sent out over these 22 years, stood a mother who loves and supports us. We wouldn’t be where we are without you. And through you, we catch a beautiful glimpse of God’s love for us.

Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you! See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are ever before me. – Isaiah 49:15-16 (NIV)

Moms everywhere, we bless you, we cherish you, we honor you, we love you.
Happy Mother’s Day.