A lot of times as a full-time missionary, there is a big pressure to always act like everything is ok – like we have everything together. I’m going to let you in on a little secret. We don’t. We are normal people and we aren’t always perfect.
A lot has happened lately. I led a team back to Haiti to partner with YWAM St. Marc in their earthquake relief efforts. I visited my family & friends in Minnesota and I also found out I had skin cancer. Most recently, I broke up with my girlfriend, Jacque. It’s definitely been an interesting ride lately.
So, what do I talk about from here…?
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| Food Distribution in the Refugee Tent Cities in Port-au-Prince, Haiti |
I also recently had the opportunity to go back to my hometown. It’s always fun to go back to Grand Marais to spend time with my amazing family and friends. While I was in Grand Marais, I had a doctor appointment to check out a dark spot on my finger that I’ve had for about a year. The doctor did a biopsy of it and the pathology report came back saying that it is a piece of skin cancer (don’t worry, it isn’t serious). The hardest part about this isn’t having the skin cancer. That can easily be treated. I could care less about that. The difficult part is that I want health insurance but am not able to get it. Even though it’s been a burden, the Lord has connected me to a few doctors willing to help so it will be taken care of sooner than later. Praise the Lord!
A few days ago, I broke up with my girlfriend, Jacque. It has been a very rough time since then but the Lord is teaching me a lot. I’m not going to go into a two page detailed reason of why we broke up but I will briefly explain it. Basically, I felt the Lord was saying to me that I was going to her for comfort, healing, acceptance, etc. It was almost like I was replacing God with Jacque. God was telling me that I needed to come to Him for healing and for comfort, etc. He wanted me to fully surrender to Him. I fought with this for a few days and tried to do this on my own and make our relationship work even better under my own strength. After the Lord convicted me again of it, I had to talk to her about it. It was one of the most difficult things I’ve ever had to do in my life, but I wanted to be obedient to the Lord. We’ll see what happens in the future. Even though it has been extremely difficult and I didn’t want to do it, the Lord has been teaching me a lot. One of the things He is teaching me is to simply cling to Him and rely on Him for everything. He has been giving me such a desire and hunger to search after Him at every chance I can get, whether I have 15 minutes before a meeting to dig into the Word or waking up earlier than I would like to, to spend time with Him in the morning. I’m not saying that this is always easy though. He is teaching me a lot about discipline, which has been challenging but awesome at the same time.
Isn’t it interesting that when we are at a low point in our lives, also known as “in the valley”, we get to know the Lord more than when we’re “on the top of the mountain”? It’s in those hard times when we encounter Him the most. I think that is because we need comfort and the only place we can turn is to God.
I would really appreciate if you continued to pray for me through this season, that the Lord would continue to reveal Himself in such a strong way. Thank you for your continual prayers and financial support. Without people like you, I could not do what I am able to do. You are such an encouragement to me so, thank you!
God Bless,
Tyler E. Dean
tyleredean@yahoo.com
