This was the question God was settling in my heart the week before Dan left for Romania. I was not looking forward to a week alone at home with my two kids, releasing my husband Dan to go on this pastoral visit.
There are many reasons for this. First, I absolutely love when I get to go and did not want to be left behind. We are missionaries to the Deaf community, and I love teaching Deaf people about Jesus. I also was completely jealous of Dan's opportunity as I love different countries, and I love our team that is in Romania. Last, we had been struggling to set a schedule since Valor was born in August, and with all the holiday travel, his schedule was completely off. One of the impacts of this was I not getting enough sleep at night.
However, God can do amazing things to our hearts when we obey Him. From jealousy and dread, God took me to, hands down, the best week that I have ever had in Valor's six months of life. Here is the story of how God transformed me during the week Dan was away.
The week before Dan left, he and I co-taught in a YWAM DTS (pictured above). We taught on the nature and character of God, and one of the strongest word phrases that I received for this DTS was struggle is good. Struggle is an important part of any growth process. God is a God that will not cut our chrysalis, but will allow struggle because he knows it is actually the struggle that causes you to develop your ability to fly; just like a caterpillar becoming a butterfly!
These words, combined with two things that happened on the day before Dan left, completely wrecked me. First, our base director encouraged me that the week while Dan was in Romania was going to be a powerful week of God speaking to both Dan and me. He counseled that I should be spiritually alert, ready to hear what God was saying. Then Dan taught about the worthiness of God in our weekly staff meeting. That was my undoing.
During that staff meeting, Dan taught about the word Halal which means worthy of praise in Ancient Hebrew. It actually means to shine, to boast, to be clamorously foolish unto the Lord, to have wild celebratory praise. It is the word we get hallelujah from. Dan ended his teaching challenging us that God is worthy all the time and for each of us to identify the one area in our life where God was worthy of our wild celebratory praise but instead we were offering Him begrudging worship. I immediately knew that my week in DC with the kids while Dan was in Romania was my one thing where God deserved praise! Instead of just "making it" through the week until Dan arrived home, God wanted me to bring wild praise to Him and fly through the week. I was the first one to shout out, "A week at home with my two kids releasing Dan to go to Romania." I then added a wild dance, making it my Halal.
I knew the song, Raise a Hallelujah, by Jonathan and Melissa Helser would be my anthem for the week. I heard this song for the first time at our staff meeting before Dan preached which was a perfect fit to what God was doing!
On the way home from dropping Dan off at the airport, Olive and I listened to Raise a Hallelujah over and over. As I listened, I made it a declaration of what I was choosing to do that week. I even got Olive to join with me in shouting our hallelujahs. Then an idea came into my head to get glow sticks from the dollar store and have a Hallelujah Party every night before bedtime. Olive was super excited, so we stopped and got a bunch of glow sticks!
We were Halaling every night Dan was gone. At the start of bedtime, Olive got to choose her glow sticks. We shut off all the lights, and we had a Hallelujah Party, dancing in the dark with glow sticks to our week's anthem song as well as other worship songs. Every night was different: sometimes Olive would do somersaults, other times we would jump up-and- down, and one night we added balloons to the mix. We even got to have a Hallelujah Party with her cousins as we spent the night at their house. The end result was, while Dan was gone, every night was a dance of wild celebratory praise to Jesus!
Dan left on a Friday, and that Sunday at church God just continued to speak directly to my heart. I was visiting my brother and sister-in-law‘s church and during Sunday school we listened to a message by Paul Tripp about FAITH.
“Obstacles are not in the way of God's plan, but they are part of God's plan. There is not a moment in your life that is not orchestrated by God.” He used the example of the Israelites going into their promised land but not being ready to conquer and fight all the enemies that they would have to. We might see the Red Sea as an obstacle; however, Paul challenged us that a seemingly impossible obstacle and the call of God equals God‘s intervention in our lives. The Red Sea was part of His plan. Like us, the Israelites needed a faith boost, like the parting of the Red Sea, in order for them to be prepared to defeat the enemies in their future. “Obstacles are part of Gods plan. They transform us to be more comfortable being dependent on God.”
I was seeing a week alone with the kids as an obstacle in the way of God's plan rather than being part of God’s plan to prepare me for the future! I left church being so encouraged and excited about the “obstacle” of having a week with the kids at home and receiving everything I could from this week in order for me to conquer future enemies in my life.
So all that week, we were Halaling! We even had an opportunity to share the gospel as Olive had been telling everyone about our Hallelujah Parties. I will admit that Wednesday was a hard day to find praise, but in staff meeting I testified about what we had been doing all week. Humbly, I asked God for another breakthrough to get me through the last two days. He is good and did.
Then when the day came when we were to pick Dan up at the airport, I got a message from him saying he had a 4 hour delay then missed his flight to DC. He would not get in until late at night. The hardest thing was telling Olive. However, do you know my first reaction to his text? I love God. He cares as much about my breakthrough this week as Dan getting home. My heart was at peace, even joyful, and we had enough glow sticks for another Hallelujah Party that night! Now that is breakthrough! The flood gates of my heart were wide open to praise God wildly!!
The week while Dan was in Romania will be remembered
among all weeks as the week of glow-stick Hallelujah Parties!
What one thing in your life does God deserve your Halal? I promise you, as you wildly praise Him in that area of your life, you will be transformed!
