OCMC Lynette

Published by the Orthodox Christian Mission Center, October 4, 2005

OCMC Lynette Hoppe - Continuing Her Walk by Faith

The Orthodox Christian Mission Center (OCMC), St. Augustine, FL - As many of you know, Lynette Hoppe, OCMC Missionary, has been battling cancer over the past ten months. Lynette and Nathan Hoppe have been serving as OCMC Missionaries in Albania since 1998 with their two children, Tristan and Katherine. As evidenced by her words in the following update, God is working in the lives of Lynette and her family in miraculous and inspiring ways.

Living in the present is a moment-by-moment effort. I still find my mind wandering off into the future on occasion, but I try to pull it back. I want to live fully today, being patient with my children, helpful to my husband, attentive to my mother, and rejoicing in my Lord.

One of the gifts God has given me recently is a spirit of deep contentment. I am contented with the cross I have been given, because I know that it is rooted in the goodness of God. Because God is good, all that he sends us is for our good. I love Hudson Taylor's comments about this. He says, "All God's dealings are full of blessing: He is good, and doeth good, good only, and continually. The believer who has taken the Lord as his Shepherd can assuredly say.'Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.' Hence we may be sure that the days of adversity, as well as days of prosperity, are full of blessings." (Hudson Taylor was an incredible missionary, who spent over 50 years serving in China during the 19th century.)

This means, then, that even if the thing given to us looks "bad," it is given so that we might learn to detach ourselves from this world and cling to God. To be given a cross, then, is an honor, for it is God's way of wooing us. We listen better when things are difficult because we suddenly become aware of our desperate need for God.

I have experienced such delight in the nearness of God these past few months, and this makes my illness so worthwhile, but I want to love God, not for his gifts and for the consolation he brings, but for himself. I have days when I feel spiritually dry, but these are precious, too, because at such times I choose to love God and to pray anyway. I know that my feelings will come and go, but my love must remain an act of the will. I enjoy those days when my spirits are riding high because I feel profoundly the presence of God and hear his voice in the wind as it passes through the trees, but I am more thoughtful and sober when I don't feel such things and simply choose to believe that God is near because he has said so. This, I think, is the beginning of faith.

In conclusion, I want to comment on all the prayers that are being offered up to God for my healing. I know it is tempting for people to think that their prayers are not being answered because I have not been healed of cancer. But the truth is that prayers are being answered in the most miraculous ways-perhaps not for healing of body, but certainly for healing of soul. Nathan and I can attest personally to the real transformation that continues to take place in our own lives and in our marriage. We've also seen people close to us undergo dramatic changes for the good. In my mind, healing of soul is the greater gift, for it has bearings on eternity, whereas healing of body is only temporary.

We ask for your continued prayers for the Hoppe Family. Funds to help support and encourage the Hoppes can be sent to the Orthodox Christian Mission Center, designated for the "Hoppe Family" in the memo line, to PO Box 4319, St. Augustine, FL 32085. To find out more about Lynette's condition please visit www.ocmc.org.

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The Orthodox Christian Mission Center: Helping Orthodox Christians respond to Christ's call to preach, teach, baptize, minister to the poor and make disciples of all nations as the official international mission agency of the Standing Conference of the Canonical Orthodox Bishops in the Americas (SCOBA).



Volume 7 Number 41 - Tuesday, October 11, 2005	A Publication of the ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN LAITY