Greetings from Decatur, TX, where I am anxiously awaiting God’s opening the door for me to return home to Chiapas. My original plans of March 23 were to fly home alone. But when COVID-19 hit planet earth, several people, including my children, advised me to wait until the epidemic crisis had subsided.
My son in law, Ulises Martínez, and my daughter, Elizabeth also have been stranded between their return from Israel, and their return to Chiapas. Since things will undoubtedly be stressful in airport security, I decided to wait and return with them. I feel I need the guidance of someone wiser than I am in making this decision. My heart’s deepest desire is to return home as soon as possible. But we don’t want to get ahead of the Lord.
Our ladies’ prayer group in the church in Chiapas has been sending message after message of fatalities caused by the coronavirus. Mexico is about a month behind the USA as far as its being affected by the virus. So, like my son, David brought out the other day when he called me, and I complained about being homesick: “Mom, God is keeping you there, because it’s not safe to return right now.”
However, for some interesting reason, I am able to stay busy with my ministry. I have had some new experiences, such as speaking at a virtual ladies’ conference of the Monte Abarim Baptist Church in Cuernavaca, México, the 4th-6th of May. Rosie Ramírez is the wife of Pastor Alejandro Ramírez, and this was certainly a challenging and new experience for me…just like the online live panel of pastors’ wives on May 29. We answered questions sent in by other pastors’ wives.
I’ve also enjoyed joining Steve and Ruthie Miller on some of their deputation trips.
I am so thankful we can return to church again, although we are still practicing social distancing here at Immanuel Baptist Church.
Will life ever return to normal? Yes, it will. But it will probably never be the same. I have lived through two such experiences in my life: we have all lived through 911. And although things finally returned to a semblance of normal, it was definitely a “new” normal. Remember getting to walk your passenger right up to the gate, and waving good bye to them as they boarded their plane? And the Zapatista uprising in 1993 left our little corner of the world in devastation. And yes, even that rebellion finally calmed down. But it’s never been the same. We are still…after over 26 years…experiencing enormous changes that never returned to normal. The Indians have become more aggressive, and roadblocks are a “normal” part of our “new normal” lives.
God has so graciously provided a lovely house where my children and I can find refuge until this storm passes. And I am grateful. I constantly remind myself, sometimes through tears, that God has me exactly where He wants me to be. Please pray that if it is His will, I may soon return home, where my heart is.
Your friend,
Billie Sloan
Nahum 1:7
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