Where I Come From

Proverbs 3: 5-6 Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will direct your paths.

This verse kind of says it all. He has led me every day. I thought it appropriate on this Monday to share my story of how God got ahold of me. He loves us and He is in the business of taking our awful choices and turning them into something beautiful. That's called "redemption." What Christ did on the cross. What He did for me.

I was the third of five kids, nine years behind my older sister, eleven years behind my eldest brother. My parents' marriage was in deep turmoil. When I was still little they divorced and Mom was left to raise us alone. Dad moved to Nova Scotia to search for Captain Kidd's treasure on the islands off the coast. I'm not kidding--that's what he did. He was always certain that he knew where it was. But never found it. 

After the age of nine I saw my dad a total of five times before he succumbed to Parkinson's disease in his seventies and landed in a nursing home in Wisconsin. He wrote and called, but that's not the same as having a father.

Mom returned to college after the divorce to get her accounting degree. We were on welfare those early years, living in a trailer court outside of town. I remember seeing police cars often in the neighborhood, wives running to our house to take refuge from an abusive husband, suicides...it was a rough place to grow up. But Mom was determined to support us on her own and as soon as she graduated she got a job and we moved to a nicer trailer court. She never depended on the government to support us again. She struggled deeply with her part in the divorce, sin that she would rather have buried and forgotten. But sin has a way of haunting us. Pointing its finger. Until we deal with it.

We'd found a church a few miles from our new home, in Nekoosa, Wisconsin. It was here that God used a Lutheran Pastor by the name of Jim Buckman to teach us about His grace. My mom found forgiveness. And at the age of thirteen so did I. I remember talking to my neighbor, a girl who seemed bent on chasing poor choices. She called me a "goody goody." But I didn't care. Even at that tender young age, I knew her way of living was a fool's way, chasing meaningless temporary highs. mocking God as if He didn't have the power to squash her flat. Irreverent of the sacrifice He'd made for her. Oh, how it hurts my heart still to hear friends mock Him! I know how deeply He loves them and they treat Him with disdain. 

I wanted a peace that lasted, a purpose for my life that wouldn't bend and sway depending on my circumstances. I wanted what Christ had already done for me.

He became the Father I'd never had. His love poured deep into me, into a faith that is the core of who I am. I love Him! At that time Keith Green's ministry was in full swing, and because Keith offered his music and the Last Day's Newsletter (a monthly magazine that taught what it meant to follow Christ) for free this girl from the trailer court was able to dig deep into the Word. I wasn't one of those teens out getting drunk, chasing popularity and "fun." I was finding my life in Christ, and was so eager that my friends find what I'd found. A love that doesn't change, that never fades, that doesn't search for a new best friend.

After going on two summer missions trips in high school--to Costa Rica and Haiti--this idea of seeing the world know Him drove everything I did. My siblings, Mom and I went on a total of ten missions trips. Mind you, we were still in a trailer court with a single mom. But God doesn't have limitations like money! We had faith in the One who is Faithful. After high school I attended Bethany College of Missions where I met my husband. All of Mom's kids graduated from college. 

God is so faithful. He heals a broken family in a trailer court and uses them in unimaginable ways. My younger brother and his wife were missionaries to Turkey, and now work with autistic kids and created a foundation that helps them to learn social skills through drama. My younger sister and her family work with orphans in China. (See links to their ministries on my "Causes" on my About Me page.) My older sister was the rock for my mother in her last years and is constantly seeking how God can use her.

Oh, I want the world to know this love I've found. If you don't know Him and want to learn more, please talk to a Christian friend or email me! He is waiting to write your story too.

Love you all!

Traci