Joel 2:25, “I will repay you for the years … the locust have eaten.”
A good friend has repeated this verse to me several times in the past eighteen months. Following several years of COVID-19, deputation, open-heart surgery and recovery, knee surgery and recovery, it felt like all the things I had worked for in Ireland had stopped, and I did not see how I could, or even if I should, try to start them again. Yet, one by one, these activities and connections have been restored. They do not look exactly the same, but I am so thankful today for God’s faithfulness and for the opportunity to serve the community here.
The past year (my groups run on the school year, so the year is coming to a close) has looked very like the years before COVID-19. I have had the opportunity to co-lead a weekly Bible Study for young mums, in partnership with the Nazarene Church. I have completed a full year running the Little Friends Parent and Baby Group and the Little Friends Baby Graduate Group. I am part of a home group through the Nazarene Church, that I sometimes lead. And I continue to be part of the preaching team at the Nazarene Church.
In July, I will again be at the Friends camp in N. Ireland. The Young Friends leaders are now a new group of adults who were young campers eight years ago. It is a pleasure and a privilege to support them however I can. The relationships formed in my 16 years of attending camp are precious to me, and it is a joy to be invited into their lives as the previous “Young Friends Leaders” marry and have children.
Three years ago, looking at how my years of work seemed to have died, I felt like Ezekiel in the valley of dry bones, where God asked him, (37:3-5), “Human one, can these bones live again?” My reply was the same as Ezekiel’s, “Lord God, only you know… He said to me… “I am about to put breath in you, and you will live again.”
And here we are. Thank you for your faithful prayers, your financial support, and your love that extends to the Irish people through the work I get to do every day. I am so thankful.
Kathi Perry
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