I know many have asked us about how people could send their children to boarding school - is it right? does God really require that of those who serve Him overseas? if so why? isn't there a tremendous sense of guilt on behalf of the parents? aren't parents abandoning their first priority - that of raising their children? There are no easy answers to any of these questions but let me share what a mom sent today. She has children here now and her older kids also had the boarding school experience. I think this says it all.

I do struggle sometimes with not having my kids here with me…I miss them. I feel they sometimes get ‘second best’ by having to be separated as a family. And because life is not always easy or rosy for them, I am tempted to think that if we were together as a family, things would be different (meaning better). As I searched His Word and opened my heart to His answers, I happened to hear a message from James Hudson Taylor (Hudson Taylor’s great great grandson). He shared that his mother struggled with the same thing… they sent their four kids 1000 miles away to boarding school. She released them into the Father’s hands, only to have the whole school interned by the Japanese during WWII, turning it into a prison camp. She did not hear news of her children’s welfare for 4 years. In the height of her grief and second guessing her choice, the Father spoke to her, “Remember what I told you, daughter. If you care for the things that are dear to My heart, I will care for the things that are dear to your heart.” Long story short, James Taylor’s time in imprisonment absolutely formed him and shaped him for eternal things.

From what I understand, it was the dorm parents and teachers that kept the kids in their routines and went on with ‘life as usual’ as much as they could the entire four years. I cannot imagine the courage and faith they must have had to have been enabled to turn that situation into such a precious time in the lives of the kids entrusted to their care.

This helped me to release my children to Him afresh. It also caused me to well up with gratitude for you…You guys are truly a special bunch, anointed for this work. So I am blessing you with SO MUCH of Him…with sweet, face-to-face time with Him and with each other as a couple, with the refreshment of His Living Water so you live as His hands, His heart, His servants. I am blessing you with His righteous robes and precious blood when you fail, so you can sing of His preciousness and glory even when things go wrong, boasting in weakness, difficulties and distress, for when you are weak, He is strong.

Thank you for answering His call.

To this mother I want to say that you are very welcome and we thank you for entrusting your beautiful children to our care. Believe me when I say we do not take the privilege lightly.