“Kandice, what’s your dream, your vision?”
“To make followers of Christ among the deaf in Thailand.”
“We have no deaf ministry in Thailand.”
"Where do you have one?"
“Uh…nowhere.”
“Why not?"
“Because I guess we have been waiting on you.” (We laughed…Yes, I really said that.)
“Oh…well, if I wanted to go, what then?”
“You can’t go to Thailand.”
“Why not?”
“There’s no team there yet…give us two years.”
“Hmmm…”
“And you also need training with a good team of church planters.”
“Who and where would that be?”
(I gulped) “…Uh…Central Asia.”
“Where’s that?”
“Former Soviet Union, Central Asia, nearly totally Islamic, dangerous, extreme poverty...(pause)…but I’m sure we can find some deaf people there.”
“How long?”
“Probably two years…and that’s after the year it will take you to get there.”
“Hmmm…then what?”
“Then…we can talk about you going to Thailand.”
I left the encounter thinking, “I’ll never see this girl again.” Kandice left thinking… “Yessss!!”
Kandice started the application process that Monday! Now…THAT’S Kandice! I knew her less than 48 hours at that point but knew that we had started an adventure with an unbelievably exceptional, courageous, determined, passionate on-mission young woman who loved her Jesus.
So, when faced with the reality of stage four cancer last November, realizing that she may never make it to Asia…let alone Central Asia or Thailand…I guess it isn’t any wonder that when we kept giving her the option “to get out of the deal” …to go live it up…have fun…jump out of airplanes…race dirt bikes or something…she responded… “I am still Team Asia and my dream is still to be a part of God’s mission to Asia!” So she eagerly accepted the offer to become the team’s and my administrative assistant.
Tammie and Jim, Kandice’s parents, gave me an article that Kandice had written on the subject of loss. Here’s a portion:
“Yes, loss is something we all experience. We often think of loss as it relates to the death of a loved one, but loss comes in various forms…loss of a friendship, loss of a dream, loss of an opportunity. Sometimes these losses aren’t the result of traumatic experience, but just the natural changes of life. Sometimes losses are traumatic. Sometimes the changes of life seem less like ebb and flow and more like a two-by-four to the face. Lost dreams often catch us right under the chin. My loss of my dream to move to Asia last year was the hardest thing I’ve ever faced, but I know that both 'big' and 'small' losses cause us to struggle…struggle to adjust, struggle to accept, and struggle to find a new direction. The truth is that all loss hurts. Often our hurt and confusion in loss can make it hard to see God’s hand, but the real surprise is that even in the midst of loss our God is right there beside us.
“The truth of who God is, the reminders of his love and goodness, that’s what keeps me going when the loss overwhelms me. Honestly, most days I don’t even admit to myself how badly I want to be living in Asia right now. I just can’t live in that space because I’m not healed from that loss. I just keep going, pressing forward through the loss because it’s what I need to do. It’s what my God has called me to do. It’s what he gives me strength to do...
“Sometimes the best comfort is remembering we have a God who suffers with us.”
(Read her entire article at www.gbim.org/loss)
I will close with a story that you are probably familiar with. Do you know these names…Roger Youderian?...Ed McCully?...how about Peter Fleming? You might recognize these two names in this group…Nate Saint and Jim Elliot.
In 1956, these five young missionary men were martyred on a river beach in Brazil. All were aged 32 or younger…Fleming and Elliot were but 28 -Kandice’s age. The comparison I’m making is not to their stories but to the fact that at least hundreds—maybe thousands—inspired by the “too soon deaths” of these young men may have served on the international mission field over the years. We believe and are praying at GBIM that many, many people (like the two thousand kids at Momentum who just weeks ago heard Kandice’s incredible testimony) inspired by the life of Kandi-Marie will step up to take her place, to take the gospel to the lost of the world. Would you be one of those?