Kindred Spirits, Past and Present
Megan Visits a New Children's Museum; Plus: A Children's Book Recommendation
Dear Friends,
It’s hard to believe it’s been a month already, but we had a wonderful week with family and friends in Bozeman. It was so good seeing Bruce, Maddie, and Emily in their natural environment, as well as Millie in her temporary one (she worked as a nanny/personal assistant/Jill-of-all-trades for a family and their company, Black Boar Truffle). Here are some photos:
Latest with Exodus Church
After having installed elders this past November at our particularization service, we have a congregational meeting this Sunday to vote on our slate of deacons to help facilitate the church’s more practical ministry opportunities. I’ve enjoyed spending time with Mark, Ross, and Steve this past year, and am excited to see them serve officially in the role of deacon. This is another key step in establishing and growing Exodus Church here in Springfield.
After preaching seven of the past 11 Sundays (at Exodus and other PCA churches in Illinois), I’ll preach my last summer sermon this Sunday in Champaign, then focus my August efforts on prepping our evangelism/discipleship training that begins in September. Here’s a 30-minute video of one of my messages on Proverbs titled, “Dance with the One Who Brung Ya.”
A Look Ahead
Having worked diligently in her classroom this past month, Megan is currently on her last round of summer travel to see grandbaby Emily once more before school starts mid-August. She’s currently in Kansas City for a reunion with two moms she used to homeschool with in St. Louis (read below for more on the feature attraction that lured them to KC) and is enjoying the time.
We’re both looking forward to a little time with Millie here in Springfield before she heads back to Covenant College in Chattanooga. In addition, we’re excited for a visit from Brian and Chloe passing through on their move from Virginia to Utah next month, and are also keeping our eyes on travel deals to make it to Albuquerque late September/October to see Katie and Jo, whom we haven’t seen since their wedding in January.
August
1-2: Megan attends Classical Conversations reunion in Kansas City
2-5: Megan visits Bruce, Maddie, Emily, and Millie in Bozeman
4: Exodus Congregational meeting in Springfield (11:15 a.m.) /
Craig preaches at Covenant Fellowship Church in Champaign (2 p.m.)
6-7: Megan and Millie drive back to Illinois
8-13: Millie in Springfield before heading back to Covenant College
12-16: Staff Orientation at Springfield Christian School in Springfield
19: First Day of School at Springfield Christian School in Springfield
Thanks for praying for our ministry here. And thanks (as always) for reading Second Drafts.
Craig (for Megan)
P.S.: Megan wrote this month’s feature article and took the pictures below. Hope you enjoy!
Kindred Spirits, Past and Present
“Kindred spirits are not so scarce as I used to think. It’s splendid to find out there are so many of them in the world.”
—L.M .Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables
I’m sitting at a kitchen table in an Airbnb in Kansas City. On the couches in front of me sit friends Susan and Courtney from our Classical Conversations days in St. Louis. I’m kind of writing, kind of listening; they are kind of chatting, kind of watching the Olympics. After 13 years since leaving St. Louis, I suggested a reunion to visit The Rabbit Hole, an immersive museum for children’s literature that recently opened here.
The museum is amazing, but the experience alone is not enough; it’s the shared experience with women who have already had a meaningful impact on me that will cement all this into my core memories. I am newly reminded of the importance of our kindred spirits and friendship along this journey, particularly as we have each moved into the next stage of middle age.
In thinking through this, I thought about two other friends from my past—two true “influencers” who are not actual peers of mine. The first one is Elisabeth Elliot.
Elisabeth Elliot
I don’t really remember when I first heard the name “Elisabeth Elliot,” but my fascination with her and her husband Jim’s story began at some point during high school and continued full throttle through my college years. As a matter of fact, one of my unofficial life-long quests—to find the January 30, 1956, edition of LIFE Magazine detailing the ministry and martyrdom of Jim Elliot, Ed McCully, Roger Youderian, and Nate Saint—began then, and though I still haven’t found that issue, I have not given up hope in looking every single time I come across a stash of old LIFE Magazines.
As a young co-ed involved with The Navigators at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, I was intrigued by Elisabeth’s life and wanted my influence to also be one that ultimately pointed others to the Lord. But it took some time (read: “decades”) to figure some of that out, especially in the beginning.
Entering college, I had never dated anyone, which became one of my first “Christian bragging rights” (“Navigator, never dater” anyone?). For better or for worse, I turned my situation into one I pretended wasn’t about me and my likability, but about me and my spirituality. In hindsight, my dating drought was a kindness of God (both to me and any potential beaus), but at my sage age of 19, I had to make it about something else—anything else!—than why nobody wanted to ask me out.
Looking through my old copy of Elisabeth’s Passon & Purity: Learning to Bring Your Love Life Under Christ’s Control, I see words I highlighted may have influenced my mindset:
“I was wishing that my wishes were what God wished, and if my wishes were not what God wished, I wished that I could wish that my wishes would go away, but the wishes were still there.”
Granted, perhaps a little confusing, but Elisabeth’s writings on matters of the heart were relatable, even if her path forward was different than mine. I had no leanings toward overseas missions and was honestly still trying to figure out my faith apart from my Southern Baptist upbringing. Neither was I studying Greek, but trying to pass Statistics (the hardest math class I’ve ever taken, and I wasn’t terrible at math).
But Elisabeth’s hopes about her college-age writings were similar enough to mine that I began to want to be like her (sans the missionary/husband’s martyrdom piece, of course). I fully envisioned living a life dressed all Modern Prairie-like with long, spiral-permed hair, and singing Twila Paris songs in front of a mid-sized Midwestern Baptist church alongside my pastor husband and our passel of homeschooled kids. This was more than just a vision for my life; it became a little bit of an idol.
Hurry Up and Wait
Fast forward 30+ years and my homeschooled kids turned out to be four girls I homeschooled only part of the way through. We are now in the Midwest, Craig is on a pastor track (albeit in the Presbyterian Church in America instead of the Southern Baptist Convention), but today I’m in my standard uniform of jeans and Chacos, am no longer Baptist (nor have a spiral perm), and have few aspirations for “pastor wife” things (not that I’m opposed; they’re just not my identity). As Elisabeth wrote,
“I realized that the deepest spiritual lessons are not learned by His letting us have our way in the end, but by His making us wait, bearing with us in love and patience until we are able to honestly pray what He taught His disciples to pray: Thy will be done.”
In college, I assumed “waiting” was for the front end of marriage and motherhood. I don’t really fault my 19-21 year old self for this thinking; it’s not a bad thing to desire family and motherhood. It’s just that when you make those good desires more important in your life than God, you quickly discover how disappointing those good things can turn out to be. “People are going to people,” as Craig says, and in the process of people-ing, we tend to employ our people tendencies on each other, which sometimes results in hurt and heartache.
Now on the back side of Passion & Purity—with three married daughters and my youngest halfway through college—I’m realizing that “waiting” goes far beyond any particular stage of life I may have been in or gone through; the “waiting” Elisabeth wrote of was ultimately for the promise of resurrection and restoration of all things. Like her, I desire this with every ounce of my being, with “Come, Lord Jesus, heal and make us new” being my prayer. Sometimes it feels like Elisabeth is a prayer partner.
Amy Carmichael
One of the other profound influences my intense Elisabeth Elliot phase introduced to me was Amy Carmichael, the Irish missionary who initially served her homeland and then immersed and dedicated herself to the under-served population of India in the early 1900s. I read Elisabeth’s biography of Amy, A Chance to Die: The Life and Legacy of Amy Carmichael, which led to my slow acquisition of several of Amy’s own devotional books (remember, this was before Amazon, and local bookstores did not carry indie Christian devos).
Looking for Amy Carmichael books became a hobby of mine, and putting my hands on these needle-in-a-haystack books, I devoured them, especially since, for 3.5 of my 4.5 years at OSU, I had a double-sized dorm room to myself, which was an introvert’s dream come true. I converted one of the two closets into a prayer closet and wallpapered it with handwritten quotes I pulled from Amy Carmichael and Elisabeth Elliot books, and often fell asleep on my beanbag reading/praying late into the night.
One of Amy’s shorter books, If, was a set of reflections on 1 Corinthians 13 and was particularly quotable. Some gems:
“If I can write an unkind letter, speak an unkind word, think an unkind thought without grief and shame, then I know nothing of Calvary love.”
“If I hold on to choices of any kind just because they are my choice; if I give any room to my private likes and dislikes, then I know nothing of Calvary love.”
“For a cup brimful of sweet water cannot spill even one drop of bitter water, however suddenly jolted.”
Good gravy, I’m suddenly feeling the need to make myself a prayer closet and sequester myself inside with a stack of Amy Carmichael books.
For a New Generation?
Sometimes I wonder: Who are the Elisabeth Elliots and Amy Carmichaels for my daughters and other young women of their generation? Pop tart or angsty musicians? Instagram influencers? YouTubers? I would love the answer to be THE Elisabeth Elliot and Amy Carmichael, but I fear their legacy is being lost amid the distractions of life and their documentation (I’m so thankful I didn’t have social media when I was in my twenties).
I’m not in any way suggesting that Elisabeth’s or Amy’s writings be a replacement for scripture, nor do I think either of them had some sort of Holy Spirit hotline for inspiration that isn’t also available to the rest of us; however, they clearly loved the Lord and were faithful in reading the Word, following Jesus, and encouraging others to do the same. I want that for my girls and the other younger women I know.
Anyone interested in reading one of these books with me? A monthly Saturday morning brunch with Elisabeth Elliot or Amy Carmichael? I’m game if you are.
Kindred Spirits, Past and Present
I never met Elisabeth or Amy in person, but I’m so grateful for them and how they embraced God bringing suffering into their lives. I love Elisabeth’s words here:
“God is God. If He is God, He is worthy of my worship and my service. I will find rest nowhere but in His will, and that will is infinitely, immeasurably, unspeakably beyond my largest notions of what He is up to.”
― Elisabeth Elliot, Through Gates of Splendor
I’m also grateful for Susan and Courtney, both of whom have endured their own hurts and hardships in life, but are still walking with the Lord, their husbands, and their grown children. We’ve kept in touch across the miles and years separating us, and the blessing of being able to pick up where we left off is not lost on me.
I came to Kansas City because of a love for books and to reunite with kindred spirits, past and present. Thank you, Jesus, for how you have used all of them in my life.
Now to set up that prayer closet…
Peaches’ Pick: Pilipinto: The Jungle Adventures of a Missionary's Daughter by Valerie Elliot Shepard
When we were in Bozeman last month, I (Craig) had coffee with my friend Jim Howard, who was an occasional lunch buddy when we lived there. Jim is an artist who received formal art training at the American Academy of Art in Chicago and has had 40+ years of experience in watercolor, pencil, and pen and ink. He has worked in advertising, as well as produced book illustrations for a number of publishing houses.
Jim is also the baby brother of Elisabeth Elliot, who along with her husband, Jim, were involved in bringing the Gospel to the Waorani Indians in Ecuador (read Through Gates of Splendor or watch End of the Spear for more on the tragic, transforming story).
Jim has illustrated the Elliots’ story through the eyes of his niece, Valerie, who was a child on the mission field (she was two when her father was killed). The artwork is beautiful, the book is well done, and I was excited to get to see their labor of love. I also ordered a copy of the book for Emily so she can read this inspiring story one day.
For more about Pilipinto, visit the P&R website. Buy the book, spread the word!
Craig and Megan Dunham live in Springfield, IL, where Craig serves as Ministry Coordinator at Exodus Church while pursuing ordination in the Presbyterian Church in America. Megan teaches 2nd grade at Springfield Christian School and is an occasional newsletter contributor.
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Want to contact the Dunhams? Email either or both: Craig and Megan.