Hello dear friends,

I was one of the writers for the Riverside International Church’s Meeting Point ministry which helped to start me down this road of writing monthly devotionals.  Let me provide some background information regarding some of life’s journeys.  I was born in Marshalltown, Iowa, USA. Our family of seven lived on my parent’s homesteaded farm, 5 miles from the very small town of Gladbrook, Iowa (population of less than 1000). I was the 3rd of 5 children, growing up with one sister and three brothers. Our life on the farm was filled with creative adventures beyond what most could ever imagine.

I met my husband, Charles (Chuck) during my college years. We were married over the Memorial Day weekend 1973 when Chuck completed his degree program at the university. He was 21 and I was 20. This marked the beginning of what has been an amazing life adventure. Almost 3 years later, while living in Montana we had our son Christian. Two years after that our daughter Heather was born in the state of Wisconsin. Chuck’s job took us back to my home state of Iowa and 18 months after Heather’s birth, our youngest daughter Alicia was born.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was blessed in that I was able to stay at home with our children through their early years. However, 11 years and 3 states later, when Alicia was 4, I was excited to finally have the opportunity to go back to school and finish my degree in elementary education. A few years later I completed a Master’s Degree program in the speciality area of Learning Disabilities. About 4 years after that I completed another Master’s Degree program in the field of Gifted Education, where I spent much of my energy over the rest of my educational career. I love learning and in 2007 I completed the endorsement program for my Administrator’s License.

While in Iowa we raised our three children and stayed busy with school and church activities. It was a blessing to teach in the same school system where Chuck and I were actively involved in supporting them through the many years of school activities, sports, dance. We were actively involved in our home church through these years also, teaching Sunday School, leading the Youth Group, and using our home to invest in the youth of our church as well as hold home Bible studies. Eventually we watched as each of our children went off to college and later married. We are so blessed to have close relationships with all of our children and their spouses.

Today all of our children and their families live in different states. Chris and his wife Jamie live in New Mexico and are parents to Tucker, Hunter and our youngest grandchild, Zoe. Heather and her husband Andy live in Wisconsin. Their busy family includes Jonah, our oldest grandson, Claire, Lillian, Scarlett and Anna. Alicia, our youngest daughter, is married to Ben. They live in Illinois and they too have a busy household with triplets; Isla, Solomon, and Simon and first grader, Josiah. Yes, if you counted, we have a total of 12 grandchildren,  6 grandsons and 6 granddaughters.

Looking back at this point it is interesting that my husband and I both started our professional careers in the field of education and now we are missionary teachers at Greater Lisbon Christian Academy. GLCA is an English speaking, American curriculum, Christian school located in Ramada, Portugal. Between these two career bookends lie the rich stories of raising our family, hiking in National Parks, and growing in faith as we followed the Lord and his leading in preparation for our work in Portugal today.  While most missionaries start out much younger and have their families while on the mission field, the Lord prepared us through careers first, and then provided the opportunity to serve him. We of course miss our families more than you can imagine while we spend our school years here.  However, we have developed very special friendships with individuals and families in Portugal. We cherish sweet Christian friendships with our ABWE church families, our Riverside family, connections with staff at the school, and missionary families who are devoted to serving the Lord through various church plants and other ministry opportunities in Portugal. I am thankful that the Lord has opened the door for me to have the opportunity to write for the Meeting Point Ladies Ministry. It is through this ministry that the Lord has provided an avenue to share my own journey of spiritual growth and struggle. While the message is written for the Meeting Point ladies, I also post it on my personal blog. The Lord has used this ministry to share God’s word around the globe and in particular with unknown believers in China. I thank the Lord for this ministry opportunity and Chuck and I feel doubly blessed to have the encouragement and love of our family back in the US, as well as our Christian family in Portugal.

 

Linda Moehring, GLCA Educator, Lisbon, Portugal