Wow what an amazing last week I had! I got to attend the Weston A. Price Foundation (WAPF) annual conference in Salt Lake City, Utah. I have so much to share about it! The food, the people, the weather, the learning, oh, it was all so nourishing and fabulous! I have blogged about WAPF and its founder, Sally Fallon Morrell, a lot through the years (see here) and I’ve always wanted to go to a WAPF Conference, so this was a dream come true! More on all of that later!
While in SLC for the conference, I attended sacrament meeting in downtown SLC with my longtime friend/third cousin KeeNan, who was also at the conference with me. The two sacrament meeting speakers, Brother and Sister S, were so fabulous! They shared how even though they both grew up in SLC, they decided they didn’t want to raise their family there. They intentionally moved to the East Coast so their children would grow up outside of the “Mormon” culture. Joe implied that because he didn’t discover Jesus until he was 28, even though he was raised as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and served a mission for the Church, finishing his mission at age 22, he wanted his children to come to Jesus earlier and not take Jesus for granted, which can easily happen when being raised in Utah Church culture.
While living on the East Coast, Brother S met a woman in his ward (congregation) who had unwavering faith in Christ, as a true Saint. She was from Ghana, and had emigrated on a green card to Connecticut. She worked as a home health aide 24/7 for an elderly man. On her meager salary of about $35K a year, almost 20 years ago, she supported 3 children on a mission and 3 in college. Once a month she was committed to going to the temple in Manhattan. She had to get someone to cover her for work, which cost her $350 each temple visit. One time she bore her testimony of Jesus in church. Her testimony was so full of the Holy Spirit that a little girl in the congregation asked, “Is that Jesus’ grandma?”
Brother S said that he wants all of us to develop faith like this woman. Then he likened her faith to this month’s Come Follow Christ study, which we are discussing this month in Sunday School classes, and as families in our homes.
This is such a painful, destructive time in the history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It involved the failure of the Kirtland Safety Society, a type of bank. It involved the Three Witnesses of The Book of Mormon Another Testament of Jesus Christ, leaving the Church. (Two of them eventually came back to Church, and all of them never denied their witness/testimony of the Book of Mormon.) Joseph Smith ended up in prison during this painful time in Kirtland Ohio.
While in prison, Joseph felt that God had given up on him.
This story from Church history relates to the woman from Ghana and it relates to us. At one point, the woman from Ghana, before she emigrated to the United States, went back to Ghana. She had no money, her husband had just died. The only place she could find to live was in a friend’s barn, sharing 4 horse stalls with her 8 children. An apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ came to Ghana. This was the apostle who just last week became the president of the Church, President Oaks. He was then called Elder Oaks. He asked the local Church leadership who he could minister to, and they suggested this woman. Imagine how hard it would be to host an apostle of Jesus Christ in a barn, with your children running wild around in the hay! Elder Oaks asked her how he could help her. She replied “Please pray for me.” So right then and there, Elder Oaks knelt with her and prayed. Brother S added that her children were thinking, “Oh mom, ask him to buy us a house! He’s a rich American!” LOL!
Maybe, up until that visit, she felt abandoned by God. Maybe she felt that He was hidden from her. I like to think that with the visit of Elder Oaks she felt noticed by God, and some light broke forth, I don’t know. Anyway, she kept her trust in God and Christ, continued following Christ, and came to the U.S. She continued to live according to her covenants. Her life got better.
The Saints in the time of Kirtland, especially Joseph Smith probably felt that God had abandoned them. Joseph Smith eventually asked from prison, a dark, stinky uncomfortable place where he couldn’t even fully stand up, “Where art Thou God?”
Jared Halvorsen talks about when God seems and feels hidden from us in this video below.
“Where art Thou God?”
Many of us are asking the same thing right now with so much confusion and bad things happening in our world. Especially with the violent killing and burning that happened three weeks ago at a church in Michigan. He made the video the day after that September 28 attack.
This photographer tells the story, in the video, below, of walking through the charred remains of the burned down church in Michigan. What she found was amazing! Watch below.
I just love that story! I love that despite destruction, she found images that reflected Christ, His love, and Heavenly Father’s love. Those images did not burn up. I love that she found such a beautiful image of God’s hand, the hand of Jesus Christ, pierced for his crucifixion, a symbol of His atoning sacrifice for each of us.
Joseph Smith had his vision of living peacefully and prosperously in Kirtland OH. Then the safety society collapsed, some of his closest friends turned against him, and he was put in prison. I love that despite the destruction and loss, he found comfort in his prison eventually. The Lord Jesus Christ replied to him, which is now Doctrine and Covenants Section 121, including these words:
“7 My son, peace be unto thy soul; thine adversity and thine afflictions shall be but a small moment;
8 And then, if thou endure it well, God shall exalt thee on high; thou shalt triumph over all thy foes.
9 Thy friends do stand by thee, and they shall hail thee again with warm hearts and friendly hands.
10 Thou art not yet as Job; thy friends do not contend against thee, neither charge thee with transgression, as they did Job.
11 And they who do charge thee with transgression, their hope shall be blasted, and their prospects shall melt away as the hoar frost melteth before the burning rays of the rising sun;”
It often feels impossible to find God in loss and destruction. The story of the woman from Ghana, the story of Joseph, and the story of the Michigan photographer show us that sometimes we can see God’s hand, despite the loss and destruction. Sometimes God’s hand isn’t apparent. We might have to go looking, even digging, in the ashes, but God’s hand is there. I’ve had my own trials, like all of you probably have too, and I too have found God’s hand in the trials.
Tree of Life Mothering 