Loss is a part of life. We all go through it, whether living at home or in the mission field. For missionaries, those losses can be magnified. We miss the families we have left behind, our friends and our way of life, along with so many other things.
Pets can help relieve the challenges of those losses. For children, a furry friend can become a new playmate and a source of comfort. I know that, for our daughters, having cats and a dog made life a lot more bearable. For singles, their pets become like family, a warm furry body to cuddle up with after a hard day of work and when loneliness takes over. Pets are therapeutic!
Unfortunately, these furry blessings can also bring sadness when they go missing. I watched our daughter grieve deeply after her cat was stolen in the village. I know of other missionaries who have lost pets by death, or they have disappeared for a while, causing lots of anxiety, or they have not been able to be reunited with their pets because of a change in location of their project.
I know that God loves our pets. I have seen His care multiple times and in many ways. Once, when we were in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, getting supplies, we had our cat, Pumpkin, with us. As we prepared to return to the village, we learned that she would not be permitted to fly on the plane with us. We were not sure how we would get her home. But God opened a way. She was able to travel on the same cargo ship we loaded our supplies onto. We left her in the care of the ship crew and prepared to board our plane the next day.
But that evening, the captain called to give us the bad news that Pumpkin was missing. He was afraid that she had escaped from the ship while they were docked at the wharf. Our hearts were heavy as we boarded the plane the next day for Daru. We prayed that somehow Pumpkin would be found.
We got to Daru and settled in for the evening. The next day, we would take our flight to the village. Sometime in the middle of the night, Steve’s phone rang. Groggily answering it, he heard a man’s voice on the other end talking excitedly in broken English, “We have her! We have her!” But being half asleep, Steve thought it was a wrong number. After he hung up, we talked about the call and realized it was the ship captain calling to say Pumpkin had been found. How relieved we were to hear the news! Several days later, the boat crew successfully delivered Pumpkin and the rest of our cargo to our mission house.
“I sing because I’m happy and I sing because I’m free, for His eye is on the sparrow and I know He watches me” (lyrics by Civilla D. Martin, music by Charles H. Gabriel, 1905). Jesus said that His Father cares for His children, assuring us that if God provides for the sparrow, He certainly has an interest in providing for the men and women He has created. We praise God that His eye is on all His creation.
When you pray for our missionaries, please also remember to pray for their pets. Even they play a role in keeping our missionaries in the field, sometimes becoming the catalyst in meeting the unreached.
