Welcome to Christ Redeemer Church, everyone.
What we like to say here every week is that we are more broken than we originally thought, but we are more loved by God in Jesus than we dare to dream.
My name is Jill Kirschner and I'm married to Steve.
I've been a member of this church for nearly 10 years.
It's gone so fast.
I also wanted to say today, though, it's a very, very special day.
Happy Mother's Day.
Hand up if you're a mum this morning.
Well, not a mum just this morning.
You've been a mum maybe since this morning, but forever.
Or you might be a grandmother either.
I'm Grammy.
I'm trying to upgrade to glammy, but my grandchildren don't seem to want to grab hold of that.
If you are, though, after the service, as you head out the door, just on this side behind the door, there's a gift for you from the church.
All sorts of little fragrances, different smells, and so on.
So please grab that.
I also wanted to acknowledge, though, that this can be a difficult time of year, a difficult day for some women, for some mums.
Perhaps you're struggling because you've got a child that's struggling.
If a child struggles, of course the mum's going to struggle too.
Perhaps you've lost a child.
Perhaps you've lost your mum in the last year or so.
I lost mum a couple of years ago.
And then lastly, perhaps you're struggling to get pregnant or you know that it's not likely to happen.
I pray that you can find some comfort and peace today, and that this day is not too difficult.
I want to tell you a couple of stories about me being a mum.
And these stories will come out of Australia, okay?
They're not recent.
But I will say this motherhood is filled with all sorts of emotions.
Inadequacy, life's out of control.
Then there's awe and wonder after a whole lot of pain.
Yeah, let's admit it, having a baby is like pushing out a huge basketball.
But after that, it's like you look at this child and you're like, wow, God, this is absolutely amazing.
But then there's also times when we have fear, we have pain.
There's all sorts of emotions that goes along with our faith in Christ that try to knock us out of the race.
So I'm going to show you my first story.
And firstly, I want you to know this story is a secret between you and me.
Okay, no one else is allowed to know.
In fact, I don't think even my husband knows these stories, so please don't tell him.
He's over there.
Someone put your hands over his ears so he can't hear it.
These are totally secret.
In fact, the son that I'm talking about, you know, I don't think he knows yet, so I suppose I should tell him at some stage.
Anyway, I had two boys.
The first one was just two to three months of age, and I was so excited.
I love being a mum.
Well, he woke for his night feed, and I went to change his nappy, his cloth nappy, because that's what we used, and took his old one off, went to put the new one on.
And of course, if you've ever changed a cloth nappy, particularly if you're from my era, it comes with a great big pin.
Okay, you've got to hold that thing on somehow.
And so I'm putting it around him, and we've been instructed to put our hand between his bits, you know, like boys' bits, okay.
And the cloth, okay.
So I'm got my hand down there and trying really hard and the pins struggling to get it through, and pricked myself, took my hand out.
Well, you then know what happened, okay?
It's like, oh my gosh, I'd got his pee pee.
Well, of course, he reacted, okay, and I was just hysterical.
I thought I'd maimed him for life, I thought that I was going to get arrested for sexual abuse, I thought I'd ruined his manhood forever, and so I grip my husband, and in the car we get, and off we go, zooming up to the emergency room through all the red lights and everything else, and take my little boy into emergency.
Well, of course, we get to see the doctor first because they've got an hysterical Australian woman and this little baby, a newborn, that's crying.
The doctor's examining him.
I'm waiting for the police to arrive.
And he looks at me, the doctor looks at me, and he he just starts laughing.
Now I can laugh now, but he just starts laughing.
It's like, it's fine.
You know, I was worried they're gonna have to amputate.
I just didn't know where I was gonna.
And how was I gonna explain this to my son later on?
It's fine, just take him home, a little bit of cream, it'll be okay, keep your eye on it, worry, go back to the doctor.
All was fine.
I haven't had to explain to him why he's mame for life.
He's now pregnant, well, not him, his wife's now pregnant with number four, everything's working fine.
But the humiliation, the embarrassment, the failure I felt as a mum, and then having to tell people about it.
Let's fast forward a few years.
My boys are just 17 months apart.
My husband and I decided that we were gonna start a ministry called World Evangelism.
If you know anything about visions with ministry, it's like we had a huge vision, but we only visited three countries.
And so, this ministry we were going to start churches, we were gonna start orphanages, we were gonna start uh food distribution, fostering children, and so on.
What a grand idea! The only thing is that the pay wasn't great.
You know, when you went there, I remember speaking at a women's conference, and my payment for doing the session was a piglet wrapped in a banana skin.
Well, I couldn't even take that back to Australia, let alone pay a house note or anything.
And so we sold our house back in Australia and put the money into the ministry.
My husband went away on another missions trip and he says, Can you find us somewhere to live?
The house is about to close.
So I visit some friends and say, Can I borrow your school bus?
Not a Winnebago, a school bus.
We need somewhere to live.
And so the boys and I moved into the school bus.
It was sort of okay for a couple of days.
Well, that really wasn't very adequate.
Anyone stayed in a school bus for a while?
It's really not really not fun.
Well, then, and I felt this was answered prayer, I found this old house that was built in 1900.
The owners wanted to get rid of it to build a nicer house.
I thought there was nothing wrong with this house.
And so I got it cut in half.
I don't know what you call those people who cut houses in half, but a house cutter in half are.
I found a company that did that.
They cut it in half.
We'll put the pictures on the screen so you can see I'm not lying.
And we trucked it into my parents' backyard who lived in a middle to upper class neighborhood.
And you know, I think they were okay because they wanted to make sure their daughter was okay, but I don't really know what the neighbors said.
In fact, I didn't ask them.
But that's what we lived in, and you know, I just thought it was amazing.
We put it together, there it is, there, my boys are looking happy.
But we lived there for five years, and as much as I look back now, and I know I was crazy, okay?
I know I was crazy.
There's so many of these stories.
There was a lot of anxiety and worry.
We had no power or water for six months.
So we had mum's garden hose coming through the kitchen window.
We had extension cords coming up to the house to try and have some power.
We regularly blew their power.
We had a ladder for front steps before we had proper front steps.
I worried because how do the boys really feel about this?
How are they gonna grow up having grown up in a very different circumstance in the middle of Australia where everyone else had normal houses?
But it all turned out fine.
Today, as a Grammy, there's still so many emotions.
When your kids leave home, you don't stop being concerned.
You know, recently, my youngest son, who has a church in LA, he was evacuated due to the fires.
And that was heartbreaking.
A lot of the people in his church lost their homes and ended up staying in his church.
And yet during this time, they put together a food and goods program for those that had lost everything.
But then on the other side of it, just a couple of weeks ago, I was out in LA pointing out my granddaughter to everyone.
Isn't she wonderful?
She was in her first dance recital.
Her turnout was horrific, you know, feet turned in like this.
But it was just the most wonderful thing ever.
Oh, wonder, pride.
I found a scripture that I think describes me, and it may describe you, because we go through so much as mums because we love so deeply.
The scripture is my flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
So, in other words, despite my emotional roller coaster, I feel that God wove his way all through my life.
Let's pray.
Lord, thank you for the gift of motherhood.
May our mums feel loved, blessed, and honored today.
That they know your peace that passes all understanding.
Father, we pray too for mums and women that are facing difficult times.
Give them hope, courage, and strength, and let them find comfort in your love and guidance.
I pray for Russ as he teaches us that you speak through him and that we as a congregation open our hearts and minds to his message.
We ask these things in Jesus' name.
Amen.