Which Tree Are You?

Staying Rooted Through Seasons of Growth, Release, and Trust

Read time: 4 minutes

Christmas Eve Gratitude

Early in the morning on Christmas Eve, Deanna received another Targeted Therapy treatment in the chemo ward at the Abbotsford Regional Hospital and Cancer Centre.

We are deeply grateful for the doctors, nurses, technicians, and staff who quietly hold so many lives together.

Two words feel insufficient—but they’re the best we have:

Thank you.

Three Stages of Life

An Explanation Dream

I keep a dream journal.

After four decades of walking with Jesus—in jungles and cities, in seasons of fruitfulness and seasons of collapse—I’ve learned that God sometimes bypasses the thinking mind and speaks directly to the spirit.

So I write the dreams down—even the strange ones.

Each morning, I review the dreams and “words” from the current month, and from one month in the past, letting patterns slowly emerge. Over time, clarity comes—not all at once, but faithfully.

The Dream

In early November 2025, I woke at 3 a.m. from a dream in which a missionary life unfolded in three stages.

Stage One:
The missionary plants. The locals participate.

Stage Two:
The missionary and young leaders plant together, side by side.

Stage Three:
Local leaders plant and encourage others, while the missionary remains in relationship with them.

I woke with a quiet encouragement: stay the course.

Stay close to those on the front lines.
Encourage when invited.
Speak when given insight.

The dream didn’t show disconnection—it showed transformation.

The missionary doesn’t disappear in Stage Three.
The role changes.
The posture softens.
But the relationship endures.

Lived Experience

Two of the most influential mentors in the early formation of our mission and church-planting movement never appeared on any organizational chart.

Danny Meyer and Mark Fields would come, stay in our home, and simply be with us.

They didn’t arrive with agendas. They didn’t take control. They served in ways that felt like a gift to our local team.

Those casual conversations—around our table, in our living room, on boat trips—quietly shaped our culture:

“This is how we do things around here.”

My prayer now is that we can be that kind of presence for the next generation of zealous young leaders—just as we once were.

May God lead us onward.

What Scripture Whispers

Paul once described ministry this way: one person plants, another waters—but growth belongs to God alone.

That truth echoes what my dream was showing me.

I think of my brothers and sisters—Milton, Elba, Clenildo, and so many leaders in Brazil and beyond—who now carry the vision forward with their own hands, their own voices, their own dreams.

They are God’s workers.

And as we remain in relationship, there are moments—timely, invited moments—when perspective offered gently can become a gift.

Still Learning

I used to think maturity meant having answers.
Clarity.
A five-year plan and the confidence to execute it.

Now I think maturity looks more like holding things loosely.

Like waking at 3 a.m. with a dream—and being willing to let it reshape how I see the way forward.

The fog that sometimes covers the path ahead doesn’t frighten me the way it once did. The fog is often where the voice comes clearest—when the scaffolding of plans and programs falls away, and all that remains is the question:

Who’s walking with me?

Questions for Reflection

• What season are you in—planting, planting alongside, or releasing others to plant?

• Is there a role you’ve held too tightly, afraid of what letting go might mean?

• How might staying in relationship look different from staying in control?

A Suggested Meditation

Learning David’s Secret

This week’s meditation is about paying attention to input to achieve a better outcome.

The Tree by the Stream

A Devotional Reflection on Psalm 1

God created our brains to help us. They work constantly in the background—sorting possibilities, scanning for danger, planning the next step.

But here’s the thing: they take their cues from what we feed them.

The ancient songwriter understood this. Psalm 1 reads like a welcome mat to the PsalmWorld with instructions:

Before you go any further, understand how this works.

When we meditate on truth—when we ponder it, wonder about it, ask why it’s phrased this way and what a word really means—something happens to us.

We become like a tree planted by streams of water.

Rooted.
Fruitful in season.
Leaves that do not wither.

This image reaches back to Eden’s Tree of Life—and forward to Revelation’s tree whose leaves heal the nations.

Scripture shows this pattern again and again:

Noah walked with God.
Moses walked with God.
David walked with God.

The Bible overflows with people who prospered—not because life was easy, but because they were rooted.

Prospering never meant the absence of suffering.

Paul did his most enduring work while imprisoned.
John wrote Revelation in exile on a barren island.
Joseph saved nations after betrayal, slavery, and prison.

Psalm 1 doesn’t promise an easy life.
It promises a deeply grounded and fruitful life.

A life that stands tall even in worst-case scenarios—loss, betrayal, suffering—and quietly produces greater losses for the enemy and greater gains for God.

A Personal Practice

On January 1, 2017, I decided to take God up on His invitation to walk and talk with Him in the garden.

In 2016, I was in a season where, if I relaxed, my conversation and my thinking had become bitter. I had to fight against injustice. I would sometimes wake up in the night, twisting and turning. It was a desert place. Then I heard the song, In the Garden, and I thought, “That is not true. I know people who sing that song, and they don’t have a garden, and they do not appear to have a relationship with God as that song describes.” I was in the perfect place for God to bring me closer.

I began practicing centering prayer—quietly sitting with God early each morning. Mark Fields once told me that if I spent at least 20 minutes a day in this posture, I could expect to notice a change in three weeks.

I soon increased that to 30 minutes.

After 400 days, I started tracking the practice.

I hesitate to share this—but I do so with the hope of helping someone who is struggling in the desert. There is a way back into the Garden.

Those who knew me back in 2013-2016 will notice a difference to who I am today.

I feel different.

The desert experience changed who I am.
It has changed how I see the world.

My Prayer for You

May you be like a tree planted by streams of water.
May you yield fruit in season.
May your leaf never wither.
And whatever you do—may you prosper.

For Reflection

• What are you feeding your mind?
• Where does your mind go when you lie awake in the night and cannot sleep?
• What do you meditate on when no one’s watching—while driving, waiting, falling asleep?

If you wake up pondering the Psalms, God’s work on earth, you are in a good place.
The tree doesn’t strain to produce fruit.
It simply stays planted by the stream.

Deanna’s Journey to Healing

Prayer Requests

• For Deanna’s complete recovery

• For the successful sale of the mission property in Marabá

• For clear direction for 2026 as we prepare to travel again

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