Dawson Family Update 2026
Dear friend, I hope this letter finds you well.
I wish I was there with you in person. It’s an extraordinary gift from God to have such a beautiful network of precious friendships around the world, but there’s a grief that accompanies our gratitude. Cora and I often talk, laugh, and cry together as we retell stories of shared experiences with the precious people that God has brought into our lives. As the years pass, our network of treasured friends continues to grow, but the number of hours in the day remains the same. As we get older, our desire to be with the people we love is ever increasing, but our physical capacity is diminishing. And so, we grieve the distance.
If I were with you right now, you’d probably tell me about the challenges you’ve faced lately and are facing now, and what the people who matter most to you have been through. My heart would be swelling with admiration and compassion. For me, the sore spot these days is considering what our kids have been through in leaving New Zealand and integrating into the community here in France. As much as we have tried our best to protect them from hardship, I must admit that watching them rise to the challenges of learning a new language, culture, education system, etc. has been extraordinary. It has absolutely broken and healed my heart. Last night we were gathered around the evening news, watching the current violence between high school students and police that has erupted all over France. One of the schools involved was the school that Levi will be going to next year. One young student lost his hand when he picked up a grenade thrown by the police. Naturally, we were reminded together that God is on a mission to heal and restore the brokenness in humanity, and that’s the mission we want to be part of, starting in our own home.
Lord knows each of us has plenty of reasons over the course of our lives to just “curse God and die.” I hope this season has been one of blessing, peace, and increase of all the good stuff. Perhaps for you, it hasn’t been. Maybe you took the risk of believing in a project, but it isn’t panning out the way you’d hoped. Perhaps you had the courage to speak the truth to someone in love, but your good intentions were taken for evil, and now there’s a painful disconnect. Maybe you’re in a season of expansion, joy, and blessing, but someone precious to you is quietly dying on the sideline. Or perhaps all you’ve had capacity for lately is to simply hang in there and trust that God is holding you by a thread.
May the spirit of God fill you again with strength, courage, and joy as you face what’s in front of you.
A couple of weeks ago, a dear friend of mine sent me a picture of him and his wife’s precious first newborn baby. I can’t begin to explain the trials and tribulations that these dear ones have been through to get to this moment of joy and fulfilled promise. I wept and wept as I considered the courage that it took them to continue to let the spirit of Love, the spirit of God, work in and through them to bring new life into this broken world. I think of the friends I have who have chosen to pursue a path of restoration with people that they have been utterly betrayed by. Who would blame them for remaining bitter? I think of my friends whose lives have been devastated through accidents and sickness, and yet continue to love people with what capacity they have left.
May God heal your broken heart, dear friend. With traumatised souls, we can exhaust ourselves striving to live lives that are worthy of approval, but Jesus offers a better path. How about a life of connection? How about a life in which we forgive, care for, and comfort, rather than devour each other? How about a life in which Jesus stands as the one and only true hero. He is the hero of my story, and the hero of yours. I can’t think of anything that binds you and I together more powerfully than that.
That’s all totally hypothetical, of course. Perhaps you have no news at all. Perhaps everything in your life is completely resolved, and all you’ve done lately is bake cookies, listen to birds chirp, and read your favourite book. I doubt it :)
