Each school day she is there. We can count on it. She greets us with a warm smile, asks how we’re doing, and waves goodbye as we leave. Her name is Mary*, and she is a parent volunteer at our children’s school where she greets families and students entering and leaving the school gates.

Can you think of someone in your life as dependable as Mary? Someone you know who will be true to her commitment, faithful to her word? Would others call you a “Mary?”

Dependable people like Mary are the ones I think to call first when I need help. They are the first ones I reach out to when I need prayer or a word of encouragement. I can list these people in my own life because they have been faithful over the years, and I hope others can say the same about me.

Yet, when we move to a new country, we leave our faithful people. We leave our comfortable culture where we find it more natural to be dependable ourselves. We begin the process of discovering our new “Mary’s” and learning how to be a “Mary” in this new part of the world. Part of cultural adaptation is learning to trust the people around us and what it looks like for people to trust us. This requires time and patience and can be challenging for sure, but the reward is great. Finding reliable people helps us persevere in the work God has prepared for us, and being a reliable person exemplifies the Gospel to those around us. It points them to our heavenly Father who is the perfect example of reliability.

And isn’t that our ultimate goal? To teach and show how faithful God is in keeping his promises? We can depend on him to give us grace when we fall, strength in our weaknesses, peace when we are anxious, joy in our troubles, and hope beyond our circumstances. As we cling to these promises, we show God’s faithfulness to those around us. Even Mary would say that was grand!

*Name changed