God is teaching me about perseverence in several different ways. On a personal level, I have battled stomache ailments and now respritory ailments, but I have to keep pressing on. There is time to rest, but it’s not like spending a few days at home on the couch or in bed. Life is a little different when you are traveling. Getting rest means trying to find a few quite moments to sleep in between the commotion of 6 other roomates, and meals at a church a few blocks away. I am finding that God provides suffecient rest when we need it , but sufficient doesn’t mean the luxery and confort I was used to at home. Adaptability is key to survival here. You just have to do what you can to get by. Praise God, I am beginning to feel better.
Another area of perseverence is in personal growth. I have been trying very hard to overcome a lifetime of negativity and poor self-image. I read about who God says that I am, but I struggle to believe it on an internal level. I am finding that replacing the enemies lies with God’s truth takes time and a lot of effort on my part. I have to want it, and I have to make a conscious effort to read that truth over and over until I believe it. It also requires action. I have to live and respond to life according to the truth regardless of how I feel. Believing is more than knowing something in your head, it is also acting on that truth. Much as my belief in God and His promises has lead me to a life of trusting Him and following Him in faith. If I truely believe what He says about me, who I am in Christ, I have to live it as well. That is not an easy thing to do when you still feel doubt. I know that what I feel is not truth, so I am choosing to act on truth and not feelings. It is a daily battle, and sometimes I still loose, but I know that God will complete it in His time.
The third area of perseverence is in our ministry. We are constantly learning to look to God and not to our ideas of what it should look like. That is part of learning that it is not by our power of efforts, but completely by His will that ministry happens. We have been going door to door in the community and meeting a lot of people. I have been meeting with some teenage girls. It seemed to be going really good. Now we are trying to get cell groups and Bible studies together, but things haven’t come together as we imagined. Plans have been made, but then people are either really late or don’t come at all. We have had to be very flexible, and just turn it back to prayer asking God what His will is. We can see Him moving here, but everywhere we go it works a little different. We are constantly having to release our expectations and just watch to see what the Father is doing. Even Jesus had to do this. He could do nothing on his own, and could only do what He saw the Father doing. It is a good lesson, and it keeps us from falling into a routine or from making up some formula for ministry. It can be discouraging at times when things don’t seem to work out, but it is always exciting to see God move in a new way.
Please pray with us for discernment on how to proceed in Tumpa, and in Musho as well as seeking His will for us in the village we will be traveling to next week. Thank you for all of your support and prayers. I know God is working through you as well. Prayer is one of the most important things any of us can do.
