Lessons Learned

banner_participationToday is my grandson’s 6th birthday.  I am so thankful for God’s blessing to our family with this guy.  He is my “best buddy!”

In a few hours our US team members will board airplanes and embark on our journey to Africa for an intense and extreme ministry project.  Months of preparation are complete and our wonderful team members in Ghana, tired from all the work of planning, are eager for our arrival.

There is a lesson to be learned now.  We are moving from preparation to participation.  When we sit down in our seat, buckle our seat belts, and open a book, everything of preparation is behind us and the participation part of the project begins.

As a part of our preparation (and participation) our team members have been reading the same daily devotional together.  This year we are using Every Day With Jesus by Selwyn Hughes. A part of this devotion reminds us what we must do when we face confusion and frustration.  I, like most of you, do not like to admit that we are ever frustrated or confused, but I must confess the ramp-up to this particular project has caused both of these in my heart.

I’ve been confused (and frustrated) this time.  (I am just sharing my heart with you here.)  I have been confused over the ways funds have come in for this project.  Some people who have always been strong supporters of the work in Africa have been unable to do so this time. As I have been studying the devotional it reminded me that I had four options in the face of this confusion.  Hughes says:

“Whenever we are faced with any difficult situation that confronts us we will usually take one of four measures: 1) Flee it!  2) Fight it!  3) Forget it! or 4) Face it!  The first three end in failure — only the fourth will get us anywhere.”

This was a wonderful encouragement to me.  I began to ask God was He was teaching me through this particular frustration.  Here is what I learned:

  1. God, not people, is our provision.  While it is true that God moves on the hearts of His people to join Him in His work of evangelism, I must never loose sight of the fact that HE alone is our provision.  To look to people is to walk by sight rather than by faith.  Thank-you Lord for teaching me again this wonderful truth.
  2. It is in our weakness that God is strong.  Paul wrote of Christ, My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness. (2 Cor. 12:9 nkjv)  Our Father wants us to boast in Him and not ourselves. An old lesson that I have to be reminded of again and again is that God is rarely early, but He is NEVER late.  His grace is sufficient … Period.

I am thankful that God is using this upcoming project as a time to show me more of Himself.  I hope you will remember to pray for us daily over the next few weeks.  We will do our best to share with you what God is doing in West Africa.