A Trip in Missions, Pt. 7

If you have raced with men on foot
   and they have worn you out,
   how can you compete with horses?
If you stumble in safe country,
   how will you manage in the thickets by the Jordan? 

- Jeremiah 12:5

An older brother in the faith named Brian shared this verse with me a few years ago.  I so needed it today.  Following last week's English class at the program that went really well, I came in today really excited about class!  I had my lesson plan all set out!  The sentences I had set out for the kids to translate were all verses from the Bible!

After class...so things were added and subtracted from the original, but you get the gist.

If you could have measured my excitement for the opportunity, it would have been a number with infinite digits!  Not only that, but today we started our program memory verse with the kids:

So with all of this Biblical focus, why wouldn't I expect a little difficulty?  It sure came.  It wasn't in the form of physical harm or heretical babbling.  No.  It came in the form of preteen boys.  Lol!  They came for the first time today and sat in my class.  As if on instinct, all of the girls in the class, who are normally my best students, gravitated toward them.  It didn't take me by surprise--I half-expected it.  I continued with class, trying my best to hold their attention.  Then the younger boys, wanting to be with the "in crowd," started talking with the preteen boys and girls.  Right as that happened, two teenage boys walked up to the iron gate and started talking with the "disrupting group"!  Completely missing the opportunity to reach out to the two guys I've never met, I told them that we were in the middle of class and asked them to leave...smh...  Sometimes my short-sightedness is just down right comical to me...it's like watching a scary movie and shouting out at all of the obvious parts.  Oh, but hindsight is always 20/20...

The epilogue of the story:  I've dealt with classroom disruption before...but that was when I had the English language to fall back on!  Trying to calm a class of kids and point them to the Word, all while speaking Spanish, is completely EXHAUSTING!!!  I think what bothered me the most was that I wasn't sure they fully grasped the concepts written on the board.

The thing is that this situation shouldn't have tired me the way that it did.  Don't get me wrong; it was a workout!  Lol!  Still, it's not like God hasn't gifted me to work with children.  After the program ended, I didn't have the energy to think about the next task I had to do, and I found myself wondering around repeating the program's memory verse to myself; more so clinging to it than reminding myself.  That's when the verse in Jeremiah came to mind.  Indeed, if running with people is wearing me out, then how will I compete with horses?  Likewise, if I'm stumbled when I'm only facing frustrations and tiring situations, then how will I fare when confronted with real persecution?  I definitely haven't reached the pinnacle of where God wants to take me!  I guess it's back to "business as usual"--time to get alone with my Dad.  After all, even if the kids didn't hear a single word I spoke, the verses on the board ended up written down in their notebooks.  And God's Word DOESN'T return void.  Haha, indeed...  :-)

The Road to "Happily Ever After", pt. 3

I'm not going to lie, preparing for the wedding to/marriage with Alisha has been kind of rough on me.  As a young man in the Lord, I have a large desire to provide for myself, and more importantly, for my fiance and future wife.  That seems pretty normal, right?  I mean, who wouldn't want to make the one they love feel secure?  It's been a rough path to walk for a few reasons...

At the beginning of the summer, I had my whole first year out of college planned out!  I was going to work the summer at camp and then start my career afterward.  I thought it was a great plan with a great financial future!  That's when God began to burden my heart with ministry and His work; He put it on my heart to do missions during my first year out of college (before my career starts).  I decided to be obedient, and now I'm working with Camp Sonshine during the school year and next summer.  I've been enjoying the work and the environment!  The staff is so encouraging!  In addition, I get a paycheck for the work (which is something that isn't expected when doing mission work).  It's not a large check, but it's enough to take care of myself--$400 a month.

With $400 a month, there's not much that can be saved for a wedding and future life.  It's enough to make a person feel low--like less of a man.  Not to mention that student loans will be starting up in December...  It doesn't help that not many older people around me seem to understand.  My step-dad considers me utterly foolish because of this situation.  My biological dad thinks/knows that I'm making a huge mistake.  One of my brothers in Christ wonders if I'm working at camp because I'm afraid of joining the "real" work world.  Another thinks that I'm in this position because I simply don't know what to do next with my life.  There's not much encouragement.  Yet, I know that God is shaping things so that He'll be able to do a great work!  The same thing happened as I planned for engagement, and we all saw the blessing He brought forth there!!!  (see The Road to "Happily Ever After")  God, knowing the discouragement I face, has prompted me with these questions:
1)  Is God worth my embarassment?
2)  Will I serve and follow after God even if it means that I'll not just look foolish, but will be called foolish, too?
3)  If my actions seem foolish to me, will I still trust in God?

Lol!  Yeah, I'll be a fool for God.  So, I'm pressing forward and trying to trust God.  As you can see above, it's quite difficult.  In fact, I'm finding it really hard to trust that God will provide.  Of course, I know that He is able and that He controls every situation, but to apply that knowledge practically--letting go and waiting on Him--is hard.  I could really use your prayers...

As I continue to wait, I'm just going to keep myself busy with the work of the Lord.  He's given me more than enough to do!  On top of the work with camp, the door has been opened for me to work with all ages 5-21 in various other ministry opportunities!  Honestly, I have so much more to do than to be worried about things that God is already taking care of!  Lol!  Ah, well!  I look forward to posting pt. 4 of this unorthodox journey to marriage!!!

In ___ We Trust?

About a week ago I went to the Men's Prayer Breakfast at my church (Calvary Chapel). The teaching came from 2 Chronicles 14-16, focusing on the kingship of Asa. It's so cool how Asa started out beautifully as a king, diligently leading Judah in the ways of the Lord; not only that, but he relied on God to deliver the people from overwhelming odds (2 Chron. 14:2-12)! Surely someone as faithful as Asa would finish strong in his life by continuing to honor the Lord, right? Then comes chapter 16, where we see Asa and the kingdom in the same exact situation as that from chapter 14; however, this time Asa doesn't call out to the Lord. Instead, he takes funds from the Lord's temple to hire the services of a neighboring king, who happens to be an enemy of the Israelites (2 Chron. 16:1-3). He places his trust in his own ability to take care of the need.

Needless to say, this message brought with it a serious exhortation!!! Lol! Still, applying this message was harder than normal, for some reason. Being a full-time student with no opportunity for work, the finances are pretty tight. So you can imagine my dismay when my brake light came on in my car...4 weeks ago... I avoided taking my car in because I knew I didn't have the money to pay for it, and because I knew that the mechanics would find more wrong with my car (I have a pretty old model).

Anxiety was a beast at trying to give me gray hairs before my time! I prayed and prayed, but couldn't find peace in the situation. Looking back, it's probably because I was still holding on to the situation and not fully releasing it to the Lord (...that may have had something to do with it...lol). Let's check out the epilogue, shall we?

I spoke to my mom and step-dad about the situation and my step-dad said he'd pay for the work on my car! "Wonderful!" I thought. "God is such a provider." I had no clue that He wasn't finished, yet. When I arrived at the auto shop, I spoke to the mechanic, whom I've come to know through repeated visits (as I said, my car is old...). He informed me that doing the maintenance on my brakes, pads, rotors, etc. would cost $400 total. Not only that, but as I suspected, my car needed additional work (new throttle body, gasket, etc.). I was prepared to just drive my car until the wheels fell off, as opposed to actually paying for that work...but the mechanic cut me a deal! He said he'd do ALL of the work for $500! The throttle body work alone would have cost $150, not to mention the other needed work, which would have pushed the total to over $700; so you can imagine my joy at this deal! I spoke to my step-dad, who confirmed that he'd pay the $500. It goes without saying, but I was quite pumped! Lol!

Then they said that there was an issue: since my car is so old, there are no new replacement throttle bodies or gaskets. But here comes God being a provider, again, because they found another throttle body in a junk yard nearby. Not only that, but they called around and found a gasket...in Washington State (quite far since I'm on the East Coast)!!! Lol! There's no amount of luck that could accomplish this; it's nothing short of the Lord's favor! Talk about going above and beyond all I could ever think or imagine (Ephesians 3:20-21)!!!

Now I'm at the point where the Lord has provided for me and I'm excited about it...but man I wish I had relied on Him a lot more BEFORE he provided!!! [sigh] I guess I'll just have to remember this situation for next time. Ah...building moments...praise God for them...