Ever feel like a yo-yo? We have to say that after making the long, exhausting trip up to village M with soaring hopes of setting a date for an outreach, we felt like a yo-yo that had reached its peak and then suddenly hit the floor (and was then kicked, stepped on…you get the picture!) Apparently, after meeting with the rest of the village leaders, the main leader and the group decided that they would not go against the bigger religious organization of which they are members and authorize a full scale community outreach. What? You invited us up here to tell us no? Again?? You couldn’t have sent someone to tell us that message? Honestly, we were shocked. About 15-20 believers from here in village S, along with Jeremiah, Jordan, Gary, his daughter Charis, and Ralf, they all hiked the 3 ½ hours up (and most of it is an unrelenting UP) through the cold rain, endured the slippery and dangerous trail (some of it through a strong river), crossed over 2 very precarious bamboo bridges, all to encourage the village that they were making the right decision, that the Message they’d been taught had changed their lives and that they were so excited that they, their beloved family and friends, would be hearing it soon as well. But the words seemed to fall on deaf ears. They would not listen. HOWEVER, these words from 2 Corinthians bring great encouragement and hope to us…
“For we do not preach ourselves but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your bond-servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, “Light shall shine out of darkness,” is the ONE who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves; we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; persecuted, but not destroyed; always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.” 2 Cor. 4:5-10
We have a wonderful, God-given peace that comforts us as we remember that this Light is alive and well, existing here in our village brothers and sisters, and will exist here still long after we are gone from this country. He may not desire at this point to use us foreigners to reach this group, but who knows what He will do with that Light that resides in others, so we need not despair, we are not destroyed, that Light was made to shine, with or without us! So while we still wait and hope for a change of heart, we will not discount the many Christians who live nearby and who brush shoulders with their countrymen in M day in and day out, and we will pray that the surpassing greatness of the power of God will be manifest in such a way through the testimony of those faithful ones, that many will be drawn to Him!
While the main reason for hiking up was to meet with leaders, Jeremiah and Gary first went to visit the first outreach village, T, and fellowship with the young believers there overnight and then enjoy the morning in the Word together and watch the teachers give the lesson. What an encouragement that was! Equipped with the Word in their own language, these two teachers, Lukas (from here) and Areke (a fairly young believer from T who is just now being trained as a teacher) shared the Word with excitement, passion and conviction, challenging each of us in our personal walks with the Lord. We are encouraged by their growth, watching the Lord bring these young believers along the road to maturity is sometimes hard, as it is for a parent to watch their children go through heartbreaking circumstances. But they are growing in leaps and bounds, a sobering reminder that growth and maturity usually come as the result of seeing and trusting in God’s faithfulness through the trials and heartaches of life.
We know that so many of you have been praying with us and that you were led to believe (since we believed it as well!) that this story would end differently. Do not be discouraged! We admit that we have no idea what the Lord is doing, but we do know that He IS working, though His ways and His timing are often different than ours. We do have hope that we may be able to still teach a smaller group of people in M that want to hear God’s Word in their language. We were told that we couldn’t teach in a community setting, but there is a possibility that we could teach individual clans. Please pray for wisdom and direction as we consider our next move in this regard. THANK YOU for standing with us, and please continue to pray! And please do pray for us, our family, and our team. We often are tempted to be discouraged. Ministry expectations turn out differently than hoped. Family difficulties. Financial struggles. But we know that even in what the world would consider the easiest of circumstances, peace, joy and contentment are only found in the Person of Jesus Christ. As Paul said, “God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed;” 2 Cor. 9:8 He has already supplied us with everything we need! Our God is Good! Praise Him with us today!