{"id":206,"date":"2019-05-19T12:05:48","date_gmt":"2019-05-19T17:05:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/nick-borio\/?p=206"},"modified":"2019-05-19T12:05:50","modified_gmt":"2019-05-19T17:05:50","slug":"boast-in-the-lord","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/nick-borio\/boast-in-the-lord\/","title":{"rendered":"Boast in the Lord"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Praise God for answered prayers! In our last update, we asked for\nprayer as Nick prepared for surgery, we finished classes, and we looked for\nhousing in Pennsylvania. Well, we have exciting news about each of those\nrequests:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Nick\u2019s ear surgery was a success! The hole in his ear drum (which he\u2019s had since childhood) is repaired. <\/li><li>On Saturday, we GRADUATED from Ethnos360 Bible Institute. Praise God for two amazing years studying the Bible. <\/li><li>God has provided a place for us to stay in Pennsylvania! We will be staying in a missionary apartment provided through Palisades Community Bible Church. <\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>How great to see God answering prayer and providing for our needs.\nWe really, really appreciate your prayers and how you partner with us in that\nway.&nbsp; We spend time praying for all of\nyou as well so please let us know when you have specific needs \ud83d\ude0a\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>We are headed to Florida in a few weeks for our Pre-Field Orientation with Ethnos360. <\/strong>We\u2019ll be learning about the core values of Ethnos360, the mission\u2019s strategy in world missions, skills for developing a ministry support team, and other aspects of ministry with Ethnos360. <strong>After that, we will head to Pennsylvania on July 1 to begin our time of Ministry Partnership Development. <\/strong>Thank you for your prayers and for keeping up with what we are doing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-media-text alignwide\" style=\"grid-template-columns:41% auto\"><figure class=\"wp-block-media-text__media\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"800\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/nick-borio\/files\/2019\/05\/us-in-class-600x800.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-216\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/nick-borio\/files\/2019\/05\/us-in-class-600x800.jpg 600w, https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/nick-borio\/files\/2019\/05\/us-in-class-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/nick-borio\/files\/2019\/05\/us-in-class-768x1024.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/nick-borio\/files\/2019\/05\/us-in-class-83x110.jpg 83w, https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/nick-borio\/files\/2019\/05\/us-in-class-188x250.jpg 188w, https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/nick-borio\/files\/2019\/05\/us-in-class-190x253.jpg 190w, https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/nick-borio\/files\/2019\/05\/us-in-class-1920x2559.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/figure><div class=\"wp-block-media-text__content\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/nick-borio\/files\/2019\/05\/IMG_20190518_093743162-600x697.jpg\" alt=\"This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is IMG_20190518_093743162-600x697.jpg\" width=\"257\" height=\"299\"\/><figcaption> Last Day of Class and<br>       Graduation Day!<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>As\nwe reflect on God\u2019s faithfulness, I (Kathy) am learning how often I hesitate\ninstead of moving forward with confidence in God\u2019s provision. Over the\npast few months, the story of Gideon has caused me to stop and reflect on God\u2019s\nfaithfulness (you can read his story in Judges 6-8). God called Gideon to lead\nIsrael out of their bondage to the Midianites. But when God first approached\nhim, Gideon had doubts. Here\u2019s the conversation (Judges 6:14-16a):<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p><strong><sup>\u201c&nbsp;<\/sup><\/strong>The&nbsp;Lord&nbsp;turned to him and said, \u201cGo in the strength you have&nbsp;and save&nbsp;Israel out of Midian\u2019s hand<strong>. Am I not sending you?\u201d<\/strong><\/p><p><br>\u201cPardon me, my lord,\u201d Gideon replied, \u201cbut how can I save Israel? My clan&nbsp;is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.\u201d<\/p><p><br>The&nbsp;Lord&nbsp;answered, \u201c<strong>I will be with you.<\/strong>\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>What an incredible conversation. God speaks to Gideon to send him to a task. Yet still, Gideon hesitates. Even after the Lord says, \u201cI will be with you,\u201d Gideon asks for a sign. And he doesn\u2019t just ask once\u2026Gideon asks God for a sign THREE times (Judges 6:17, 37, 39). And God, in His grace, gives Gideon a sign each time. As the story continues, God also asks Gideon to step out in faith and take an army of 300 men to face an army of thousands. Gideon does what the Lord asks, steps into what looks like an impossible task, and God provides the victory. When I read Gideon\u2019s story, I am so convicted about my own hesitation in following God. &nbsp;As we move forward with Ethnos360, there are plenty of unknowns in our future. And though God has graciously provided some answers (like where we will live \ud83d\ude0a ), there are still details of our future that are unclear. God is teaching me that I don\u2019t need every question answered, and that I don\u2019t need a sign each time He leads us.<strong> He tells us, like He told Gideon, \u201cAm I not sending you?\u201d And that is enough.<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>My soul makes its boast in the LORD; let the humble hear and be glad.<br><br>&nbsp;Psalm 34:2<br><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Praise God for answered prayers! In our last update, we asked for prayer as Nick prepared for surgery, we finished classes, and we looked for housing in Pennsylvania. Well, we have exciting news about each of those requests: Nick\u2019s ear surgery was a success! The hole in his ear drum (which he\u2019s had since childhood) [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1146,"featured_media":219,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-206","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-family","8":"category-ministry","9":"entry"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/nick-borio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/nick-borio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/nick-borio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/nick-borio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1146"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/nick-borio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=206"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/nick-borio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/nick-borio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/nick-borio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/nick-borio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/nick-borio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}