I just returned from a four-week vacation in the US, followed by a week-long meeting with other missionaries in Peru. Both were times of great encouragement for me, and I am refreshed and excited to return to work in Bolivia for the remaining ten months of my time on the foreign field!
Prayer Necessities:
1. Leah and I will begin conducting our women's evangelism conference for three non-consecutive weekends starting on July 30 and 31. We will teach the participants seven stories from the Old and New Testaments so that they will be able to share the Gospel orally with their friends and neighbors. Please pray that the Lord would send to us only the women He has prepared to learn these stories and share them.
2. Pray for wisdom for Leah and I regarding some future changes. I will share more about this in the future but, for now, please be in prayer for us that we would be able to discern the Lord's will and obey Him.
3. Be in prayer for the members of our Xtreme Bolivia men's team, Javier, Landon, and Roberto. All three will shortly be returning to their home countries (Peru, the US, and Argentina, respectively) for a time of rest and relaxation. Pray for their transition back to their home cultures and that they would remain faithful to continue the Lord's work in whatever He calls them to do next.
Inquiring Minds Wanna Know:
As I mentioned above, Leah and I recently returned from a meeting of IMB missionaries serving in five South American countries. The meeting was held at a resort in Peru, and there were about 225 people present (including about 65 MKs!). We had a wonderful time of swimming, sandboarding, horseback riding, dune buggying, and a host of other activities... in addition to getting some work done. :) (The pictures below are of me after dune-buggy riding with Leah and our new missionary friend Audra, who serves in Ecuador, and of the pool at the resort.)
But the best part had nothing to do with what we did. It was just an absolute joy to be around so many like-minded people, people who are all consumed with a passion to see the nations come to worship Christ.
Towards the end of my time there, Leah and I had the privilege of sitting down to talk with two women who are now my heroines. I'll change their names because both work in high-security areas such that exposing their identity could result in physical danger or deportation.
Marian has served as a single missionary for more than 25 years and is now working with an unreached group of indigenous peoples. The area where she works is quite dangerous for foreigners, so she travels by night with some South American brothers who help to hide her from the paramilitary groups who would kidnap her at the first opportunity. Once they reach the village where she works, she spends the day in the home of the local pastor because the villagers cannot know she is there. Once a month, she travels by night to a hidden camp several hours down the river. To get there, she must rely on her South American brothers, who hide her under a canvas for the duration of the trip. When she gets there, she is greeted by a group of indigenous people who have to learn stories from the Bible from her. They will then return to their own villages to share the Word of God with those who have never heard of Him!
Sandra has served as a single missionary for more than 15 years and began working in the cities of her country doing music ministry. Before long, however, she couldn't escape the faces of the many indigenous peoples who needed to hear about Jesus. Notwithstanding multiple government obstacles that could have resulted in her deportation, she now travels out to tribal areas to share God's Word with the people. On her first such visit, she met a man who asked her why she was there. Not wanting to identify herself as a missionary, she simply told him, "I work for a church." When he heard that answer, his face lit up, and he said, "Do you know Jesus?" When she answered yes, he excitedly asked, "Can you tell me about Him? I want to go back and tell everyone in my village about Him!"
Can you imagine being the first one to tell someone about Jesus? And, what's more, knowing that they will go and tell others who have also never heard of Him? If that's not encouragement to keep pressing on, I don't know what is!
But those wonderful stories were not the only things I learned from Marian and Sandra. We got into a deep discussion about sacrifice and just how far we were willing to go to follow the call of Christ.
What prompted all of this is the fact that both of these ladies are single, and so are Leah and I. Our conversation started off along those lines, with Marian and Sandra, both of whom are in their 50s or older, describing to us how they have struggled with the desire for husbands and children and how, despite the lack of fulfillment of those desires, they have chosen to remain faithful in service to the Lord, knowing that where they are and what they are doing means being single makes them better suited to be His servants.
Now that resonated with me because, having never married at age 40, I also struggle with those desires. Having faced that particular landmark birthday earlier this year, it has really made me confront the likelihood that I will ever have children. But now, unlike earlier in my life, I find myself not really caring whether I ever do. I think I just don't have the patience to be around kids at my age, so it's kind of nice to be able to be around other people's children when I want to but hand them back to their parents when I get tired of them. :)
Marriage, however, is another struggle entirely. That is a desire I've had since I was a teenager, and it's always been my greatest wish. And that particular longing doesn't seem to be going away, nor do I anticipate it ever will.
A few years ago, I was sitting in a Bible study, and our singles pastor asked the group a question that cut me to the heart. He said, "If you had the opportunity to choose between getting married and having a family but living kind of a mediocre Christian life vs. being single for the rest of your life but living out everything God has for you and having a perfectly fulfilling relationship with Him, what would you choose?" I went home and cried that night because I had to admit that I didn't know.
I think often about the life of Abraham. I feel like my life is supposed to parallel his in many ways, and I hope that someday I'll reach the level of faith he had.
Abraham waited 25 years to receive the son God had promised, and he got that boy when he was 100 years old. Several years later, God told him to take that precious son Isaac three days into the wilderness.
And sacrifice him.
Can you imagine? Here is Abraham's dearest treasure, the greatest longing of his heart, this precious boy that God had promised him. And now God is taking him away? That doesn't make any sense!
But you know what happened. Abraham obeyed. He took Isaac up on that mountain, and the young man willingly allowed his father to tie him up and place him on that altar. And, at the last possible moment, when Abraham raised the knife to slaughter his son, God stopped him. What the Lord says to him then is so telling:
"Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son." (Gen. 22:12)
I want God to be able to say to me that He now knows that I fear Him, because I have not withheld from Him my longing for marriage. If it will glorify Him more that I remain single, I want to be willing to do that. And, honestly, there are days when I am definitely willing, but there are days when I'm just not. But, thankfully, I think the former is starting to outweigh the latter.
Recently, I thought about that old question of my singles pastor, and I asked it to myself again. This time, my answer was different. Day by day, if I choose to walk in God's grace, it can remain the same, that I choose Him over anything this world and its temporary pleasures have to offer.
Thanks for reading about my struggles! I figure you can plug your own greatest desire into that verse to find out what the limits of your own willingness to sacrifice would be. And, if you're not there yet, don't worry; you're not alone! But He'll get us there.
No comments:
Post a Comment