Last year’s team during a brief pit stop.
We’re headed out for a trip around eastern Chad today. Visiting some Chadian brothers and sisters in several towns and villages in the east. Looking forward to good times of fellowship, encouragement, and strategizing about how to expand Christ’s kingdom throughout this land!
Please pray for us. There will be two other expats and several Chadian pastors joining me for this trip.
I have been consistently amazed at the way God has provided for us over this past year. Many things we prayed earnestly for. Some things we didn’t know we needed. A few things we didn’t even have the faith to ask for…
We could list dozens more ways God has faithfully provided throughout this first year. Thank you Lord for your faithfulness!
“For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.” Galatians 1:10
In ministry and life, it is easy to muddy our motives. Even the best “works” for the Lord that we do are often tainted with the sin of pride or the desire to please others. This is no less true for the missionary on a foreign field. We give up a lot: family, friends, church, comforts, health, and many things that are familiar. In return, the majority of people back home who support our ministry can put us on a higher pedestal than is deserved. Many forget that we are normal people, struggling with normal sins and problems and temptations that every Christian struggles with. The only difference is we are doing it in a strange culture. Many times the sins and struggles become even more magnified: there is no cushion for hiding our sin problems when we are stripped of all that is familiar.
This verse in Galatians 1 has convicted me recently. At times when I have hard days and complain in my heart about the heat, the work load, the lack of conveniences, the lack of fellowship and deep friendship because of our chosen lifestyle, I am forgetting who I am living for. If my eyes and heart are focused consistently on the Lord, aiming to please Him, I am counted worthy to serving Him and am able to do so joyfully. When I look at my own problems or at my lack of worldly wants and needs, or even at the encouragement we receive from supporters, but forget Who it is I am serving, I quickly lose my joy and desire to serve. According to this verse, I also don’t deserve the privilege of being a servant of Christ. He has promised that following Him means losing much in the present life and gaining much in the life to come. How can I be His servant if my eyes remain on the things of this world? I am not worthy.
As one woman wrote me in a letter a few months ago, “You may be normal people with normal problems but at least you are serving.” This encouraged my heart. It is true for each of us who follows Jesus, no matter which country we are in. We are all normal people with normal sins and normal problems. There are two questions that must be answered. The first is: “Is Jesus enough? Is He worth it?” Is Jesus worth giving up, each day, my desires, my comforts, even those things I think are necessary to my well-being? The next question is, “Are we serving the Lord alone, or still seeking the approval of man?” Am I serving with a pure heart even when no one knows? Am I working wholeheartedly and with joy when no one says thank you? May it always be said of you and me that despite all, we are serving the Lord. He is enough for us.
I write this from my heart partly in attempt to encourage you to remain steadfast, keeping your eyes fixed on the prize which is Jesus, our joy. He is worth living for and dying for. I also write this as a plea for prayer. We need God’s grace daily, each moment, if we are going to thrive in life and ministry for the long term. If I am not seeking the approval of God alone in a place of ministry like Chad, then why am I here?! Your prayers and encouragement to us are important as God continues to sanctify us and prayerfully use us in this place, and we are grateful for you.
I have been reading and studying Colossians this past month, and it is so rich. It is a great book to use in discipling new believers. One observation I made during my study – chapter 2:20-22 talks about the “regulations” that the Colossians had submitted themselves to, even though they had “died” with Christ. Verse 23: “These [rules] have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.” Legalism seems to be a natural part of our humanity – if we have a list of rules to conquer, our pride can fool us into thinking we are doing ok. I can’t help but read this portion of Colossians and think of my Muslim neighbors all around who have not yet submitted themselves to the “beloved Son” (1:13), “in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (1:14). Instead they are bound by legalism, believing that somehow their prayers, fasting, modesty, chanting, alms giving – “good” works and following of the rules is enough to reconcile them to God. However, Chapter 1, verse 21 and 22 tell us that we were “once alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds,” (indulging in the flesh) but Jesus “has now reconciled [us] in his body of flesh by his death in order to present [us] holy and blameless and above reproach before him.” Pray with us that “God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ…that [we] may make it clear.” Pray that many will feel the hypocrisy in their own lives, the futility of their works before a holy God. Pray that we will “walk in wisdom towards outsiders, making the best use of the time….that [our] speech [will} always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that [we may know how [we] ought to answer each person” (4:2-6). Pray for us and yourself also – that we as believers will not fall into the lie that ministry or good deeds gains us approval before our Father. Thank you, Jesus that your death has made us alive, “having forgiven us all our trespasses” (2:13).
We began our house search the day after Christmas, after waiting almost a month for the man who we now call our friend to return back to Abeche to help us with our house hunt. “Abd” has been a believer for 15 years and we are blessed to have his help here. We saw many houses with lots of potential, but two really stayed at the top of our list. One was brand new, a good price, good yard,and super nice. We loved the house! The downside is that the location is not the best – it is on abusy foot path/dirt road, but not in a neighborhood. We were getting encouragement from Abd that this was the best choice because it was move-in ready, and we couldn’t disagree with that. We went to bed that night very torn, and I tossed and turned all night, very anxious about the choice we had to make. The next day, we both still felt stressed about it, but felt unsure about what else was available. We prayed for God to grant us wisdom, talked to another worker here who had some good advice for us, encouraging us to continue our search and be very clear with Abd what our goals were for being here. Yes, we want to learn Arabic, and yes a house a little more “isolated” would be the obvious choice for anyone just moving here for the sake of moving here, but our house search is a little different than what it would be in the States. We have more to consider than just how it suits our preferences – we have a ministry to consider, how are we going to interact with the lost, how will we learn their culture and live life amongst them if we are separated from them? Why would we leave America and everything comfortable, come all the way to Abeche, Chad just to live in a nice house away from people? Doesn’t that defeat our purpose?! So, once God imparted some wisdom into our thought process, we realized we needed to consider a different house – one we had looked at first and liked but needs some work. We went back a couple days later to see it again, make notes about what work would need to be done before we could move in, and see what potential the house and compound had. We left very excited and encouraged! The yard is big for the kids, there is a row of shade trees on one side, and there is tons of space to host Chadian visitors and guests who will come to visit from America, as well as have our own office or prayer room and a large kitchen for me! We took a walk around the neighborhood to pray for the people, ask God to use us to bless them if this is where He is calling us to live, and even greet a few people. I got to pray with one woman who is a refugee from Sudan. This house does need some work – we will need to pull up old laminate flooring and paint the walls, as well as put in some kitchen counters. We have the month of January reserved here at the Orphanage, so we don’t feel too rushed to get moved in. We are working on writing up a contract on the house and we have workers who can do most of the labor, since we will also be studying Arabic. Rejoice with us that this big decision has been made and that God has granted us not only his wisdom but the peace that comes with it. Pray that as we work on getting the house ready to move in, God would also continue to grow our heart and vision for the people in the neighborhood.
Eight years ago, while attending a Perspectives on World Christian Movements class, a man from Wycliffe Bible Translators passed out cards to each student in the class and we committed to praying for the people group written on the card until they had the Scriptures translated into their language. I kept my yellow card in my Bible and prayed for the Gabri people in Chad fairly regularly over the following six years. At that time, Chad was a distant, foreign land to me. I had no personal connection to it and couldn’t even imagine what the Gabri people looked like. Two years ago, I received an email from Wycliffe thanking me for my prayers and informing me that the Scripture translation was now complete. Praise God! Now, the Gabri could read God’s Word in their language! Two days ago, my house helper Christine came for the first time. I asked her (in French) what her people group was. Guess what it is?! Gabri! I shared my story with her of how I prayed for six years for her people to have the Scripture in their language and how neat it was that God has allowed me to meet someone from this very tribe. It made the prayers that, at the time, seemed very impersonal just come alive for me as I had the opportunity to see prayers answered. Thank you for faithfully praying for us even though you have not seen or experienced Chad. My prayer is that one day you will look back on what God does and be able to rejoice, saying, “Hey! God did a great thing in Chad and he allowed me to be a part of it!”
(Folks at FBC Liberty City, notice the shirt she is wearing in the photo – she asked to borrow a shirt that day because she forgot to bring her work clothes. Your shirt was the first one I found and I just had to sneak a picture of it on her
Powered by WordPress & Theme by Anders Norén