June and July

We are now preparing for teams to start coming down in almost one month.  (In a later post I will describe each trip).  It has been quite an eye opening experience to plan each trip in a country foreign to me.  Sometimes in America things are as simple as a phone call.  Here a phone call can just be the beginning of a very long process.  Sometimes that "process" can change very unexpectedly.  Sometimes it can be a lot of fun; specifically the part about meeting new people, and trying to work out good deals.

Just a month ago Amanda and I were talking, and wishing that we could do more.  We have learned that this is a feeling we will probably have quite often as missionaries.  Now here we are in May, and sometimes there is so much work we can't even think straight.  This is something else we are also learning.

I was reading "My Utmost for His Highest" this morning and I thought it would be good to post Oswald Chambers words.  So here they are:

. . . add to your faith virtue . . . —2 Peter 1:5

Add means that we have to do something. We are in danger of forgetting that we cannot do what God does, and that God will not do what we can do. We cannot save nor sanctify ourselves— God does that. But God will not give us good habits or character, and He will not force us to walk correctly before Him. We have to do all that ourselves. We must “work out” our “own salvation” which God has worked in us ( Philippians 2:12 ). Add means that we must get into the habit of doing things, and in the initial stages that is difficult. To take the initiative is to make a beginning— to instruct yourself in the way you must go.

Beware of the tendency to ask the way when you know it perfectly well. Take the initiative— stop hesitating— take the first step. Be determined to act immediately in faith on what God says to you when He speaks, and never reconsider or change your initial decisions. If you hesitate when God tells you to do something, you are being careless, spurning the grace in which you stand. Take the initiative yourself, make a decision of your will right now, and make it impossible to go back. Burn your bridges behind you, saying, “Iwill write that letter,” or “I will pay that debt”; and then do it! Make it irrevocable.

We have to get into the habit of carefully listening to God about everything, forming the habit of finding out what He says and heeding it. If, when a crisis comes, we instinctively turn to God, we will know that the habit has been formed in us. We have to take the initiative where we are, not where we have not yet been.