Good morning! John and I and the kids are getting ready to go to church. This picture is the church we attend. It is the building on the right and the building on the left is the "parsonage" that the pastor and his wife live in. Where I am standing taking the picture is the grassy field next to the school. I will write more another day of the village school.I look at this picture and I go sunday after sunday and I think the same things...... What can John and I do as a family to encourage this small flock, or what can we, as a ministry, do to move these people closer to God and His will for their lives. I am currently reading a book that is starting to help me better organize my emotions and thoughts. I want to help them, not to harm them and yet I am too aware of "americans coming in and pushing their agenda". We hear it, being missionaries here. Everyone has an opinion, but what is it that YOU want, LORD?
"The poor will see and be glad - you who seek God, may your hearts live! The Lord hears the needy and does not despise his captive people." Psalm 69:32-33
What does this verse mean in light of the "captive"? Truly, I want to understand poverty and the orphan in the midst of it. I am living in it, in the midst of poverty, but not sure exactly what to do with it. Oh goodness, lots of thoughts being thrown around in my head.
I have far to go, but I know the Lord will bring me to His understanding through His Holy Spirit. So, for today, I am going to church (and we have invited some friends) and I will sit with these people who are beginning to become more familiar with me and me with them, and I will seek with those who are glad and we will learn to "live" together, and I guess that is a beginning.
I'm sure it's way too easy for me to have an opinion (I KNOW it is, I'm opinionated), and I know I'm not living/seeing/breathing/experiencing/reaching/steeped in Jos like you are.....
ReplyDeleteBut the first thought I had was:
Walk humbly with the Lord.
I'm a fixer and you know our 'health' situation right now, so you know that my inability to FIX what is broken in our lives has the ability to take me out spiritually. God continually humbles me.
Corrie, God knows your heart and His concern is that you use it to love His people well. God sets the captives free, not man! Let the dissenters opinions slide like water from a ducks back, they are Satan's whispers in your mind that speak lies and God's truth pushes back those lies and God's truth will push back the opinions of those dissenters ... as long as you seek Him first and walk humbly among His people and love them well. The Corrie and John that I KNOW love God with all their heart, all their soul, all their mind and all their strength. Not only do you love your neighbor as you would like to be loved; you moved half way around the world so you could have NEW neighbors to love!
I love watching you love Him!