An encouraging week

I'll be honest, the week before last was a bit of a struggle. I'm still waiting to hear from MAF when I'll be starting and to where I'll be moving, and the uncertainty can sometimes become overwhelming. That was the case the week before last, and I couldn't seem to rise above that feeling of being in limbo. In my head I know that God has it all under control and that things will work out in His perfect timing (as they always do), but I was having difficulty translating that into everyday life. I sent an email to my prayer partner last Saturday and had a breakthrough of sorts: instead of asking for prayer that MAF would hurry up and tell me where and when I'm going, I asked for prayer that I can learn to be patient.

In the parable of the ten minas, Jesus told the story of a businessman who gave his employees some money and told them to 'Occupy until I come' (Luke 19:13). In the parable, the businessman represents God and the employees represent us. So the meaning of this phrase is, while you're waiting for God's plan to be accomplished, get busy doing what you need to do. For me, that means working diligently for my current employer, serving faithfully in my church, and sticking with my flying plan for what I want to do there. This change of mindset has helped - at some point, the day will come when I will get the news from MAF. But until then, there is no point stressing about it; that isn't going to change the situation, and it doesn't help me.

So this week already started off looking a lot brighter as I decided to get stuck in to what I am able to progress now, and (try) not to worry about what lies ahead. I had a meeting with my home support team on Monday night and we made a deliberate effort to spend a significant portion of our time together praying for each of the churches and ministry partners who have committed to or are thinking about supporting me.

Then on Wednesday I received four encouraging responses about giving presentations to various groups ranging in size from 20 people to over 1,000 people, and an offer by someone to refer me to two other churches. It was a timely reminder that God is still working behind the scenes, even if we can't always see it.