I have to admit that over this past month, I was beginning to wonder whether I was following the path of ministry which the Lord had set before me, or if I was going off track. I have been working one-on-one with Peter and Matai on computer skills, and with another young man, Salla, on conversational English. Although the sessions have been and still are going reasonably well, I had found myself sitting around the compound with little to do if one of them did not show up for the agreed time. I also have found that 2 hours a day and 5 days a week on computer can be quite exhausting for a learner, thus explaining why I did not have someone to teach everyday. As a result of the lack of attendance, I began to feel a bit idle and discouraged. Realizing the amount of free time I had, Phil encouraged me to begin pursuing another ministry in addition to what I was doing. As I had been thinking and praying about it, the Lord brought to my mind a conversation I had with my roommate, Juma, in which he was encouraging me to come and teach at his secondary school as some of the other previous missionaries had done. Initially I told him that teaching in school would not fit me well. In fact, I did not feel that I could be a capable teacher and the thought of teaching a class of high school students frightened me. But I could not get the idea out of my head and the thought of it strangely began to appeal to me, though I felt incapable of doing it. And although I had no formal experience of teaching in a classroom setting, I began to want to do it so I went before the Lord and began to seek him about teaching. As I told the Lord that I just wanted to be obedient to His calling regardless of what it was, I began to feel that teaching was His will for me and that if I would step out in faith He would be faithful to use me in the classroom. So I went ahead and visited the headmaster of the school, and then went to the director of secondary education who approved me to teach as a volunteer at the government secondary school. The day that I was to start, I was reminded of Philippians 4:6 which tells us to be anxious for nothing, but to present our requests to the Lord with thanksgiving. I went to the Lord and prayed in this manner and soon after, my heart was filled with the peace of God as promised in verse 7. As I went to school and began teach, it felt as if I had been doing it for years and the students were amused when I would throw in a little Arabic from time to time during the lecture. So I am now a part-time teacher of CRE (Christian Religion Education) and find it enjoyable as well as a challenge which encourages me to keep looking to God for His strength.
This experience has led me to be thankful to the Lord for the times that He gives us tasks or puts us in situations which are beyond what we have prepared ourselves to handle. I have seen how quickly in my own life, pride has come into my heart when I began to look back at MY OWN accomplishments and successes that I may or may not have carefully calculated. Such pride always seems to be followed by discouragement, with the next mistake made, thus causing me to realize that I am not all that I thought I was. There have been times at the market where I had been feeling pretty good about having a conversation with a local in Arabic as others stopped to listen and admire my skills. And then in the next moment someone says something to me that I can not even understand and I am unable to answer or worse, I give a response that makes absolutely no sense and I embarrass myself. I am beginning to thank the Lord for these times of humiliation which bring me back to the realization that it is the Lord who works in us, rather than us offering something acceptable from ourselves to God in which we can boast to others about. As Oswald Chambers writes, “We give credit to human wisdom when we should give credit to the Divine guidance of God through childlike people who were foolish enough to trust God’s wisdom and the supernatural equipment of God.” It seems that the Lord has been working on teaching me childlikeness in these past few weeks.
A Month on Our Own
Phil and Linda got back from their visit to the United States in the middle of October, and while they had been gone, we at the compound really learned to appreciate having them around. Despite all the obvious work that Phil and Linda do, there are the many unnoticed tasks which need attention such as making sure our gardener and laundry helper are fed and paid. Also, guests frequently come to visit the compound with needs, requests, or issues that need to be addressed. And then there is the maintenance of the compound which requires a lot of attention. We have found that just taking care of the needs here is a full-time job.
During our time without Phil and Linda here we also had problems with rats, snakes, and monkeys entering the house. Monkeys may be cute out in the wild, but in town they are a nuisance. Numerous times they had torn our screen windows, entered the house, and stolen food. Also, they do not hesitate to bite if they feel threatened. As a result of the continual problems, the wildlife protection services has now given the people the right to fight back if threatened or harassed by these creatures. Rats were also causing serious problems as well and the little things were impossible to catch. Here and there we would find a tomato nibbled on or a something chewed up overnight, but we finally declared war when a mother rat pushed the door up on one of our trunks full of food, entered, and gave birth to six babies. I ended up throwing out nearly half of what was in the trunk because it was spoiled by the rats. We tried traps and poison, but nothing worked. We finally brought a cat from the church compound to our place and we have not had a rat problem since.
How You Can Pray:
1. Pray for me as I am teaching at the secondary school. There is a lot of needed wisdom and patience when teaching in such an environment.
2. Pray that the students’ hearts would be open as they are learning about the Word of God.
3. Pray for Peter, Matai, and Salla who I am working with one-on-one. Pray that the Lord would use our time together to bring glory to Himself.
4. Pray for peace at Taban’s compound where I am doing my homestay. Although Taban and his wife Bakita are doing well, there has been some turmoil due to a conflict between some other individuals there.
5. Pray for our safety and protection and pray against any work of the enemy which would try to take our eyes off the Lord.
