"I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward
call of God in Christ Jesus."
Philippians 3:14
Recently I was reading an article written from a Christian missionary
publication explaining the value of asking questions. It pointed out that in the book of Matthew
alone, 99 questions are asked by Jesus.
This has prompted me to think specifically for myself, "What is my
goal in being here?" Ultimately, I
could say that my goal is to bring glory to God. Getting a bit more specific, I can say that
my goal is to spread the gospel of Jesus.
I believe that these should be my goals, but more and more I am
beginning to recognize the importance of setting specific goals that work
toward the ultimate target of our Christian ministry on this earth. As we are more than half way through this
year, I am reminded of my goal of getting established in the northern part of
the Laarim territory this coming dry season.
On most days I work to gain fluency in the Laarim language (something
which will obviously take awhile). I
also recall my goal of reaching the Laarim people for Christ by sharing the
word of God with them using their mother tongue. Each goal has a timeframe. My goal to see a Christ-centered church develop
among the Laarim will very likely not happen within the next couple months
whereas my goal to read and understand all the vocabulary in the 4th chapter in
the book of John in the Laarim language may take only a couple weeks.
During my
first couple months of staying in Loryok, I felt a lot of mixed emotions. I did have moments of feeling encouraged and
having the strength to keep moving forward, but there was on the increase the
feeling that I was not managing the time allotted to me as well as I could be. I
had my long-term goals in mind, but I was beginning to wonder if what I was
doing on a daily basis was moving me closer each day to achieving them. Doing ministry in a highly
relational-oriented society means that much time is spent investing in relationships
thus making progress from a western perspective more difficult to gauge. And I
was aware of this, though I still felt that I was not working up to my
potential. Over the past several weeks I
have begun to see that I needed to put some extra effort in setting daily and
weekly goals that help me reach my longer-term goals in ministry among the
Laarim. As I have begun to do this I am
beginning to see its benefits. I have
been able to accomplish more. Praying
and thinking about my goals has also helped me to better know what I should
involve myself with when spontaneous needs, requests, or activities arise. I am also able to enjoy my time of leisure
and rest more knowing that I am being a good steward of the time God has given
to me.
In my whole
process of setting and accomplishing goals, I am aware that we must continually
remind ourselves that God must be the center of it all. This means that we do not try to fit God into
what we desire to do, but rather we must allow Him to direct what we do. Given that we have a human nature which is bent
on going its own way, this does require that we take time to pray, listen,
worship the Lord, and meditate upon His word, surrendering our lives to Him and
trusting Him. This puts us in a position
which allows God to work through us, directing us to set goals in a way which
will lead us to attain the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. And as we set goals in this way, we then are
able to answer the important questions that we need to regularly ask ourselves about
our lives and ministry.
Seeing the Lord at Work
This last month that I spent in Loryok had some challenges,
but there was much to be thankful for. It
was good to have Pastor David was back to Loryok after his spending of a few months
home back in Kenya. Although I had been
battling a couple illness during my time in Loryok, there were only a few days
that I felt the need to rest in bed for the entire day. I also thank the Lord
for how He has been drawing my adopted Laarim father Joseph to Himself, even
demonstrating to him His intervention in situations when we pray. Joseph has been asking many good questions
about God, how He works, the nature of sin, repentance, and forgiveness. This has allowed David and I to share what
the word of God says about each of these topics. Recently, Joseph excitedly expressed that he
felt he was really beginning to understand the word of God more deeply than he
ever had before.
On one of
the days while I was in Loryok, a mother had come with her eight year old son
who was gravely ill. They came and
stayed at the home of Joseph. The boy could
no longer walk or do anything for himself.
He was not coherent and he made a continual cry throughout the day and
night. When I learned of the situation I
mentioned that I would like to bring Pastor David over so that we could pray
for the boy. Joseph agreed so I went out
and came back with David. Before we
prayed, Pastor David took several minutes to explain to Joseph about God's
sovereignty in all things, as well as why we pray for the sick. He then read from the passage in James 5
about praying for the sick. As Pastor
David was sharing, the boy stopped crying.
We explained to the mother what we were going to do and we went into the
room of the boy to pray for him. As we
were praying the boy was repeating some phrases that I could not understand. After finishing praying, Pastor David and I
left and returned to our homes. The
following day I came back to see Joseph and check on the boy. Joseph greeted me with some excitement in his
voice and said the he could really see that God had worked through our prayers. He explained to me that the boy had been
continuously crying throughout the previous day and night, but after we prayed for
him, he remained quiet throughout that night.
Joseph informed me that the women on the compound were saying that we
were witchdoctors who had come to treat the boy, but he explained to the women
that we were not witchdoctors, but that we were employed by God to come do His
work. I have been blessed to not only
see God working in Joseph's life, but to see the Lord using Joseph to reach his
own people.
In just a
couple days from now, I plan to head back out to Loryok to again share life
together with the Laarim people as I resume language their learning.
Prayer Requests
Please pray that the Lord would continue to draw Joseph
closer to Himself, working in him and using him to reach the community.
Please pray for my partner in ministry AIC Pastor Joshua
from Juba who is still planning to return to Loryok. Pray for the Lord to stir up hearts within
the congregations of Africa Inland Church to
support him and other missionaries to carry out the work of God among
the unreached.
Please pray for the Lord to put a deeper hunger in the
hearts of the Laarim people for Himself and His truth.
Please continue to pray for my health and for wisdom in
caring for my body.
