We All Need Rest

Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For My yoke is easy and My burden is light."

-Matthew 11:28-30

         Ministry is difficult.  Whether working in a recognized position of ministry or not, when we choose to minister by loving others we open ourselves to sorrows and difficulties.  I must also add that there are at times great moments of joy and satisfaction in ministry through serving the Lord and experiencing fellowship with others and sometimes even seeing resulting fruit, but the road of ministry is indeed difficult wherever one is may serve. We may spend much energy and time loving, praying for, and counseling someone so that they may not fall into one of life's many pitfalls and still they may fall into one.  We may spend years preaching and teaching the truth in love and not know if it has any effect on the hearers.  We may see other fellow believers make poor choices that damage our relationships with them.  And to add to the difficulties there are the sins and mistakes that we ourselves commit.

            Yesterday I was feeling a bit down.  Not overwhelmed, but saddened that a friend of mine with whom I enjoy fellowship has made a bad choice that could have big consequences on this earth for him.  I am thankful that he has, I believe, expressed genuine repentance, but I still hurt a bit for him.

            Whether you are in distress facing great adversity, or feeling discouraged over what may appear to be fruitless efforts, or feeling a bit down because a friend in whom you have invested much has made a poor choice, and though the demands of ministry still remain in addition to these problems, Jesus promises rest for us.  Even if we have more than we feel that we can handle, it is certainly not more that Jesus can handle and he calls us to take on His yoke.  To find such rest though in the midst of such trials, I believe we must be intentional about taking time with Jesus.  There is so much more that I could write that has probably already been written, but I want to remind myself and my fellow followers of Jesus that if you are feeling distressed and overwhelmed with the demands of life and ministry, perhaps it is time to come again to Jesus and find rest for your soul in Him.        

It is hard for me to believe that I am sitting back here in South Sudan, healthy, well rested, and having regained my strength after these past couple of months.  Lately I have been on the move.  I have totaled the days spent in each location where I have stayed over the past two months and I have found that the longest I have spent anywhere was the three weeks I had in Kerenge of the Boya Hills while I was working on establishing my home there.  It really was not easy and I still have more work to do, but God provided when I was in need. 

            When I arrived to Loryok in August, I purchased and gathered together what would be needed for the work to get started on building my compound.  This included 180 kg of salt for payment, 15 steel corrugated sheets, a sack of charcoal, food, tools, and other items.  My little 3mX 3m house was crowded with these things.

            After getting all that I needed, I found someone in Loryok who had a vehicle that I could hire to bring up the goods so we agreed upon a price for the transportation.  The next day we loaded up his pickup.  There was some concern over one of the river crossings about 7km outside of Loryok, but we heard from someone who had just come from the village on his motorbike that it would probably be passable with the vehicle.  We decided to go for it but unfortunately when we reached the river we were unable to cross due to the amount of water flowing.  This meant going back and piling everything into my house again. That was definitely not what I wanted to have to do.  Thankfully, I got word from my unit leader that five days later he would be coming through Loryok and was very willing to help me transport my items up to the village in his Land Rover, a much more suitable vehicle for the trip.  When he came we loaded the vehicle and brought everything up and the next day I started the work with some young men.  The work was difficult and at times felt overwhelming. I did not enjoy negotiating prices for the local materials that people from the community brought me as well as telling some that they had to bring more for the previously agreed upon price.  Nevertheless with the help of three young Laarim men, Loboi, Petanyang, and Luka, along with a few others on some given days we were able to accomplish what I had hoped for.  We completed the fence and redid the roof on the house.  I am so grateful for the three who stuck with me volunteering their time to help.  I could not have done it without them.  On some instances, they even took ridicule for supporting me on the occasions that some others wanted to take advantage of me.  I thank the Lord that He provided these young men to come alongside and support me when I was in need. 

            Since those three weeks have passed, I have spent days in Loryok, Torit, Nairobi, Juba, in the air and even in Nebraska for my brother's wedding.  I was intending to visit my home church while in Omaha, but I was hit with a high fever on that Sunday morning that kept me from going.  I have now been back in South Sudan for about a week and a half and hope in a few days to be back on my way to the village to finish up the work that I started so that I will soon be able to live and share God's word with the Laarim in the Boya Hills.

-Continue to pray for hunger for God's word among the Laarim, particularly in the villages of the Boya Hills.

-Pray for my relationships with these young people whom God has placed in my life.  Pray that our time spent together would bring us closer to Jesus.  

-Please continue to pray for me as I push ahead with the construction, the bible story translation, as well as learning the language.  I sometimes find it easy to forget about the need to watch my health and energy level closely so that I don't run myself down.