Patience

March 8-20 Renee and I will be traveling around the Middle East to strengthen and encourage Navigators there.  The places we are going are among of the hardest soil for the Gospel anywhere.  Many labor there for their whole life and see little or no fruit.  They are tempted to feel like failures. However, they are actually right in the mainstream of God’s great work. 

We tend to assume that if we are doing the ministry “right” we’ll always see tons of fruit.  As I read through the whole of the Bible I notice that many of heroes of our faith lived their entire lives without seeing the fulfillment of the promises God had given to them.  Read Romans 11!  Abraham, the very father of our faith, came from this region and modeled waiting for decades for just one child of faith.  In view of Hebrews 6:12, please pray that God will use us to encourage these dear fellow workers as they inherit the promises of God through faith and patience.

Answered Prayer:   While I was in London God did give us some new pathways for networking of Navigator Church Ministries.  Right until the end of our days together we were tempted to think that we were stuck.  At the very end of the day we all gave one another high fives and rejoiced!  I’ll be sharing more in the months ahead.