We’ve had a lot happening at the mission lately. From a place of assuming we’d not have any additional intern laborers for the summer, we now have several young people who will be functioning in various roles. Galen Balinski is back for the summer, and with him Tim Rogers for the next two months. Galen and Tim are students at Maranatha Baptist Bible College. Even as I write this, Galen and Tim are working in the next room on beveling some new wood trim for another renovation project in the building. Heather Williams, a Maranatha student, is here for the summer and will be helping in various auxiliary roles. Pastor Bill is busy with building-related projects. I just helped him take some measurements in a certain part of the building. Brad Jones has been taking an active role in supervising the food distribution during our four weekly chapel services, a task to which he is quite well-suited.
I am starting in earnest to write a discipleship course for young believers, a task Pastor Bill has wanted to tackle for years. My goal is to first stress commitment to the Lord and then to open the doors to enlightening and edifying revealed knowledge of the character and attributes of God, the tri-unity of God, Christ’s person and works, the Holy Spirit’s person and works, His workings in the believer, the glories of God’s revelation, and the glories which He gives to His church. Commitment is a greatly needed commodity in our generation, and nothing is brought to fruition if a person will not be committed. Therefore, I will do my best to stress commitment to the Lord. I hear that people are already expressing real interest in the course, asking when it will finally start.
Pray that God would meet our needs in every way. How we stand in need of His grace to keep a positive outlook on life and ministry. We need His comforts and the sense of His presence to help us in times of need. We really would love to find that the Lord is working ahead of us, drawing people to see their need of His salvation before they ever enter our doors and hear the Gospel. We need the Spirit’s help in ministering to young believers who come with questions and troubles common to man. We thank God for His provision and His Spirit who abides in us. In grace, we put one foot forward at a time, day by day, service by service, project by project. Sometimes we plod uphill. Other times it seems we walk in the verdant valleys.
Last week I watched a BBC broadcast about the Darjeeling Himalayan railway, a little two foot gauge (two feet between the tracks) railway that climbs over 2km in elevation over a 78km run in West Bengal, India. Sometimes I feel like that little train, plodding along uphill, uphill, toward the goal. At the terminus of the little railway is Darjeeling, possibly the best tea-growing region in the world. Yesterday I preached in chapel about how Christ is a minister of the true tabernacle in Heaven. This is the terminus for every Christian, for every born-again minister of the Gospel, and how I long to get there.
My eye is on the prize, Not on the path, Not on what lieth behind, Not on my feet, lest I stumble and fall, My eye is on Jesus, and now I resolve To run this race which he ran before (and someday to enter the Holiest of All); To preach His name to the rich and the weak, To trust Him on earth, til the prize I shall see— Til paths of clay become golden streets, My eye is on the prize.
Older
Top
