An Encouraging Day...

I just wanted to make a quick post about the day of prayer and fasting for leadership for the AIDS project and the local churches! Thank you for those of you who knew about it and participated! I think I may have inadvertently left some people out of the loop…sorry about that!

Anyway, over the last several weeks, I think I have begun realizing that time is short. We will begin giving presentations in schools in the next few months and have volunteers planning to come and work with us. While we are not at the discouraged stage yet about not having national helpers, I hit a point a couple weeks ago where I realized that we have all these plans and no one to help make that happen. Jennifer and I both have really felt God’s leading in the way we have planned this project, and I found myself thinking, “Okay, God…we’ve been obedient this far. Now are you going to do Your part?”

Yesterday was definitely a confirmation that God is indeed, “doing His part.” As part of our day yesterday, we decided to prayer walk through town, walking in a direction we don’t normally walk. At one point, a vehicle stopped in front of us, and a few men got out of the vehicle to stretch their legs. As we passed, they greeted us, and one of them began to ask us a few questions. Eventually, we realized that this man was Maker, one of the two Dinka men we met this time last year in Virginia! He is back in Rumbek visiting and working on a project until April. We were supposed to meet up with him when he was in Rumbek last April, but we ended being out of town and living on a different compound from the one in which we told him we were living. It was a total shock to see him there and to realize that had we not been randomly walking out of town, we never would have seen him.

That situation reminded me of another situation we had recently…speaking of the Dinka men we met last year in Virginia, we have been to visit with Sunday’s (the other one!) dad a few times, and one time were able to take a gift from Sunday for his dad along with a photograph of the six of us, Sunday, and Maker. A few weeks ago, we were meeting with our newly hired driver, Elijah, to discuss the plans for the next week. Out of the blue, Elijah began talking about how now “we are family.” I thought he meant that we are family because we hired him, but he went on to explain that he had gone to visit his brother this week. While telling his brother about his new job with the Baptist Mission, his brother said, “Oh, THIS Baptist Mission?” And he whipped out the photograph of us with Sunday and Maker. Apparently, the ministry of health official is our new driver’s brother, who is Sunday’s (the man we met last year in Virginia) uncle. Small world, isn’t it?

To sum all this up, both of these situations—realizing that Elijah is Sunday’s uncle, and seeing Maker randomly by the side of the road—have reminded me that God is totally in this. This time last year, he made it possible for us to meet and become friends with two Dinka men who I honestly thought I would never see or hear from again. It’s been encouraging to me to see that God has so perfectly orchestrated the people and the events along the way—in this case, beginning about a year ago when we met these guys in Virginia—to make everything work out in His perfect timing.

So while we did not sign any new leaders to the program yesterday, I was encouraged. I was encouraged to remember that I don’t need to rush the timing of God. Just because I am beginning to feel a time-crunch does not mean that God is feeling it also! He is on the move here, working to make this work, and we will wait patiently for Him to show us who He has planned to be the leaders of our project! Thank you for praying with us yesterday. I hope you all were encouraged as well!