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St Francis Magazine Vol 8, No 2 | April 2012 I guess what I am saying is that trials are not a mistake. Tough times have no bearing on discerning the will of God and the presence of God in your life and mine. The absence of guidance into productive ministry is no indicator that we are not in the right place. It was about 36 months for Elijah from the time he announced the drought to King Ahab until the dramatic face-‐off on Mount Carmel. How many of those months were spent being shaped in Kerith and Zarephath? Six, twelve, twenty-four, perhaps thirty-‐five. I wonder how many dutiful servants have chosen a different path to travel because on their journey they entered Kerith and Zarephath and concluded that God wasn’t leading. In order to go well and last long in the ministry there is a need to persevere through the tough stuff, maybe for years, before we see new life. But persevere we must; there are lessons to be learnt that we will learn no other way. When I listen to the stories of prospective mission candidates, I like to pay attention to the pain and heartache they have had to endure along life’s journey and how they coped through hardship. Unless we have had to deal with our own brokenness and fragility, and unless we have had to cope with the rigors of life in the real world, we will never have the tools to cope when we find ourselves in the refinery or ravine in an unfamiliar context. 4. Confidence in the Shepherd’s Faithfulness Late 2001 was perhaps the darkest season of my life. After 19 years of childless marriage Val and I were just weeks away from the arrival of our adopted children, John and Nika, then one morning Val woke up cross-‐eyed. The initial diagnosis by a reputable neurologist was that Val had an inoperable brain tumor on the stem of her brain, pinching an optic nerve. 130
St Francis Magazine Vol 8, No 2 | April 2012 Fortunately the specialist was both hasty and inaccurate in her diagnosis and it turned out to be a viral condition that would clear up over time. But after the initial diagnosis I was confused and mad at God for how He was messing with our lives. A short time later the US invaded Afghanistan and as a consequence I received personal death threats from a number of local Muslim teenagers in our community; they robbed my life of joy and peace at the time. It was a season when I felt very fragile, totally vulnerable, and desperately lonely. We had little in the way of support groups around us in the Philippines at the time, and my emails back to our supports in NZ seemed to fall on deaf ears. I had nowhere to turn for comfort and encouragement and understanding, except God and what I knew to be true about Him. In that context I discovered that if the Lord is my Shepherd then I have everything I need. I clearly recall at the time seeking some relief from God. He caused me to reflect on the journey that He had taken me on over the previous 20 years, in fact even prior to me coming to know Him personally. He reminded me of the many times that He had stepped into my life and met me in my deepest need. He showed me clearly His guidance and provision over many years and reassured me that He was big enough to take care of the present for me. Elijah also had his markers of God’s faithfulness; we are privy to a number of them through the pages of Scripture. No doubt there were many others too that do not garner a mention. As we have previously mentioned, he had been fed by God for many months at a time when food was scarce and he had no means to provide for himself. He saw a dead boy come back to life in his arms as he prayed to God. His life had been kept safe from Ahab and his hit men constantly for a period of three years. So, as Elijah steps up to the plate at Carmel he carries with him this great personal treasury of God’s faithfulness in both the big 131
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Untitled - St.Francis Magazine

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