Once again, Bay and I are in the Philippines ?? serving at a variety of venues: Sunday church services, leadership training conferences, evangelistic outreach events, university evangelical ministry, a women’s conference (in which we are partnering with Compassion International), and connection with government officials for a possible large future crusade.
This trip, we brought friends, who pastor a church in Greenfield, IN. What a blessing to have them share responsibilities with us…
…and, what a gift to experience what Paul expressed so well:
It is right for me to feel this way about you (full of thanksgiving)…for you are all partakers with me of grace in the defense and confirmation of the gospel.
Partakers, by definition, are companions who help achieve more together than either could “doing the work” alone.
We certainly saw this in action this week (Theo and Randy left us this afternoon to head back to Indiana, and we will miss partnering with them).
At the leadership conferences, we zeroed in on the biblical purposes and character of those who are called by God to serve Him among His people.
One of the leaders assigned to me was Samuel – one of the greatest prophets Israel has known!
At different times of my life, certain aspects of Scripture hit me in diverse ways depending on the current season in which I find myself.
So as I reviewed Samuel’s story, I was taken back to a quiet time where God spoke to me years ago.
Steph, Adam, and Mandy were quite young.
Bay and I were waiting on raising the support we needed to head to Africa.
Our home had sold.
All our earthly possessions, except for Bay’s grandmother’s piano and his saddle, were safely ensconced on board the ship heading to Kenya. ??
We were staying with my brother-in-law and sister-in-law as we looked expectantly toward our future in Africa.
This particular morning, the words from a letter that had arrived in the mail from my parents, played like a recording over and over in my brain.
“Why would you take your children so far away to a primitive country where there is so much disease, potential danger, and lack of amenities? What about the things you can’t give them there that are prevalent here in the US? How are you going to feel if they want ice cream and you can’t get them something as simple as ice cream?”
- Samuel’s mother, as we know, was Hannah.
- Hannah was one of two wives to Elkanah.
- While his first wife bore him several children, Hannah was barren and it grieved her heart.
- When the family went to Shiloh to the temple to sacrifice, as was their custom, Hannah went into the quiet of the temple in the early morning to pray.
- Her desperate tears; her crying aloud to the Lord, caused Eli the priest to think she was drunk.
- As he approached her to rebuke her, he listened to her petition, and prophesied that, indeed, she would have a son before the next year.
- She did.
- Her declaration to the Lord upon Samuel’s birth proclaimed that she would “give her son back to the Lord” once he was weaned. (I can’t imagine!)
