for a three hour tour

Growing up in the 80’s, I watched Gilligan’s Island. The theme song is in my head this morning “for a three hour tour, a three hour tour” and “they’re here for a long, long time. They’ll have to make the best of things, it’s an uphill climb.”

Jeremy and I are literally a three hour flight away from Windhoek, Namibia. We have been in Africa for over three months waiting for our team members to be cleared to come and now waiting for visas to be approved. We have given up almost everything to be here: home, cars, pets, most of our belongings, friends, and family. We have some comforts of home with us but not what we hold most dear. We are making the best of things.

We have 5 more weeks of waiting. We can only cling to God and know He will come through with His plan. A friend from South Carolina shared a story from the recent flooding of an older lady clinging to a cross at a church in raging waters for 5 hours while waiting for her rescue. What a testimony she has of holding on to the Lord now. It is hard to believe that God would bring us this far and teach us so much just to send us home on November 26th. We have to hold on that His plan for us is Tsumkwe, Namibia. I will cry for a long time if we have to come home. I will be happy to be back home with the people we love dearly, but broken hearted that 3 years of preparing was for what?

This morning I feel like Abraham taking Isaac up to the mountain to sacrifice him. The son Abraham waited 25 years for was now to be sacrificed. The hike up the mountain, Abraham building an altar, arranging the wood, binding Isaac, laying him on the altar, and having knife in hand to slay his only son. I can’t imagine the internal turmoil Abraham experienced, yet he was willing to obey. We haven’t been waiting 25 years to go to Namibia, we have been though fighting internally to stay positive and we are learning to be patient and lean on the Lord more each day. I fight now not to lose heart. I am not going to turn from God as the Israelites did when Moses left them at the base of the Mount Sinai for only 40 days. The Israelites did not understand why Moses had been delayed and turned to worship a golden calf. We don’t understand the 3 delays now. God will always be my Lord and Savoir. I will not allow Satan to crush me and stop me from serving. I fight not to lose heart. I am willing to obey and follow God’s will no matter what.

This morning I have to cling to the Lord. I want to ask questions like why another delay?

Help me give You all of me today.

What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ  and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. 

Philippians 3:8-9

 Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

1 Corinthians 15:58

Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Galatians 6:9