When It Rains It Pours:
There are times in the lives of each of us, when it seems like everything comes tumbling down all at once. When one trial comes, it is tuff enough, but when it seems like it is one trail after another, we can end up feeling overwhelmed, discouraged, and even like giving up. It is in these times though that we can learn our greatest lessons and God can do some of His greatest work in our lives. The past few months we have been facing a situation like this with several trials all at the same time. The first thing that happened was an accident in our car. Thankfully no one was seriously hurt but it took over a month to get the car from the police station to begin the process of getting it fixed. Every time we would go they would give us another excuse until finally our insurance company went with the chief of the police station and they released the car to us. The whole time we were begin charged per day, and in total we had to pay about $150 to get the car out. One of the most difficult parts of the accident was that my wife, Beth had to deal with most of it because I was in another city because of the second trial we were facing. Around the end of October I started having problems with my right eye and soon realized that I had a torn and detached retina. With a torn retina you should have surgery within a few days but because we weren’t sure what it was, almost a month had already passed. Because of the urgency, we schedule the surgery immediately, but I had to travel to the city of Santa Cruz because there were no doctors available in our city. Praise the Lord everything went well but because they had to inject a gas bubble in my eye I could not travel back to our city, because of the high altitude, for four weeks. I also had to be face down, twenty four hours a day for the entire time. Thankfully Beth was able to be there with me, but traveled back to Cochabamba several times to check on the car situation and the kids. In all this, and also dealing with things going on in the ministry, I can say that we truly felt overwhelmed, but at the same time knew that the Lord was trying to accomplish something special in our lives. Although it was a difficult time, I have been able to see the Lord’s hand in it all and in our lives. Here are just a few of the things that I learned.
1. The love of Christ from others
It was truly amazing to see how many people were praying for us, calling to check on us and willing to help in any way we needed. This was seen probably most of all with my wife. She had to try and take care of me, fly back and forth to our city to deal with the police, take care of the kids and all of her normal responsibilities. I am so thankful for her and could not have done it without her.
2. What true faith and submission is.
We all say we trust God but I learned that true faith is when all you can do is fall before Him and put your whole life and being in His hands to do what He pleases.
3. How to be thankful even in our trails.
It is so easy to complain or be discouraged, but when we truly thank Him, even if the results are not what we hope, then we can truly have the peace of God.
Prayer Requests:
1. Pray for our car situation because the insurance still has not started fixing it.
2. Pray for me and my eye as it heals that I can recovery all of my vision.
3. Pray for the ministry here as Satan is constantly attacking and trying to hinder.
4. Pray for our plans for this coming year as we seek to reach many for His glory.