Insufficient for the Task

It is easy to get discouraged after a mission trip.  You see the extent of the need before you and feel hopeless to meet it.  I feel this way especially right now in regard to the special needs orphanage that we support.  The dates for hosting and Camp Friendship are getting close.  The SN orphanage needs more diapers as well as wipes and Qtips.  I think "Have we bitten off more than we can chew?"  "Why didn't we just stick with a simple hosting program as originally planned?"  "How will we ever fund all three projects?"

I am thankful for friends who remind me to put my focus back on Christ, not on the circumstances.  My God owns the cattle on a thousand hills and will provide if He wills.    There is a song we often sing at the Church at Brook Hills.  If any song were to ever become the theme song for Grace to Ukraine, this would have to be it.  The song is "By Faith" by Keith and Kristyn Getty.

"By faith the church was called to go in the power of the Spirit to the lost, to deliver captives and to preach good news in every corner of the earth."  I feel like I visited empty corners last week.  Corners of the earth in which there was no gospel presence.  No grace.  Corners of hopelessness and despair.  We may not be successful in penetrating these corners but we must not give up.  It is not my job to be successful; only to be faithful.

"We will stand as children of the promise.  We will fix our eyes on Him, our soul's reward.  Till the race is finished and the work is done, we'll walk by faith and not by sight."  And so I turn my eyes away from the despair I saw last week; the poverty; the cutting; the alcoholism; the foolishness; the darkness; the forgotten and I look to Christ, for He alone is my reward.

I saw a quote by John Piper earlier this week: "If you are sufficient for your task, it is too small."   Perhaps we have bitten off more than we can chew.  Perhaps we need God for the task before us.  Perhaps that is what I need to learn most of all.