Looking Forward to the Future

For awhile, it felt very unstable around here. Since 2007, the number of volunteer groups coming to Mexico has been on the decline. One word has stood out the most to the groups that used to come. That word is "Liability." The truth is, if a church organizes a trip to Mexico and something happens, somebody is going to be liable. Pastors, elders, deacons, church leadership, and parents are having a hard time letting there congregation or children participate in missions where the risk is so great and liability stands in the way.

I'm not going to go in to the specifics or whether I think this is right or wrong, but I wanted to say that because we haven't posted a blog entry for a year. The reason we haven't written anything or celebrated ministry the way we should have is because when you write a blog, you want to describe how well ministry is going. You want to say you are supporting something that is succeeded. You want to write that God is good and everything is grand. Truth is, Julie and I were swimming in a sea of uncertainty and inevitable failure. That sounds crazy, and in hindsight isn't really true, but right or wrong that's how we felt.

News hit last April that the ministry was going to have to lay off five missionaries. My initial thought was we were on the way out because I am the newest hire and the youngest missionary here. I contacted several people about jobs that may be open and prayed for internal peace. April and May were tough. We waited and prayed. It was hard to see something that we had given ourselves so completely to reveal the first real tangible signs of failure and closure. Casas por Cristo has been used by God to do so much in the communities that we build in. To see such a beautiful thing in jeopardy of going out of business is a tough pill to swallow and causes one to ask "God, why?"

The instability that we found ourselves in was enough to blind us to the good that was happening. We were still building. In fact, we still led twenty builds in 2011. That's twenty families whose lives were changed and hearts opened to the gospel message. We saw several families put their faith in Jesus. It is frustrating that the excitement of that passed us by because we were to busy looking at the raging waves of the sea rather than focusing on the beauty of Jesus.

It just so happens that we weren't laid off. We had to say goodbye to five friends, but God kept us here. It just so happens that we ended the year financially stable as a ministry. It also just so happens that we planted our ministry in Guatemala and already have 20 houses scheduled there for 2012. The question is, why do we doubt God and despair when failure seems inevitable. We need to remember this ministry is God's and it is in His hands. Success or fail, it's God's.

After an unstable 2011, we feel that our feet are planted firmly on the ground for 2012. These Guatemala registrations can't help but make us feel like we have a good foot hold. God was good in 2011 even though it didn't seem like it most of the time. Like David in that Psalms, we look back and see God's goodness and know that it will be there for the future.