It may have been an act of foolish pride or the custom of the day, but King Hezekiah exposed his royal treasures and military resources to a future enemy. It was part of a downward spiral of unfaithfulness to God accelerated by successive generations of poor leadership, which fractured the relationship between the kingdom of Judah and God.
God’s justice meant they would lose nationhood by going into exile, but out of His kindness, He would not abandon His plan for them, and by extension humankind.
God spoke tender words of consolation and encouragement to them in times of trouble, promising to fulfill His plans for them and to transform the past failure and disappointments into opportunities for future blessings.1 He says the same to us in challenging times.
Well before the Babylonian exile in about 598BCE God’s compassion limited the suffering of His people and promised restoration as foretold nearly 200 years prior.
The prediction of hard times ahead in Babylon was immediately followed by promises spoken with gentleness to soothe their broken spirits and wounded national pride. God was with them. It was His hand that would execute just and limited retribution. Furthermore, a mighty divine and gentle shepherd would come for everyone.2
God’s promises are not grandiose impossibilities, they are accurate expressions of His boundless power, that speak to us of His intentions and the scope of what humankind can experience.
The shadow of gloom cast by the pandemic over our activities during much of 2020 is fading. God is restoring service opportunities and fulfilling His promises to us since this past fall.
After a well-coordinated virtual teaching conference to Asia in November, partners in Zimbabwe are now taking initiative to recruit local expertise to save us time and money.
At the end of to 2020, loyal, and new donors gave to our teams to keep our mission running. These serve as reminders that God is tender hearted towards us, eager to restore us to full service. We are on God’s radar, and He is not ignoring our plight.3
During what many see as a downturn, we are facing new and challenging horizons:
- To use funds entrusted to us wisely when teams are not traveling.
- To provide online courses and virtual lessons to two universities in Cambodia.
- To coordinate professional teams in Canada and South Africa effectively so they can serve in Zimbabwe.
- To fund, construct, and equip a maternity hospital outside Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso.
- To provide a school health program and assist in improving services at a district hospital in Asamankese in Ghana.
- To assist a local team of medical volunteers, deliver health services to the underserved in rural Chimborazo, Ecuador.
These opportunities, and the resources at our disposal, renew our confidence that as God spoke tenderly to Israel, He likewise speaks to us, 4 and that He cares, trusts us, and wants to be the source of our fruitfulness in 2021.
We are on the cusp of experiencing God’s promises in new and exciting ways.
Join us in service opportunities in Cambodia, Burkina Faso (French is an advantage), and Ghana, or come alongside to prayerfully explore the possibility of serving in rural Ecuador (spoken Spanish is an advantage).
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1.Hosea 2:14-16
2. Isaiah 39 & 40
3. Isaiah 40:27
4. Hosea 14:8-9
All Scripture references are taken from the New International Version (NIV)
Feature image: photo by Dawid Zawiła on Unsplash
