So my beautiful wife informs me at 6:35 this morning that she fudged up on some calculations. Her anxiety and angst in her face along with deep sorrow set the tone. She had agreed to a meeting with our directors in Davos at 7:00am Eastern Standard Time, which astounded me since she usually doesn't rise on weekends till about half past ten. Regardless of the lack of sleep, we had joy and expectations about this meeting.
Back up about 3 to 4 weeks ago Christina and I found ourselves completely strung out and in need of rest. When one is raising funds for ministry its a mountain/valley experience. We were in the bottom of that valley asking God whats going on? Christina and I have a clear directive and we don't waiver on our calling but we sure do struggle with this process called partner development. Our accountability coach encouraged us to seek God, refocus our efforts and just be still. So that's what we did.
I take walks with God. I grew up in the woods and find renewal and peace there, so I hiked the Indian Face. Its a westward facing rock at the top of the Delaware Water Gap, a divine area where you stand atop of the Appalachian trail and look down on the Delaware river which runs through from Pennsy to Jersey. In this setting my prayer was "God I wanna hear from you, talk!" My father in-law, with great wisdom, expressed the divine presence of God to me once and explained that should a sinful human enter God's presence their head would just explode. I'm not quite sure if the theology is perfect but the thought ran through my mind as God bellowed in my ear on the entire hike. Everything had so much meaning from the terrain of the trail to the exposed cliffs and highway below and even the red and white trail markers. It was so intense and so simple its cliche to say but the message was this, to stay on the trail.
Now back to present day, we've seen steady growth in our partner development and maturity in our faith, yet I find myself at another set back. See Switzerland's visa process is very complicated and to make maters more difficult, our school is small and doesn't have a large voice (yet). Our directors explained the complications and avenues that we can proceed in, and with great honesty and fidelity they expressed the bleak outlook with the current state of our Visa's. We expected some opposition with this transition but we were naive to the constant struggle that it would be.
Even though we had a serious talk it finished by being positive and quite hopeful. I thank God for Reto and Judy and the kids, I look forward to gleaning as much info on family, missions and life from them as I can.
I think we over analyze and change our minds a lot when faced with challenges. I mean why do we expect it to be easy? They killed Jesus right, I mean if we follow him this is our probable future, right? As followers of Christ we should recognize this early on, but in my faith this is constantly being reinforced.
Ok back to my story, so when we're down where do we go? God. After the skype meeting I sat on the deck pleading my anxieties with God. Gently he lead me to 2 Samuel 5:20 by stirring the pages of my Bible with the wind. This passage is a story of King David right after the elders agree with Judah and crown him King of Israel. The plot thickens and the Philistine's try and take advantage of the Israelites while the kingdom is in transition. They camp in the valley of Rephaim, the valley of the giants. The Philistines were perceived by the Hebrews as giants and we know of the infamous Philistine giant "Goliath". Now King David heads to the stronghold and seeks the council of the Lord.
Pause, Davos is a valley in the Swiss Alps and I definitely see giants there. Giants of visa's, finances and a unfamiliar culture. Meanwhile I'm dealing with the anxiety of this reality and taking refuge in my stronghold (prayer) and seeking God's council (his word).
So David asks if he should go up and face the Philistines, God says go I am with you, and they are victorious. Profound and Simple right? But David proclaims the area as Baal-Perazim saying "The LORD hath broken forth upon mine enemies before me, as the breach of waters."
Here is when God talked.
When I read, I usually read until something sticks to me, or I feel like I need to research something. Either a word or a place or the history of the that particular story. So with this prod from the Holy Ghost I looked into this phrase Baal-Perazim. Simply put it means: "Owner of Breakings Through", other translations of the scripture say “The LORD has broken through my enemies before me like a breaking flood.” or "Jehovah hath broken mine enemies before me, like the breach of waters."
David sees the mighty hand of God move and the power he compares it to is a flood of water over his giants. This word comes to me as I ponder the future and the difficulties involved with joining a ministry overseas. The loud n' clear, simple word I heard on my hike up the Indians Face and the word from second Samuel five encourages me to stay on the path 'cause my God is the God of breakthroughs!
All of this is to say that our God who comforts us, says nothing is bigger than him, nothing is to strong for him, or anything to uncertain for him. He tells me to go up to Davos and face the giants in the valley, because He is surely with me. My faith grows and the anxiety disappears. So the words Baal-Perazim are true. He is the God of Breakthrough and he will "Burst through my enemies like a raging flood!