In April, our prayer was for wisdom. I needed more time and energy to start a job search and still have time for Share the Savior, and didn't know how that was going to be possible. In June we told you how God provided wisdom to our board, as we made the difficult decision to scale back some of my ministry activities. Near the end of July, God provided again in a way totally unexpected.
July 24th, I was furloughed from my job. As you may know, to qualify for state unemployment, you are required to look for work. From the end of July until I returned to the same job September 14th, I had plenty of time to search for a job, with time left over for ministry. The search progressed well, though not ending in a new position, and will be easier to manage, even now that I'm back to work. But that's not all God did. When I returned to work, the situations that had contributed to my working extra hours (and being generally frustrated with my supervisors), had not gone away. What had started to change though was my heart's attitude toward those situations and people. God gets the complete credit for the remarkable transformation that has started in me. But wait...there's more!
- Our board had me limit my ministry responsibilities in June of this year, but in July there was an exciting ministry possibility presented to me that I went after. God gave our board the wisdom to confront me about thinking of adding more to my plate after we had decided to scale back activities. Then, just to make sure that I'd follow their wisdom, He took the opportunity away.
- As of our March 2008 Prayer Partner Newsletter, we had 70 subscribers. Our goal was 500 because the publishing costs would not increase until we passed that threshold. God has consistently added to that number, which now stands at 105.
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The new initiative, as yet unnamed, that I mentioned in my opening, is to pray for churches that are in the process of hiring a pastor of evangelism. This particular pastoral role is obviously important to a church, and not, based on what I know, an easy position to fill. A leader in the evangelism training field told me that churches needing a Pastor of Evangelism, and able to afford one, often have trouble finding people interested in filling the role.
Father, help Share the Savior launch this new ministry effectively! |
SPECIAL NOTE: In the prayer request above, we asked you to pray for the effective launch of a new ministry. Now we encourage you to pray about being one of the volunteers that will perform the ministry.
This would be separate from your role as one of our prayer partners. Only people working on this initiative will receive information about churches that we are praying for. If you'd like more information about this new ministry opportunity, please contact me. |