Challenges

Challenges. They are a part of each day we live. Petite, gargantuan or precisely medium; whatever the enormity or lack thereof we must decide our means to victory. And just because I work as a missionary in a foreign culture doesn’t mean my challenges are always of the gargantuan size, nor does it mean that I am immune to them. I don’t have some kind of über strength due to choosing to live thousands of miles from my comfort zone. In fact, I find it to be the challenges of petite proportion that can take me down if not managed effectively! (And often, when stateside, I find the challenges of having to adapt to my home culture equally as daunting.)

But, regardless of where I am in the world or the size of the obstacle, my personal path to becoming the victor is God’s Word, and I choose it for its foundational Truth. Proverbs, Romans, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Job and Psalms are my usual favorites. The Biblical yield on wisdom is endless, for God Himself the author of wisdom, is forever and ever omniscient, Amen. 

In recent days I’ve gleaned from II Peter. The exerpt from Peter’s letter to the churches in Turkey is a familiar one to me for I’ve eaten of it over and over in my fifty years of daily challenges. Each of the countless meditations brings fresh insight and strength to help in my time of need--(“Let us come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” Hebrews 4:16 ) In His first sentences Peter writes, “By His divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know Him, the one who called us to Himself by means of His marvelous glory and excellence. And because of His glory and excellence, He has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share His divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires.”  And this is where I gathered my first step toward sure victory. So many people have asked in history, “Why do bad things happen if God is good?” I’ll return this question with, from where does the world’s corruption come? (And I read “corruption” as decay, disease, death, pain, hurt, despair, danger.) Corruption, and thereby challenges, come from the breaking down of God’s intended perfection--a breakdown caused by human desires, beginning with Eve, then Adam and daily thereafter by all of us who came after!

Peter continues, “In view of all this, make every effort to respond to God’s promises. Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love for everyone. The more you grow like this, the more productive and useful you will be in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But those who fail to develop in this way are shortsighted or blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their old sins.”

“Productive and useful you will be in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Why know what I know if I’m not going to effectively use it for life? Who wants to go through life being unproductive and useless against the challenges that come? If God has given me everything I need for living, then His truth and promises give me what I need to overcome whatever rises against me.

This week brought some out-of-the-ordinary challenges. (Ordinary being of a relational or cultural nature.) The two I showcase here have nothing to do with relating with others or misunderstanding culture!

On Wednesday Geoff was away at an early morning meeting, so I took his place in sharing God’s word with the kids at the breakfast table. After reading and discussing II Peter I asked what kind of day they were going to have. Sam and Junior both answered, “Good.” And I went on to comment that when we decide before the day begins that the day will be GOOD, we are already deciding that no matter what circumstances come, we will still rank our day as good. I then added this strange, random comment, “Even if there is a fire!” I thought to myself, “Why did I say that? Will there be a fire at Sam’s school or Junior’s work?” But, I said no more and we all left the table to start our day. (By the way, Junior is a young man who grew up in David Family and stays with us whenever he is at New Hope.)

I was in the back room preparing to photocopy some things for school when I heard the kids screaming. At first I thought they were playing, but then I heard, “Mom! Turn it off! Turn it off! Turn everything off!” As I quickly made my way down the hallway I flipped switches and unplugged electronics. Rounding the corner to the front of the house I saw huge billows of smoke near the storage room where our solar equipment is kept and I feared the worst--our whole system burned. As I was deciding my course of action I realized the fire was actually only on the government electrical box/service breaker on the outside wall of the storage room. The government power, “Umeme” as we call it, is known for power surges, (and frequent outages) but we are still not sure what caused the box to explode and produce flames and shooting sparks which destroyed the connecting cables. (Fortunately, none of it reached the inside of our store where the solar set up is housed!) As we were dodging the shooting sparks and fighting the fire the neighbor hollered, “Whatever it is you’re doing over there is making my lights flicker!” We immediately called our construction department and reported that the government power to the main site should be turned off. Later that night they came and completely disconnected us so that the rest of New Hope could have power. 

Our fried electrical box. Kinda looks like an angry guy with quite a "fro".

This is the only damage the fire did on the inside of the storage room. 

We were the talk of the day. “Uncle Geoff’s house was on fire!” “Did you see him overspeeding (Ugandan English for speeding) in his car?” (I had called him out of his breakfast meeting to come help.) But, for the most part, the day went on as usual: work, school, house workers helping around the house, meetings, visits, David Family devotions and recalling how blessed we are that the fire was out so quickly with minimal damage. Truthfully, however, even if it had been a bigger disaster our take on the day still would have been “good”, because God is Good and has saved our souls. That is the ultimate, guiding truth. Whether or not I have lots of things, am comfortable, or without much trouble, OR have few things, am uncomfortable and undergoing great opposition, or any combination of the above, God Himself is our quintessential security, regardless of circumstances.

If you will stay with me here and back up one calendar day previous to the fire I will share with you another of the “challenges” we experienced this week on our little piece of sod here at New Hope. After lunch Geoff was walking back to the office with Toby on the stretch of path between our house and the clinic. Geoff stepped over something that caught his eye. On turning around he saw a 2 1/2 foot long cobra standing up in the strike position. He kept his eye on it and began to shout while locating big sticks. Uncle Francis heard him from his house and came to help and then Uncle Patrick also followed. Between all their strikes the snake was conquered. A good adrenalin flow is part of the making of a “good” day, don’t you think? 

Toby and Geoff investigate their kill.

The ladies had to come and make sure it was REALLY dead!

Our cobra in its natural habitat.

The flattened head. Geoff said the entire length of yellow
 was what the snake fanned out in striking position.

Yep, it was a good day for said snake to die!

One thing I carry with me through these particular, “out of my control” potential obstacles to my peace is that God asks me to be thankful in all circumstances. This is where my knowledge of His word needs to be put to use. If I KNOW His word tells me to be thankful and yet I choose to complain, I will be shortsighted and blind, unproductive and useless. God’s directives to be thankful are found throughout His word and also tell me to NOT complain to others, but to talk with Him rather than flapping my jaw in another’s hearing. II Thessalonians 5 instructs, “Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.” In Psalm 73, the writer Asaph says, “I get nothing but trouble all day long; every morning brings me pain. But if I had really spoken this way to others I would have been a traitor to your people. . . then I went into your sanctuary God, and I understood. . .” In Isaiah 43 God encourages talking with Him, “Let us review the situation together and you can state your case to prove your innocence.” I repeat here the reference from Hebrews four I mentioned earlier, but with the previous verse also, “We do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but Jesus Christ was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. So, let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God where we receive His mercy and find grace to help us in time of need.” Christ was tempted to complain, to be unthankful, among other things, but instead chose to always approach Father God for help. Let me also do this everyday with every challenge, but even more so when out of the ordinary stressors come.

And to leave you with a humorous gem, I share something from our homeschool time together. (By the way, that is why you haven’t heard from me in awhile!!!! Since beginning to teach the kids again, I have not had time to write a blog. Today is Ugandan Independence Day and a holiday, so I’ve enjoyed time to write!) In checking the kids' work, I ran across the following and laughed out loud as I was reviewing Toby’s answers to his vocabulary questions. “Which of the following might be considered an exploit?” He had four answers to consider and chose the following, “(a)A climb up Mount Everest, (b)a daring rescue attempt, and (c)a trip into the city.”  Given where we live and the traffic and crazy drivers we encounter I accepted his choice of (c).