Praises, Ponderings and Prayer Services

Praises, Ponderings
Thank you, thank you, thank you for all of your prayers! We were able to get some of the rocks up out of the hole but we still have not yet found water. Nevertheless, we are most grateful for your prayers on our behalf and we are praising God for the success that we had today.

We spent six hours digging up some of the rocks that we found at the bottom of our borehole. We tried all of our tools in different sequences, making minimal progress with each change. We tried widening the hole by combining our two holes but that was too time consuming with very little return. The clay is just too hard and the tools had a tendency to work their way toward one hole or the other.

Finally, at about 3:30pm, we were able to bring up the rocks in question. What did we find when we finally removed the rock? Yep, you guessed it: more rocks. It seems that we are on top of a layer of granite stones. The stones are of various shapes and sizes: softball, dinner plate, bowling ball, etc. We believe that God honored our prayers - and yours - by allowing us to remove the stones that we did.

So at the end of the day, knowing that we have one more day of drilling left, our mood remains very upbeat. We are disappointed that we did not hit water today but we are not discouraged. We were hopeful that we only had one rock to remove but there are still more waiting in the hole. We are confident that God will be with us and that we will hit water tomorrow.

Too often when we do not get the answer from God that we want, we tend to doubt God's faithfulness. God must not be listening, we think, or even that maybe we have done something to displease God and as a result, God chooses not to answer our prayers. Because our timeline is not the same as God's we often mistake not receiving an immediate response from God as some sort of rebuke.

The Old Testament book of Job tells the story of a righteous man whom God allows to be put to the test. Job committed no sin or any known offense to God, though Job's "friends" and wife think that what he is suffering is a result of some unknown sin. To be sure, Job does not understand why God has chosen him to endure these trials. In fact, Job is even bold enough to question God. If you and I were in the same situation I am sure that we would question God as well. In Job 38 - 41, we read God's response to Job:

Where were you when I laid the earth's foundation? Tell me if you understand. Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know! Who stretched a measuring line across it? On what were its footing set or who laid its cornerstone - while the morning stars sang together and the angels shouted for joy? (38:4-7)

In reply, Job says:

I know that you can do all things; no plan of yours can be thwarted...surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know. (42:2-3)

Now we may never know why we didn't hit water today. In fact, we may not even hit it tomorrow. But we have the confidence of knowing that God is faithful and that his plan is far greater and gives himself more glory than we ever could on our own. Whether in this case or some other storm of life we must trust in God's faithfulness and his unfailing love. That doesn't mean that we cannot question God. God can handle our questions. Questioning because we don't understand is considerably different than questioning out of defiance and rebellion. But we must never fall into the trap of thinking that our plan is better than the plan that God has. It never is and because we know that God's plan is the best plan we will be able to sing praises to his name tomorrow even if we don't hit water or lift up another stone. God has more going on as a result of these last 10 days than we can ever know or imagine.

Prayer Services
Deanna and Kim have also been a part of our team and today they were able to conduct a Bible study for women. They led the 50 or so women in attendance in a craft to male bracelets symbolizing the fruits of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Then Kim shared the story of Jonah with the women and gave her testimony of how she and her husband Kemp ended up in Africa. By all accounts it was a moving service.

At the conclusion of the service, women who wanted to be prayed for were invited to come down and have Kim and Deanna pray over them. Probably about 20 - 25 women took advantage of the opportunity. One-by-one, Kim and Deanna listened to the prayer concerns that each woman had and then diligently prayed for each and every one of them. Many of the women asked for prayer about their marriages, some health concerns and some for victory over evil spirits. Yes, evil spirits are quite rampant here in Malawi, and in some cases some so-called "Christians" still engage in some form of spirit worship.

By the time the last woman had been prayed for, Kim and Deanna were spent, but very fulfilled. They had been used by God to share a word directly to many of these women. They had made themselves available to be used by the Holy Spirit and he used them to speak the truth and to be salt and light to these women. They honored God by being obedient and he blessed them by using them for his glory.

And really, when it comes right down to it, isn't that all he wants from any of us?

Soli Deo gloria,
Michael