“Cast your burden on the Lord, and he will sustain you; he will never permit the righteous to be moved” Psalm 55:22

Did you know that the Lord is aware that we as His children will have burdens? Some think that being a Christians means you never have a burden, but actually you will find yourself with more than the average person, and God wants to sustain you- He wants to carry your burdens.

I have felt the weight of the ministry, the weight of life and the future as a burden yet every step of the way I have found the Lord sustaining me.

Recently, I have moved out of the Mission House and into a small one room “apartment” behind the mission house. It doesn’t have a kitchen but it does have a bathroom and a shower, thankfully Freddy has told me that I can use his kitchen. I am glad though because moving out of the mission house means that Julia, the missionary from Ireland has moved back. If you remember her from my other posts you will remember that she left in a hurry due to be diagnosed with MS. When she got back to Ireland she found out that God had healed her!!!!! She no longer has MS, which is an un-curable disease. She is now back working with us and her mission OMS in Cuenca, Ecuador.

The English service has been going through a bit of a rough spot, we have been losing membership for a number of reasons, but I think that is part of the ministry sometimes. We must be faithful to do what we believe God calls us to do and be faithful to preach the Word no matter if that means to few or to many. I do think the service is much more organized than before, and we finally have some constancy that we didn’t, but it has been an experiment to attempt to bring Southern Baptists and Pentecostals to worship in the same place. Some have left since they have said they felt like they weren’t being fed, a constructive criticism that I have taken very seriously. Part of it probably is my fault, since I have found it very difficult to find the time to properly prepare the messages. Even still though God has promised to be with me in this all the way through.

There was a bit of a schism in some of the people that were serving from the English Service, where they decided not to serve anymore with us. The morning before it all began I woke up with the same verse that my friend, Erika Rene, had given me before she left Ecuador (she was a member of the team that came with me when I first came).

But now, thus says the LORD, who created you, O Jacob, and He who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; You are Mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; And through the rivers, they shall not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned, Nor shall the flame scorch you. For I am the LORD your God, The Holy One of Israel, your Savior; I gave Egypt for your ransom, Ethiopia and Seba in your place. Since you were precious in My sight, You have been honored, And I have loved you; Therefore I will give men for you, And people for your life. Fear not, for I am with you… Isiah 43:1-5a

When I woke up with that verse as the verse of the day on my cell phone I thought, hmmmm that’s interesting why is the Lord giving me the verse that Erika gave me. It all became so clear during the meeting that occurred later that day. In my blog posts I have always attempted to give you always all the positives of what happen here, but you may have noticed less and less mission updates. I have been going through a lot of negatives that I felt it wasn’t right to share, and I still won’t share all the details, just know that I have wanted to go back home many times in the last few months. Other than that there isn’t much new to report, other than that I have been making more of an effort to invite people that I meet who are Gringos to church, and have been seeing some of them come.

On another note, I have decided to accept a part time job selling advertisement for a website here called Gringo Tree. I had been praying if it was going to be OK to do so, then I read about how Paul had worked at making tents in order to help support himself and those whom were with him. The sales job allows me to make my own hours since I will be working for commission and won’t interfere with my ministry here. I am going to give it a two week trial to see if it really is worth it and if it is going to make me too busy to keep ministering.

One of the main reasons that I would like to have the part time job is to help prepare myself for the future, I would like to get married some day (Lord willing) and have a family (Lord willing) and in order to do that it is going to take some preparation to do so. I have also found myself desiring to do more ministry and unable to fund it at times, and I don’t like to ask. Perhaps God will provide more funds through volunteers, but if He doesn’t perhaps His provision is through working.

There are many plans floating around in my heart right now but in all of them I am seeking the counsel of the Lord, knowing that it’s His counsel that will stand.

Either way, I am casting my burdens on Him and right now my biggest burden is the fear of the future and how that future will work out. I trust though that the Lord will sustain.

If your worried about the future, cast your burden on the Lord. He can sustain you. I heard it said once, and it is very true, you may not know what the future holds but you can rest assured that it is in the hands of the One who holds the future.