On the Road
Dear Praying friends,
Road trips are often as adventurous as they are relaxing. But they may become instantly a stressor that makes us wonder why we ever were so crazy as to leave the comfort of home. It is a little hard to run out of gas these days when your car tells you how many miles are left in the tank. But I remember when we first crossed the US visiting churches in our 1974 Peugeot diesel. More than once I wondered if the truck stop I passed was the last one for the next 200 miles. Or now when the traffic all of a sudden stops, I can look at my GPS and know where the stopping point is and what might be the best alternative route. In our travels from church to church through the years, we have had the car engine seize, a transmission stop, tires blow, and a head-gasket fail. That was all before I could talk to my phone and have it tell me where the nearest help point was and what my options were.
But life doesn’t have a GPS like the one on my phone. Our ministry “road trip” continues to be an adventure, that is rarely relaxing. These days our stress points are not so much around a vehicle break down. But we do wonder if we will get to the next point on the journey because of being “tired” and “running out of fuel”. We don’t have the energy we once had to keep up the pace, and this month the needle on our support tank has officially hit “E”, which means that further reduction in salary is necessary.
Debbie has been in Congo for another ten days of training with the “families for life” curriculum. About two months ago she was in Malawi. Her International travel is less now.
But the risks are greater now that her body is immune-compromised. Being on the edge of an ebola area in Congo provided some additional praying and planning to move the workshop further from the affected area. One pastor who came was deeply impacted and said, “When we see the example of the story characters in the manual, it showed us what we were not able to do in the past. But now following God’s Word as men and women, all worthy before God, (we realize) no one should discriminate. I ask forgiveness (looks at wife and puts hand on shoulder). There are things we should do but we don’t. Now is a good opportunity to strengthen our home.”
The curriculum continues to be blessed of God in impacting families and communities in multiple countries where it has been introduced. Here is one of the co-creators of the curriculum, Ciru. She served as a research assistant years ago when Karl founded the Institute for the Study of African Realities. Our road trip has included many wonderful people doing incredible things.
Debbie is returning now but goes immediately to Covenant college to teach for a month. World Relief is no longer blessing this labor so she does it on her vacation time. Meanwhile Karl heads to Manila this week for the next several courses for the third cohort in Peace Studies. He will spend a good block of time planning with school administration about the details needed to turn over the program to a new—yet to be found—director in the next six to nine months. By God’s grace we hope to see several more graduate from the program this year, and start a fourth cohort. The work of gathering a guidance committee to move the program forward has finally gained momentum, and there are a growing number of faculty from different schools and countries who help make the program go.
Our International house ministry has had to drop back to just providing a nice room for international scholars since we have not had the energy or time to invest in lives. But God has sent a new Reformed University Fellowship pastor with a focus in International students to come along side of us, so we are thankful for God’s accompanying mercy. He knows our journey. He knows the condition of our “tires” and need for ministry support fuel. If you would simply pray and give thanks with us for the God who knows our every need and goes before and behind us in our journey, then you will see with us the joy of the journey. At the end of a long and hot journey, the cool of the evening does come. God walked with Adam and Eve in the garden in the cool of the day. And now as the intensity of our labors reaches the evening of our lives, He still meets His garden walkers.
With thanks and confidence,
Karl and Debbie
Give thanks for God’s continued physical strength to serve
Give thanks for God’s blessing on the Peace Studies participants as they engage in unbelievable challenges in their countries and organizations.
Give Thanks for God’s using the Families for Life curriculum and embedding it into so many programs across World Relief’s ministries.
Pray for adequate physical strength and financial resources to finish out this year. We hope that both strength and resources will last until we are 70—and beyond the journey will go on but changed.
Pray for creative engagement in the lives of our International House residents while their lives are so busy and ours are as well.