Fight For Your Life
“What do you think He has been teaching you this past year?” My friend and I were sitting together, discussing all the things that have happened in 2019-2020: change in team vision and location, nationwide revolution, being in a new culture, economic collapse, learning a new language, political resignations, making new friends, protests, riots, spike in prices, Covid, explosion…the list goes on. I paused and thought about what she asked me. What has the Father been teaching me? What have I learned? Or am I just in survival-mode right now? It didn’t take much time for me to come up with an answer. The Father has been teaching me a lot of things, but He has very adamantly been bringing up something in particular over and over again: I must learn to fight.
I received news a little while ago about some good friends of mine who were also global workers in the Middle East. They have now left the field, the husband and wife have separated, and they have fallen away from the faith. These were some of the most loving, Father-exalting people I had ever met. I’m sure there are a lot of reasons this happened, and there have been other situations like this. Two other families I know have done similar things in the past year. I look at these people who seemingly loved the Father much more than myself, and I wonder what stops me from becoming them. I don’t mean to oversimplify a situation I do not and cannot fully comprehend, but this does not happen overnight. It is a slippery slope, one compromise after another, and before you know it, you’ve abandoned it all, denying the life found in Him.
This has been an incredibly difficult year, much more than I can explain on these pages. It has been a year of fire and trial, and I cannot say the thought of giving up has never crossed my mind. Yet, here I am, and I must learn to fight with everything in me, reliant on Him for strength, and hold fast to His promises. Just as Jacob wrestled with Him, He is showing me the importance of holding on to Him in this battle and never letting go. My very life depends on it.
Fight For Your Heart
It has been my heart and desire to open an English language center here since before I even arrived. I believe it’s an amazing tool to build relationships in the community and provide a service so many people of various backgrounds are looking for. Teaching is also a gift I believe the Father has given me. I began planning an English center early on. However, we ended up moving and changing our partnering fellowship. I didn’t let that stop me. In this new location, I started, yet again, to plan the English center. While I have big dreams and visions for the center, I knew it was something that would have to start off very slowly, mainly because my focus right now is still learning Arabic. So, I waited patiently, and after some time, with the permission of my team leaders, I started preparing the curriculum to have a soft launch this fall. And then Covid happened, and I was forced to postpone the opening. I can’t say I wasn’t disappointed. My second attempt had failed. Yet, in light of the idea of fighting, I continue on, using this time to perfect and tweak the curriculum, create better workbooks for the students, and come up with detailed lesson plans that anyone can follow. For now, the new launch date is this January, starting with only one class. It isn’t what I had planned, but this is something I’m very passionate about. It is my heart to reach people here by showing them love and kindness through deep relationships. So, I am fighting for this center. I am fighting for my heart.