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I want to tell you a story. The story of a girl who couldn't possibly be where she is now without you. A girl who felt like the Lord was calling her to Tyre- like he was opening doors she couldn't ignore-and it was her duty to step through them. She started with a year. It was an amount of time she could measure. She asked for help and people responded in ways she could never have expected. In no time at all she got the support she needed and began to pack her bags for an overseas move. At the time she only knew words like kifik and shukran. She had studied but she didn't have the faintest idea how to conjugate a verb. She had never held a clarinet let alone led an entire section practice. She had worked in VBS programs and taught Sunday School classes but never on a massive scale. Especially never on a massive scale with kids who spoke a different language. She transitioned into life overseas with help from friends and the prayers of supporters. She cried more than she would have like to admit and was overwhelmed almost all the time. Every time she thought maybe she had finally managed to let go of her need to be in control she would be rudely awakened to the fact that she was wrong. She worked hard and learned a lot. About the culture, about missions, about herself, about her God. Now I want to tell you the part of the story about her God. Because in her weakness he was and is nothing but strong. He opened door after door to a small little city on the Eastern Mediterranean that she had never given more than a passing thought to before. He put a weight in her heart for a misplaced people knowing the only way she would be able to minister to them would to make her a stranger in a strange land herself. He knew every ministry she would be involved in, every relationship she would form, and every ache her heart would feel and in his providence he prepared for them. He gave her a solid sending church and family who bent over backwards to supply for and pray for and encourage her. People who took time out of their days to teach their children to pray for her or to send her an encouraging word. People who cut dollars out of their budget so she wouldn't go without. Some even taking vacation days to come serve on teams or visit on their own. Her God knew she couldn't survive without any of you. He allowed for extra support to come in to pay for Arabic lessons. He not only provided for a need in doing this but sent her a teacher who was a friend and helper yet also a Gospel opportunity who was forced to sit in her home and drink her coffee and hear her talk every day. And now that girl who could only say a few simple phrases can carry a full, albeit stinted, conversation in Arabic. He knew that in a culture based on respect and hospitality she would need an 'in' into family homes. He knew her 'in' would be music. In the years leading up to this one he provided enough musical knowledge to a girl who knew nothing about band instruments that she would quickly be able to be leading sectional rehearsals. He gave her the honor of seeing kids who had nothing receive Jesus along with some simple instructions on arpeggios and dynamics and then grow from there in leaps and bounds. He allowed for her to grow alongside the kids she was teaching and discipling and visiting in their homes. He taught her the beauty of a meal eaten cross legged on the floor whether it be somewhere in refugee housing or in her own home. He provided her friends and relationships to challenge her and come alongside her and even just to sit down and give her advice on how to maintain her health. Some he sent for weeks, some for months, some to live in the room next door. To show her the ropes of team management or children's ministry till she got to a point that when she was instructed to run a VBS program in the Bekaa Valley for a week and a half for up to 150 kids she had come to know what she was doing. Not with out a lot of failure but they provided a lot of forgiveness. And oh, her God, how he provided forgiveness! Grace. He wanted her to learn. The depth and the goodness of his own grace and then the grace she must have for others. Because the work of her God and the stories she tells are nothing with out his grace. Because in his grace he has loved her even in her unloveliness. She had said a year, but her God said are you sure? God weaves stories that are stranger and better than we can ever imagine. He's the author of creation who knows the names of a thousand stars in their orbits yet has also deigned to know yours and mine. He has redeemed me. How could I not want to continue in the path he has set for me? This, my story, seems to have another chapter in Tyre, Lebanon. In everything he has been faithful to me. How could I not want to be faithful to him in this chapter of my life? Going into the coming year I hope to continue on in the ministries I am currently serving in. Things like the church music school and children's ministry and home visits. I can only imagine what the Lord has in store for another year on the ground here, but I know I want you by my side. Would you, my friend, prayerfully consider being part of this next chapter? Whether it be through prayer or financial support or your time. It would mean the world to me.
Much Love, Teenie
http://olympiabp.blogspot.com/2019/11/south-lebanon-mission.html
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