| Easier said than done. I know.
I've had those ugly cry break downs like everyone else. Its a constant battle in trust, sometimes shouting, sometimes just whispering to my soul, saying, "Take heart." Because to turn around and tell someone facing starvation, homelessness, and war to take heart, you yourself have to really believe its enough. You have to really believe that God keeps his promises and that he can and will overcome. "But now we see through a glass dimly," says Scripture. We are not standing at the peak looking down at life and the world, able to understand why everything is happening- to understand the intent and purpose in God's will. We see only dim glimpses as humans. But, oh the grace in that dim sight, the brief glimpses of the goodness of our God! The church doors are open nearly every day the week in order to comply with many of the government regulation as far as prevention with the virus, which is, in and of itself, exhausting. Yet, no matter how tired we may be, every time the doors have opened the church and the centers have been full. Every time people have asked we have been able to feed them, thanks to the generosity of the body Christ around the world on their behalf. It has been an honor and a privilege to execute your love for the brethren here. We gather in prayer with a desperation and an empathy that we didn't have before. Each one of these in itself is an undeserved fragment of that glass that the Lord has, by his grace, allowed us to see in the land of the living. Put together they are a beautiful mosaic, reflecting shafts of mercy's light into the darkness where we find ourselves in right now. People here- hungry, tired, scared people- pray for you in America. They pray for issues they might not truly understand, but they pray for peace and safety. They pray for the President, that the Lord would work in and through him to protect you. They pray for Brazil and those affected by the virus. They pray for the persecution in Africa. There is no part of the globe untouched by concerned prayer. Then they end it all by thanking the Lord for his grace and provision in their own lives. Its from these very people that I have learned some of what of taking heart can look like. I think of the way that the Lord has brought each of us from all over the world for such a time as this- each with a different purpose. Each of us are so different and yet there is so much beauty in that. Often, on the weekends we will sit together, around the table, over a lunch we have prepared together or on the roof as the sun sets. We talk about our weeks and our lives and we tell stories and despite everything- despite the fear and the desperation and the exhaustion- there is so much joy. And that, that odd-defying joy right there, is one of the most beautiful glimpses of grace that I have ever had the privilege to witness. We labor on. We hand out food portions and we open centers and we offer to wipe others tears when they have their breakdowns. It is strangely mundane in the face of so much chaos. Each week I still prepare and practice Bible lessons and kids songs in Arabic to give the children that come five nights a week. There is a battle waging- here and all over the world- and it makes me wonder how I can possibly fight against it. I wonder how the sometimes mundane or repetitive things I do will make a difference. I wonder how hearing the story of David and Goliath or singing "Our God is a Great Big God" for the hundredth time will really make a lasting impact for a child who just wants to know if they're going to eat that day But then in the back of my mind there is a song, a simple one that I learned probably when I was just old enough to talk. I have no conscious memory of learning it, but it has always been there. It had to have been taught to me by someone. Its chorus goes, "Don't be afraid, don't be afraid! For the battle is not yours but its Gods…" Its been twenty years since I heard that song for the first time- its not even really a very pretty song- and yet its familiar promises spur me on, they comfort me. I suppose its the rousing, VBS version of "Take heart, I have overcome the world-" a truth both universal and reviving no matter how it is said.
All of this, longwinded and heavy as it may be, to say that we here covet your prayers. We have no power aside from the Savior who has already overcome, who has already won the battle and so we have taken to our knees for the sake of this nation. We'd love for you to join us.
Love and miss you all,
Teenie 💛 | 
