JUNE 2021

Dear Mission Dispatch friends,

I remember a young couple at the large conference center where I worked. They loved charting out their personal five-year plan and put great forethought into making the future manageable. They had an excitement about what might lie ahead and how they might prepare for the years before them. Around the same time my wife Linda and I charted our ministry goals on a timeline. During subsequent years we’d refer to that chart and realize the events as they unfolded were much, much different than what we’d designed.

Interesting, isn’t it, how we plan our ways and they seem right and reasonable, logical too. Then something happens when our strategy and timing don’t work out so well, and sometimes it all seems to fall apart. Could it be God’s intervention?

Oftentimes the guidance of God is mysteriously baffling. At the same time—after we catch our breath, we affirm again we want only to be in His will no matter the path or how steep the climb. I've called it following the breadcrumbs. But it’s so much more than that. We ultimately exult in being chosen to walk the paths of His choice.

Yesterday I read 4 reports from our Mission Dispatch people serving the King. The last year brought surprises and challenges for them all, and for one grave distress. For that matter, some of you describe a pressure that is not lessening. I marvel at your tenacity, staying with what you know to be the leading of God. This statement is from one of our African coworkers yesterday:

"We thank God for all these challenges. They increase our worship, love for God's Great Commission.”

People may look at us and say we’re crazy because there’s something in us that simply must be about our Father’s business. When we know our calling, we can do nothing else, nothing less.

Thank you for faithfully serving your Master because you know that's what you must be about. I hope you take satisfaction in knowing your King is in it all.

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