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Jeff & Van Harding
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A Lesson From Joab Be strong, and let us show ourselves courageous for the sake of our people and for the cities of our God; and may the Lord do what is good in His sight. (1 Chronicles 19:13) This has been a very encouraging text for me during our current situation. Yes, the day and age are different. The situation is different but I personally believe there is a very practical, scriptural principle that naturally flows from this text. Joab found himself in a very difficult position. The sons of Ammon and also the Arameans were set to do battle with Joab and his army. The battle was set against Joab in the front and in the rear. And what was Joab’s response? He made the necessary provisions and went to war with them. Now Joab, being a man like anyone of us had no idea what would be the outcome of that day’s events. He tells his brother, Abshai, “Be strong, and let us show ourselves courageous...and may the Lord do what is good in His sight.” Herein lies what I believe to be a very good answer to the age old question of, “How do I bring the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man into harmony? Where do they meet?” And, while I do not even try to pretend to have a fast and easy answer to every question fashioned by man concerning this teaching, I do believe there can be some real understanding when it comes to it. The secret or unrevealed plans and decrees of God quite frankly are none of our business. They are a mystery to us until we see them carried out in real time and space. The farmer planting his crop, the fisherman lowering his net, the soldier at war, and the evangelist at work on the street have no idea or absolute certainty of what the outcome will be of their efforts. We must diligently undertake the tasks, which we know to be our responsibility all the while trusting our sovereign Lord knowing that He will do what seems best unto Him. (Deut. 29:29) And yet all the while knowing that even the strength and ability to carry out our responsibilities comes only from His divine enabling. (John 15:5 & Philippians 2:12-13) Joab got it right. Here we see correct theology at work in a very practical, God honoring way. May each of us, like Joab, have that confident, humble submission to our all powerful Lord and the outworking of His perfect plan while being diligent in the responsibilities, which we know to be ours. Many of you by now may be asking, “What have Jeff and Van along with their team members been up to in the month of January?” The answer to that question can basically be summed up in two words, WORK PERMITS! As many of you know, we have been praying that we could get missionary work permits in order to stay in the country full time. Through all of this the Lord has been so kind and gracious to us. Because it has taken longer to receive the work permits than we had originally planed I can say that there has been times of uncertainty. On Tuesday January, 12th I received a call from a man in Nairobi who has been helping us with our paper work for the permits. He called that morning and I was needed to come quickly and do some last minute things so that our applications would go through. So the team decided to put me on the next flight to Nairobi so that I could immediately attend to those needs. Things were going great, the flight left 15 minutes early (That type of thing very rarely happens here in Kenya) and I was in Nairobi by 11:30 a.m. I headed straight to the immigration office upon arrival. Again things were going well. But when I got there it all changed. There had been a fire alarm and all the people in the immigration office were standing outside. There were probably over 1,000 people just standing in the street. It turns out that an electrical generator had caught on fire. A lady standing outside told me this was the first time such a thing had ever happened. So basically nothing was accomplished on Tuesday. On Wednesday the whole team’s applications went before the approval board for receiving work permits. Part way into the process they had finished Brad & Ellie’s work permits and then there was a blackout which caused them to stop working for the rest of the day. Needless to say ours were never completed. On Thursday the Muslims started rioting in Nairobi because they felt that one of their religious leaders was being detained in Kenya unjustly. One of the many places they tried to cause trouble in was the immigration office. So things were not looking good for Van and I concerning our work permits. The committee which approves work permits only meets to do that on Wednesdays and we were told that on the 20th ours would be handled. Wednesday the 20th came and the committee decided to examine on that day various other classes of work permits but never handled any of the missionary applications. Van and I rejoiced that our team members had received their approval but we knew things weren’t looking too good for ours. Our temporary visas were to run out on Wednesday January 27th and if nothing happened we knew we would have to leave the country. At this point I want to be very open with you. We were hurting and were wondering what would happen during all this uncertainty. I told Van, “I’m scared, I’ve got a pregnant wife and I don’t even know which continent or hemisphere we’ll be living on in a few short days!” Our theology was being put to the test. I had done everything I could to be responsible in getting those permits. If there was a fee, we paid it; if there was a paper, we signed it; if someone needed us, we came without delay. There was nothing more for us to do or could do. We prayed and asked the Lord to do what seemed best in His sight, whatever that may be. We asked the Lord to give us something that would make His direction clear to us even though He doesn’t owe us that in the slightest. Good news! On Monday the 25th just two days before our visas expired, our case was taken to the top guy in immigration. He gave us a 3 month extension on our visa so there would be time for the applications to be processed! We found out that this is very, very rare to receive such an extension! “Be strong, and let us show ourselves courageous...and may the Lord do what is good in His sight.” |
