Steadfast Amidst Uncertainty

Luke and Jill, Southern Asia

Mentoring a pastor

The month when an unknown virus was wreaking havoc globally, literally bringing the entire world to a halt, I became the Interim Director of a country in South Asia. I never anticipated what challenges we would face as a team in that season. Those with small children or compromised immune systems left for their home countries, some struggled with lack of resources and others were forced to leave amidst allegations of proselytization. Personally, my family was worried about our son who was in a boarding school in another country. It was in the middle of all this intensity that we then received an email asking us to consider serving as the field director of another country.

God miraculously made a way for us to relocate to the new country even when things in Asia were still very closed and difficult. Confident that God was leading us in His Goodness, we left with whatever we could bring along to the new field of service. But when we arrived, we encountered reverse culture shock, with a vastly different language and our adjustment was greatly affected by pandemic realities.

Before Covid it almost seemed like we could be in control of our lives. But the pandemic caused it to hit home for many of us that we would never know what tomorrow would bring. So how can we be steadfast when life is so uncertain? We are learning to faithfully do God’s work and accept whatever comes our way. We continue to move forward in faith, no matter what happens, even if our new normal looks quite different from what we thought it would. Now more than ever, success cannot be measured by how busy we are or how much we achieve, but only in doing whatever is in line with God’s plan for us.

He invites us to put our trust solely in Him and not take our lives for granted. Now maybe we can see more clearly that it is only by God’s mercy that we are sustained. May we say with Habakkuk that even when every system of support fails, “yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Saviour.” (Habakkuk 3:18)

“A gift God is giving us as we learn to live in this new normal is coming back to the simple truth that He as God of Mission is in control.”