A Healthy Dose of Discouragement?

Is there such a thing? I think so.

Our associate pastor went to a pastors and wives retreat recently, and there was a prefield missionary couple there who have been on prefield for a little over three years. They're at less than 25% of their support.

*sigh* We want to BE ON THE FIELD in three years.

It's 40 Days of Prayer over at ABWE, so I get an email every day with a country and the prayer needs of the missionaries there. I am overwhelmed by the need for a) more missionaries, b) funding for those missionaries and c) all the work the missionaries in each place have to do. Today, the country is France. Here's the prayer for the lone family serving in this country desperately in need of Jesus: "As we prepare for language school in France in January, we still need our house to sell.  After 2.5 years we are still trying to sell it."

*sigh*

Our friends in Spain just got to witness the baptism of one of their church members, a man who became a Christian over a year ago and has been growing slowly in the Lord. He gave a testimony of how God saved him and shared some memory verses before he was baptized. Our friends are still praying for his wife. She truly believes she is "good enough."

*sigh*

Think of the phone calls we have to make, the meetings we have to schedule, and the money we have to raise.

Discouragement, worry and anxiety could overwhelm me in this process. But if there is one thing I've learned since I became a Christian, it's that my God is the God of the impossible. None of this surprises or overwhelms Him.

He is a rock.

And so I shall not be moved.

But Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible." -the Gospels

Jesus is the content-er of my sighs.