Inspired

Yesterday was our free day... and we hung out with some of the local pastors' kids and another girl who showed us some cool waterfalls and stuff around the island. It mostly was a day that involved a lot of mosquito bites and sunburn, and a lot of swimming for the rest of the team. I refrained because I had an ear infection last week and wanted to keep my ear dry. Fascinating, I know.

Anyway, when we were getting started, we all met at the pastors' house to convene. And I was talking to Allison, who is one of the pastors, and she was telling us about how they had spent part of the morning already looking over some new property that they are hoping to build on. She told us that they have been on the mission field for 21 years now. And just now they are beginning to see some of the dreams that they started out with start to be fulfilled. I'm sure that they've been surprised on the way, too, by all the things that have come along that they never would have guessed. But I was really inspired by the commitment to stick something out for 21 years until they saw the original vision start to take shape. That's kind of a long time in the short-term world that I live in. My life has been happening in 6 month intervals, it feels like, and at the end of each 6 months, I have a new group of young people going out into the world having had an encounter with God and ready to make a difference. Which has its good and bad points. The thing is, I so often have an expectation of God to make quick work of things. And usually he has, actually. But when he doesn't, I get frustrated. And there are enough examples in the Bible of God taking his time to fulfill his promises to his people that I should not be surprised if it takes a long time. And yet... anyway, that's what I've been thinking about today. Being faithful. That's what I want to do.