Within a period of 3 days, our 4-person team became a 2-person team. My responsibilities have doubled. Because my teammate is new, I am the most qualified to be the team leader, though this is only my 3rd year on staff! I accept this new responsibility with surprise given the circumstances, but also with joy. It's an exciting new way to grow and serve in my ministry here and I expect God has much to teach me through it.
Because of the circumstances and suddenness of the staff who've left the team, we are wounded and many of our students are confused. My teammate and I are praying that God would show Himself worthy of trust, unify our group on campus, and enable me to shepherd well.
Five years ago our student organization registered with the government as an international NGO. All of the foreign workers here have visas through this organization. At the beginning of March, government officials came into our office and in April we were notified that our organization has been shut down. All of us who are not citizens of this country have had to go to a neighboring country to get short-term visas in hopes of returning. Thankfully, we could! Now we must register as a national NGO and all of the staff must be nationals! What looked like a crisis, God has used to move this IFES student movement towards indigeneity much quicker than we could have done it otherwise! Now there's a new board, a director, and a financial person - all nationals. There's still a lot to figure out, including the role of foriegn staff like me!
It's been a very surprising, difficult, stressful but hopeful couple of months to say the least. I can see both elements of spiritual warfare and God's sovereign plan in the midst of all of these things. I have been meditating on a familiar passage in 2 Corinthians 12:7-10 about God's power in our weakness. In all human ways of looking at it, our ministry has been weakened. But God's grace is sufficient and His power is displayed in our weakness. So, I look at our situation with hope, because it is in the hands of a powerful God.
