Dear Friends and Family,
Thank you for your love and encouragement.
We just finished our WMF staff retreat in late July, which was located in Nebraska City, Nebraska. We hold these retreats every three years and bring all our US staff serving overseas back home for ten days. These retreats have always been meaningful and allow staff a respite from some of the hardships they face. We hope this time re-energizes and rejuvenates them and reignites their vision for their suffering friends. The theme of this retreat was contemplation. We were able to have times of reflection and silence during the retreat, which helped center us on Jesus and give perspective to the sessions.
A lot of planning went into this retreat. Several people in our office spent months and years planning the details of the retreat. Even though I had less to do than most of the others, I still was focused on the retreat and several workshops I needed to facilitate.
Hence, the distance you may have felt the last couple of months. I have felt this distance too and want to reconnect.
I wanted to tell you about something that has energized me recently. It has to do with a new "lens" in which I'm reading Scripture.
Over the years as I've read the Bible, I haven't been convinced of God's love. I would read the story of Jesus and see God's love through that sacrifice, but this sacrificial love was overwhelmed by what I saw as an Old Testament God of judgment. As I looked at the world around me, I wasn't convinced of God's love there either. Maybe that stems from all of the suffering I've seen in the world with WMF.
I remember being frustrated about the story of Moses. He is one of the most admired men in the Old Testament. He is a man to whom God showed Himself. He is repeatedly referred to in both the Old Testament and New Testament as a "man of God' and 'servant of God'. He has to endure the complaints of the Israelites for decades and intercedes for them on more than one occasion. With one mistake he loses his chance of entering the Promised Land.
As I was reading Deuteronomy, I came across chapter 3. Moses is speaking with God:
23 At that time I pleaded with the LORD : 24 "O Sovereign LORD, you have begun to show to your servant your greatness and your strong hand. For what god is there in heaven or on earth who can do the deeds and mighty works you do? 25 Let me go over and see the good land beyond the Jordan-that fine hill country and Lebanon."
26 But because of you the LORD was angry with me and would not listen to me. "That is enough," the LORD said. "Do not speak to me anymore about this matter. 27 Go up to the top of Pisgah and look west and north and south and east. Look at the land with your own eyes, since you are not going to cross this Jordan. 28
The passage still sounds harsh to some readers, but for me it was newly soothing. God cuts off Moses' request about going to the Promised Land, but in His kindness points Moses to the top of a mountain to see the soon-to-be fulfillment of God's faithful promise to Moses and his people. I thought about how wonderful it would be to even see the land. I couldn't touch it or smell it, but I could be satisfied by seeing it.
Then during the retreat, David Chronic spoke about being transformed as Christians. He referenced the Transfiguration, where Jesus' "face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light. Just then there appeared before them Moses and Elijah, talking with Jesus." From Matthew 17. David mentioned in an aside that the mountain where Jesus was standing with Moses and Elijah was in the Promised Land. Moses gets to touch and smell the Promised Land finally. Jesus is the fulfillment of all of those promises made, in both a literal and figurative sense. I was humbled and thought that David's aside in the message was just for me that night.
My lens changed, at least for the time being, with how I read Scripture and I can see glimpses of God's love in a new way.
I have written in my last two prayer letters about needing more financial support. My need is as great as ever. Over the first five months of 2007, I have had expenses of over $600 per month MORE than my income. My support account hasn't yet gone negative, due to the generous support I've received over my ten years of serving with WMF. However, I won't be able to continue to serve with WMF if this support trend continues. Please consider partnering with me to serve Jesus in this mission.
Please also write, as I love to hear from you.
Love,
Brent