Prayer Letter No. 52

"Expect great things from God. Attempt great things for God."

If you want to see which 'plodder' wrote the above words, and what he managed to do with his life, then see below - it's quite an encouragement and a challenge... we can all do it!

Dear Team, 31st December 2007

Can you plod? Let's do it in 2008!

Happy New Year! I wonder how you feel as you enter 2008 - excited? daunted? Well, whatever other word you might choose to use, God help us to be faithful through both the highs and lows, the peaks and the troughs, of the coming year. I think both ‘excited’ and ‘daunted’ are good words to describe how I feel. I'm excited because we have seen God's hand so massively at work thus far and anticipate more incredible times, and because it is such a privilege to serve the King of Kings. I'm daunted because we have such big audacious plans and dreams for the transformation of Burundi which we can't do on our own, and because on a family level we're taking vulnerable new baba Grace back to Burundi with it's decidedly ropey medical facilities, along with the usual security, health, poverty, political etc issues.

Anyway, I hope your own plans/dreams/aims for this coming year are not so modest that they are achievable in your own strength. That's what the above quote is about. That's what following Jesus is all about, because He is the one 'who is able to do immeasurably more than all we could ask for or imagine' (Eph3v20). Amen!

Picture this Wednesday hundreds of students in Burundi: some will walk up to forty miles with or without shoes, as they converge on a school in Matana for a Scripture Union camp. They form the spiritual leadership of 80 to 100 schools, and will be excited to get four days' intensive teaching, empowering and envisioning for the coming year. They will sleep three or four to a flea-invested mattress, will eat stony rice and low-grade beans, and maybe won't get the chance to wash the whole time - yet they will be so happy and grateful! They'll be up worshipping at 6am and not have more than two half-hour meal breaks before going to bed at 1030pm, so hungry are they to maximise the chance to learn and share. May God do some deep, lasting, and strategic stuff in those 600 kids' lives (and amazingly, it will only cost us $5k for the whole thing - money well spent, eh?!).

Big thanks to all those who chose alternative Christmas presents through GLO, we have received enough money to buy land (already purchased) and dozens of cows to provide milk and income generation for the YFC orphanage projects. You guys rock! It's not too late for more, or if some of you wanted to but forgot in the business of the festive season, CLICK HERE.

Burundi is not doing very well politically or economically. Banditry and armed robbery have skyrocketed. Many people cannot afford to eat even one meal a day. Life's really tough. Please keep praying for us all out there.

I realise more and more that wherever we are placed on planet earth, life is seldom straightforward and easy. In fact it often seems to be downright messy, hard, dark and desperate. It's a battle. Maybe you're not struggling to find money for food, but you've got plenty of issues. Well, let's close with the example of the above 'plodder', not to feel condemned and inadequate but to find deeper resolve to embrace the challenge and adventure of being part of God's redemptive purposes for our lifetimes. It's not a dress rehearsal, let's do it!

(From 'For What It's Worth', to order CLICK HERE

William Carey is often attributed the title ‘Father of Modern Missions’. He was born into a desperately poor family, and consequently obtained a terrible education. He was apprenticed as shoemaker, but simply did not make the grade. He tried his hand at starting and running a school, but it functioned badly. His marriage was a deeply unhappy one, during which his daughter died early, an event which left him bald for life. He was a deeply committed believer, but his subsequent attempt at pastoring a small church hindered his chances of ordination, because by common consent his sermons were too tedious and boring.

Despite such an apparently flawed track record, Carey formed a missionary society with himself as the first candidate setting sail to India. This feeble individual translated the Bible into Bengali, Oriya, Marathi, Hindi, Assamese and Sanskrit, as well as portions into 29 other languages! At one stage, he lost ten years’ translation work in a fire - what did he do? Just started again. Then there were contributions to literature, education, literacy, agriculture, getting infanticide outlawed and more. This man’s obedience and perseverance was used to impact the lives of literally millions of people. Before dying, knowing that they wanted to write about him, he wrote the following:

“If one should think it worth his while to write my life, I will give you a criterion by which you may judge of its correctness. If he gives me credit for being a plodder, he will describe me justly. Anything beyond this will be too much. I can plod. I can persevere in any definite pursuit. To this I owe everything.”

Well, God bless you, thanks for standing in the battle with us, and whether anyone ends up writing about us or not, let's act out our dreams before the Audience of One with our respective God-given gifts, for His glory's sake. Happy plodding in 2008!

Simon Guillebaud

Great Lakes Outreach