"just wait"

Hello all!!

Time is going by so so so quickly! I’m so thankful for all of the ways God has used this first term of school to help make me a better teacher, to stretch me to try new things in reaching out to my students, but most importantly I’m thankful for what He is teaching me about Himself. Many of you have been asking and praying about my current work visa situation. I was hoping to have all of the answers and some of you know how badly I wanted to just know what the outcome would be, yet God has seen fit to not give me all of the answers. He’s asking that I just wait. He’s asking me to trust

It’s funny, sometimes we feel as though we know what the answer should be or what the answer shouldn’t be and there are only two answers in our head. Then, God gives you an answer but it’s right in the middle of the two with a postscript of “just wait.” In my mind there were two answers to the visa situation: either they approve our amendment to my first application submission or they don’t. Simple. Then God showed me answer “just wait.” Today (Tuesday) I got a message from our Doctor’s wife Brandi saying their worker had checked with the office of immigration in Lusaka and that they said that I needed to completely resubmit everything. (This coming after they told us we merely needed to write an amendment to the original submission). Because of my tourist visa days expiring April 5^th, I most probably won’t have an answer about the work visa when I leave for the States for school holiday on April 1^st.

“just wait”

I might be able to come back. I might not. I might get to come back for term 2 or maybe just for term 3 or maybe not at all. I may be saying goodbye to all of my kiddos who don’t understand why I can’t come back. I might be saying hello again come mid-May.

“just wait”

But God! You might think that those words sound like a whiny child 😊 asking why God would ask her to wait. But let me explain. I’m so thankful for these two little words! Many times when they are used in Scripture it talks about how God has saved us even when we were the worst of sinners! My favorite is in Ephesians 2:1-7 (I know it’s long, but bear with me!)

And you were dead in trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience – among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ – by grace you have been saved – and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

But God! God has saved me!! Think back to the time when you came to the end of yourself. You were fed up with your sin, realized that you couldn’t do anything about it on your own, and that you needed someone to do something. You called out to Jesus that you were done running, that you wanted what He had to offer, salvation. His love had been pursuing you. The Holy Spirit had been working on your soul, and He now resides there.

We serve a God who cares about souls. We also serve a God who cares about the little details in our lives. The Spirit whispered this thought to my heart earlier today as I was thinking about and trying not to worry about the whole situation, “Abbie, I already know the outcome of this. I’m not bound by time.” What an assurance! His timetable is so different from mine. I could tell you what I want the outcome to be, but does that really matter? Is it more important that I know and understand everything about what God is trying to do in my life? Or is it more important that I beg for His will to be done, not my own? And plead that He would align my desires to fulfill that will?

I wonder how many of us are waiting on God’s timing. We feel like He’s forgotten because we haven’t gotten the answer we wanted. Instead we got the “just wait.” To any of you reading this who feel that, I understand. Maybe not your situation but the feeling and apprehension of having to wait. And I can tell you that it is possible to have peace in the midst of it.

A couple weeks back in Wed night Bible study we were talking about the significance of when God asked Abraham to sacrifice his only son. (have you ever studied the parallels to Christ in this chapter?!? Amazing!) Abraham could have questioned God’s timing, maybe he did, but he acted. He obeyed. BC summarized it perfectly this afternoon as we were talking about the situation when he said, “Now’s when the faith comes in.”

Do I say that I had faith to trust Him to save me from my sins? Then how is it that I don’t want to trust Him for an issue of timing? My God is in control! What an amazing God we serve. So do I know what the future holds? Nope. But my God does! And He has asked me to patiently wait.

Psalm 37:7a – Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for Him;

Psalm 72:18 – Blessed be the Lord God, the God of Israel, who only doeth wondrous things.

Thank you all for your continued prayers! I’m looking forward to seeing many of you when I’m home in April and sharing pictures and stories of the hard work and success of our students here at Amano Academy!