Jesus replied, “Truly I tell you, if you
have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from
here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” Matthew
17:20
This verse seems
to get spouted quite often when telling someone to “just have faith.” Yet, I
think there’s something even more powerful going on here. The context of this
passage is that Peter, James and John have just gone up the mountain with Jesus
and there they got to behold the glory and awesomeness of Jesus, the Son of
God. At some point after coming down the mountain, a man brings his son to them
in order for them to cast out the demon and they are unable to do so.
How often
are we (speaking to myself) just like these disciples? As soon as we “come down
from the mountain”, we too forget about the awesomeness and power of our God. Yet, how incredible, that our God is the same God on the top of the mountain as He
is in the bottom of the valley!
If I’m
(Barry) being honest with you, we are facing an incredible mountain in our
lives. We believe it is part of God’s plan for us to be in Central America this
January. However, in order for that to happen, we must be 100% funded. We are
presently right at 22% (my apologies for unknowingly misrepresenting that
number previously). We have certainly been witness to the glory and awesomeness
of Jesus in our lives these past 9 months since we were appointed as missionaries.
However, the enemy is trying to use this mountain (this financial hurdle) to
bring doubt into our life and to distract us from the goal ahead. Yet we are
choosing, by faith, to say to this mountain, “Move from here” and we believe
that God wants to use you to help move this mountain.
While 100% funded
by the end of the year is our ultimate goal, our immediate goal is 50% by the
end of September. Ultimately, that is an additional $3,200 per month. How does
that break down? If 32 people each committed $100 per month, or if 64 people
each committed $50 per month, or even if 128 people committed $25 per month, we
would reach our goal. Are you able to commit to one of those levels; maybe more,
maybe less? Regardless of what you can commit, every commitment helps release
us for God’s “Next” for our family!
Some of you who
just read this are already monthly financial partners (46 total) and we say,
“Thank you!” Others of you (360 total) have already signed up to be on the Team, just not as a monthly
financial partner and we thank God for you as well. Would you be willing to
make a monthly commitment and become a financial partner as well? Still, for
others of you who have read this, we haven’t even had the opportunity yet to
talk to you directly about being part of the Team, but yet we present to you
the same opportunity.
To make that
monthly commitment, just click this link http://www.wesleyan.org/gp/minfo/WM04-0393 and it will
take you directly to our page on the Global Partners website. Once there, just click "FAITH" (under our picture) and a new page will open up where you can register your commitment.
Thanks in
advance for being part of the blasting crew in removing this part of the
mountain!
