Eddie Aldape
Field Personnel in Almeria, Spain
God has a way of turning the worst days in our ministry lives into the greatest blessings. It is like turning ordinary water into the best wine.
While serving in India, after the long process of renewing our residential permits, we were told that we needed to get new visas. We had business visas at the time, but the new requirement had come into effect, and we could not meet it. The idea was to go to Thailand for a week or so, apply for some other type of visa and return to the ministry we loved. We were also told we could return once we had new visas.
We packed a small suitcase and headed to Bangkok. As we were going through immigration, we were asked to step aside. Our passports were stamped and written across the stamp, in red ink it said, “UNDESIRABLE.” Our hearts sank and we could not stop crying. It was as if we had lost a loved one. We sat there asking God if we had done something wrong.
After applying three times for new visas and being declined, it was clear that our time in India was over. They were not going to let us return. Right in the midst of our despair, rays of sunshine started coming through our dark gloom. The leaders we had trained were finally taking up their leadership posts and God started doing God’s thing. As long as we were there, they depended on us to lead. Our goal had always been to work ourselves out of a job and that is just what had happened.
We could not see it at the time, but that is what we had been praying for. Being as stubborn as I am, God had to get us out of there one way or another. The process hurt, but the results have been glorious. Genesis 50:20 states: “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.”
A Blessing for Traveling in the Dark
By Jan Richardson in Circle of Grace
Go slow
if you can.
Slower.
More slowly still.|
Friendly dark
or fearsome,
this is no place
to break your neck
by rushing,
by running,
by crashing into
what you cannot see.
Then again,
it is true:
different darks
have different tasks,
and if you
have arrived here unawares,
if you have come
in peril
or in pain,
this might be no place
you should dawdle.
I do not know
what these shadows
ask of you,
what they might hold
that means you good
or ill.
It is not for me
to reckon
whether you should linger
or you should leave.
But this is what
I can ask for you:
That in the darkness
there be a blessing.
That in the shadows
there be a welcome.
That in the night
you be encompassed
your name.
Pray. . .Give. . .Go.