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Worth the Wait

by Rev. Frank Liu
Cornerstone Reformed Church, St. Paul, MN
the Missions Banner, Aug/Sept 2022: Print edition

A significant part of the Christian life (and having joy in that life) is learning to wait on God and His timing.  The entire plan for Team Timothy St. Paul is one such example.  Pastor Casey and I started discussing it back in 2020, but then the pandemic happened.  In response, the PMU council postponed it until 2021, when the Minnesota civil unrest and riots happened.  So, the council postponed the team again to July of 2022.  While one could see these postponements or delays as a disappointment and a thwarting of our human plans, we should choose rather to see them as God’s greater plan to prepare the field for harvest.  The truth was that in 2020 and 2021, the necessary doors were not yet open for the ministry opportunities we pursued in 2022.  These doors needed time to open, and God was hearing and answering our prayers during the two-year delay (1 John 5:14-15).  For example, we needed the locations and the connections in order to hold VBS.  It wasn’t until 2022 that our daughter Hannah started attending a Christian pre-school, and my wife Melissa began to teach part-time at this school.  Early in 2022, the director shared with the teachers that student families had been requesting a VBS in the summer, but due to lack of staff, the pre-school would overextend themselves if they were to host it.  That gave the opportunity to volunteer Team Timothy to staff it, which was mutually beneficial for both the pre-school and for Cornerstone.

The greatest blessing that I witnessed from the Team Timothy short-term mission trip was the unity of three generations of Christians serving together.  If we include the saints from Cornerstone who participated, that would be up to four generations!  There’s an old saying, “if you want to do it, you will find a way. If you don’t want to do it, you will find an excuse.”  It’s simply another way to state the lesson from the Parable of the Dinner: “I have bought a piece of land and I need to go out and look at it; please consider me excused” (Luke 14:18).  There was a pastor on his sabbatical who came on the trip, but his sabbatical did not present an excuse for him from serving with his sons, for outreach and evangelism are things that God’s people should be doing all the time.  There was a family who came with very young children, but their children’s age did not present an excuse from coming.  By God’s providence, it even worked out for the advantage of the team and became an occasion to start training the youngest disciples in the work of the church!  There were several teenagers who came to help, but youth and their desire for their own fun activities in the summer did not present an excuse from coming.  One young lady came from a very long distance, but that distance did not present an excuse from coming.  All this to say, it gave me an occasion to examine my own excuses and to ask myself the question, do I really desire to do the Lord’s will? Do you?

The Lord provided several occasions for the team to speak to random people in the community. Through crafts such as balloon art, the wordless book, and a beaded jump rope, even children were able to tell others about the good news of the gospel in Jesus Christ and also to invite them to Cornerstone Church.  One significant occasion was when a Somali child, probably raised in Islam, received the red bead. “Jesus is God and He died on the cross on behalf of sinners.  The red bead reminds us of His blood shed for us.”  His response was noteworthy: “What!? Jesus is God!?”  Whether from outrage or astonishment, he got up from the table and walked away, though throughout the evening, he returned several times just to linger.  What will the Lord do in him and in others with whom we spoke?  We pray that He will use it for His glory. Whether as one who plants a seed, or another who adds water to the seed, we trust that God, by His sovereign power, gives growth (1 Corinthians 3:6-7).

(pictured above: Team Timothy St. Paul)

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