A Lack of Resources or Resolve?

    As those of you who have been reading the blogs I have been posting via "Hiking to Help Refugees" are fully aware, the main goal of this venture of hiking the AT is to raise funds. We want to raise as much money as we can to supply our South Sudanese brethren with Bible resources and Bible based training so they in turn can reach their countrymen with the gospel while displaced in refugee and IDP camps.

    Much of the money raised will go toward purchasing MP4 players loaded with the NT in digital format. The players we buy can hold the NT in 4 S Sudanese languages and up to 75-100 people can listen at one time. We also do training events for refugee women and pastors. That training in the main is focused on training them how to utilize well the two story cloths produced by Calvary Road Ministry, the nonprofit with which we now work,  www.Historycloth.com    

   and www.Calvaryroadministries.com.   

 

    I am thrilled to report that around $23,000 has thus far been donated. However that is far short of our goal. And the fact is even if we reach our goal the number of resources we will be able to supply will still fall short of the actual need on the ground. 100,000 dollars is a God-sized goal to be sure! And we are extremely thankful for all who have given.

 

    However the question I have been asking lately as I hike is this "is my dream too big? Are there simply not enough resources available in the hands of American believers or is it a lack of resolve?"

  

  I have been listening to many sermons as I hike. Some by David Platt and others by John Piper. Their answer to that question suggests the issue is not one of a lack of finances but of commitment to the Greatest Commission Jesus gave to His church; to make disciples of all people groups. 

  

  Our South Sudanese brethren have proven they will use well the scripture resources we place in their hands.

 

    Thus as 61 year old believers,  Renee and I have chosen to sacrifice many things to highlight the opportunity that now exists for the American church to come alongside this portion of the suffering church in a way that will enable them to give God's Word to their fellow citizens; people who up to now have not had access to the pure Gospel message.

 

    South Sudan as a country is in extremely dire straits. The only hope for rebuilding what the forces of evil have destroyed is the Gospel. But Gospel proclamation and disciple making require access to the Word.

   

 We have resolved to do our upmost to make a difference. Please pray for us. Pray also that many fellow believers will wrestle with the very important question "is it really that I have nothing to give or is the issue  a lack of resolve?"

  

 My swelled feet tonight remind me that a God given resolve costs something. And His Word assures me that the treasure we store in heaven will one day make every sacrifice worth it. He is worthy!

Uncle