“When the LORD brought back the captives to Zion, we were like men who dreamed.”
~ Psalm 126:1
Hi James and Ellen,
What is a bad day like for you? Are there days when you feel like you do not want to do anything? Are there days when you feel like nothing goes right? Are there days when you feel like things just cannot get worse – but things get worse? Are there days when you just do not want to do the things that you know that you should do? If you have not yet had those kinds of days – or weeks or months, you will. Your grandpaa has not had days like this very often but . . . when your grandpaa went to Brazil earlier this year, your grandpaa was feeling really good about himself. Your grandpaa was OC International’s Guatemala field team leader for a growing team of missionaries from the United Sates and host country missionaries. OC International’s missionary team in Guatemala is called Equipo SEPAL. The missionaries who are assigned to Equipo SEPAL are involved in a variety of ministries. Your grandpaa likes it when the different field team missionaries are integrating into the different field team ministries. Your grandpaa knows that he is writing missionary jargon right now but . . . being a missionary is your grandpaa’s vocation. When your grandpaa went to Moody Bible Institute, your grandpaa majored in missions. Your grandpaa knows that God has blessed your grandmaa and grandpaa over the years in their missionary ventures. Your grandpaa knows that God has over the past number of years blessed the Equipo SEPAL field ministry team. Your grandpaa since the first of this year has had the opportunity to meet and to interact with more and more Guatemalan church leaders and expatriate missionary leaders. Your grandpaa was really looking forward to being in Brazil – where your grandpaa was thinking that he would be given the opportunity to tell the OC International mission leadership about the intriguing, blessed happenings that have been taking place through the different Equipo SEPAL ministries. Your grandpaa found out – when he got to Brazil, that the OC International mission leadership did not want to hear about the fascinating, blessed happenings that were taking place in Guatemala; the OC International mission leadership wanted to tell your grandpaa that they were passing on the field team leadership to another guy. Your grandpaa does not want to communicate that it was wrong for the OC International mission leadership to tell your grandpaa that they were wanting another guy to have the field team leadership responsibility; your grandpaa just wished that the OC International mission leadership would have wanted to hear first what was taking place in Guatemala and then get your grandpaa’s thoughts about what a field leadership change would look like in Guatemala.
Your grandpaa returned to Guatemala from Brazil feeling like he had had a really bad day. Your grandpaa left Brazil knowing that he had on his calendar a trip to Slovenia to participate in a weeklong mission conference in a hotel close to Lake Bled followed by a pending trip with his right hand guy – Hector, to Rengo, Chile to implement a P.E.B. (Programa de Educación Bíblica). Right after your grandpaa got back to Guatemala from Brazil, the field team missionary who the OC International mission leadership wanted as their field team leader in Guatemala told your grandpaa that he had a really radical idea for this year’s summer team. When your grandpaa asked this field team missionary what his radical idea was for the summer team, the field team missionary told your grandpaa that he and his wife wanted to lead it. Your grandmaa and grandpaa have led five summer teams over the twelve years that they were in Bolivia and had helped with three other summer teams in Bolivia and they have led four summer teams here in Guatemala. Your grandpaa was really looking forward to leading another summer team but . . . after your grandpaa said okay to the field team missionary – that he and his wife could take on the responsibility of leading this year’s Guatemala summer team, your grandpaa really wished that he had not said okay. Your grandpaa found out right after he had said okay to the field team missionary that eight college age young people has been approved to go on this summer’s summer team to Guatemala and that at least four of the eight were guys – and that the field team missionary who wanted to lead the summer team knew at least one of the young guys. Because there are usually each year a lot more gals than guys who apply to go on a summer team, your grandpaa was wishing that much more that he was leading this summer’s Guatemala summer team. Your grandpaa was not looking forward to being in Guatemala during this coming summer. Then a week ago your grandmaa and grandpaa received an e-mail from a friend who is at OC International’s mission headquarters asking your grandmaa and grandpaa if they would be one of the two mentor couples for the mission’s upcoming six week summer internship. Being a mentor couple for an International’s annual summer internship was something that your grandmaa and grandpaa had really hoped that they would be able to do someday, so . . . your grandpaa went from feeling like he was having a long, bad day, to knowing why everything unfolded the way that it had. God knew what He wanted your grandpaa to be doing this summer – which included the chance to see you and your dad’s grandpa and grandma in South Dakota.
Psalm 126 is about the return to Jerusalem – after having spent years in captivity, of some of God’s specially chosen guys. God’s specially chosen guys had been kept captive in Babylonia because they would not obey God. Verse 1 says how God’s specially chosen guys felt “When the LORD brought back the captives to Zion, we were like men who dreamed.” God had His specially chosen guys go through a bad time so that . . . as you trust God believing that He is unfolding His plan for your lives, you will find that bad days will invariably become good days.
Psalm 126 (205)