Beautiful Days of Waiting
With our departure for Malawi postponed, we’ve gained many lessons about faith, faithfulness, and waiting on the Lord.
We wrote last time that we are staying in the States a bit longer until the Lord provides more financial supporters. It wasn’t our original plan to be here now, but it was God’s good and perfect plan for us. We’re eager to share some glimpses of why His plan is better!
A good friend told us that he believes that God often provides a missionary’s final training through the process of support-raising. For us, those lessons haven’t been about speaking in front of people or living out of suitcases, (though we’ve been doing those a lot), but rather about disciplining our minds and actions, trusting the Lord in complete dependance, and seizing even the uncertain moments for ministry.
But one of our favorite lessons has been how good and gracious God is in growing our faith. On many recent days, our faith has been stretched nearly to its limit. But God has never required more than the faith He’s given us. We’ve gotten close to doubting. We’ve even been close to asking whether the Lord wants us to go to Malawi at all. We’ve cried out for God to make things clear to us.
Every single time we get to that point, God in His extreme grace has reassured us He is in control. Sometimes He’s used a donation from someone with great faith. Sometimes it’s encouragement from Scripture or a godly friend. But we’ve never had a chance to doubt that He is still leading us.
We know God is actively growing our faith in Him, and He will stretch us more. We know that this faith is not something that we have conjured up, as though it is courage with a new name. Rather, this faith is based on God’s dependable goodness. As we see more of His plans and more of His goodness, our faith is strengthened. It is a gift from God, and that is one of the most important lessons we have learned.
Throughout all of these changes and lessons, we are still confident that the Lord would have us minister in Malawi. If anything, this delay has strengthened our desire to be there. As soon as the Lord provides, we’ll be on our way there. But until then, we’re striving to make every day here count.
Meanwhile, in Africa...
There’s a lot happening in Malawi right now. First of all, the Biedebachs are expecting baby #4 in June. Anita had a serious illness, so the family all went to South Africa a few weeks ago for medical attention. She’s doing well now, and she and the kids will stay in South Africa until the baby is born. Brian has responsibilities in both places now: caring for his family in South Africa; and preaching at the church in Malawi and hosting a short-term team from Grace Community Church. He’ll be making a few trips back and forth in the coming weeks.
Please pray for the Biedebach family as they are apart and for the healthy delivery of this new little one. Please also pray for International Bible Fellowship, that they would continue to grow in their knowledge and love, and that the Lord would continue to work salvation and sanctification in their midst!
Home in a Box (Some Assembly Required)
Remember this picture? That container of all our possessions left our apartment in Newhall in January and started its trip towards Malawi. We just got word that it was unloaded from the container ship in Beira, Mozambique, on March 27th (which means the Somali pirates didn’t get it!) Its next journey will be by truck, across notorious Mozambican roads, to Lilongwe.
At this point, we are thankful that Matt probably won’t have to fly to Malawi to sign for the container (as we were originally told.) However, please be praying that the Malawian government will give Brian the paperwork he needs this week, before he flies to South Africa again, so that all our documents are in order. Also, pray that we won’t have to pay an unreasonable amount of duty fees. We look forward to making Malawi our home, and having our furniture and clothes there is exciting!
Thanks!
We are so thankful for your support and encouragement, and especially for the stories we hear of your love for missions, ministry, and the Lord! And as always, we love to share with you what we’re thinking about and what we’re up to. Check it out on the blog!
- Matt and Rachel
Floreen Newsletter Update
