Disappointment and His faithfulness

December 2, 2009

(Preface: Due to having my passport, and a checkbook, stolen on my recent travels to Houston, I was unable to join our MECA team on the trip to the Middle East)

Yesterday, in the midst of what felt like spiritual defeat, I fell to my knees and cried out to God “what do you want from me”? (a very dangerous question in the life of a missionary) But what He has revealed to me in the next 18 hours is this: though we may be DISTRACTED by “the evil ones” attempts to defeat us, we are never DEFEATED! GOD is sovereign; He is never surprised by anything that the evil one uses to discourage us. That is why all of Romans 8:28 is one of my favorite scriptures: God works for the good in all things for those who love Him AND are called according to HIS purpose.

I accept the responsibility for taking better care of documents that are crucial to our ministry in the future – difficult lesson learned. But God in His sovereignty and grace, allows us to question our walk, what is next, why have you allowed this; and if we ask in faith, He shows us what is next. The faithful are never defeated, only distracted temporarily by the attacks of the evil one. I might not have included myself in the number of the Faithful, for this kind of trial, before the revelation He gave me this morning (2:00 – 3:30 a.m. this morning).

We have been discussing the need for a new identity in “closed countries” that God has called us to serve in. Sport”Reach” is too obvious to those who are trying to stop the progress of Christianity in Muslim nations. And e3 SportReach is easy to research on the Internet and uncover our Christian ministry intentions. What God revealed to me was a new identity that we can use in closed countries and the values that I feel we can promote openly, and that can be used in more private settings to reach those whom the Holy Spirit has prepared in advance to hear the transformational message of the gospel. Every sports outreach has to have an identity, just as every sports team has an identity.

Sports.4.LIFE is a label that we can use in closed countries to attract athletes and to engage agencies that are curious as to our purpose in seeking to establish relationships with their local youth and their families. The “4” stands for the 4 key values that will be promoted through our programming, that will add to the recipient’s life. SportReach had the values of “reaching the athlete Body, Mind, Soul and Spirit”. Soul and Spirit make that too spiritually suspect to be used in closed countries. The 4 values I believe we will promote in Sports.4.LIFE are Body, Mind, Family and Faith. That is the idea I will take to our team for prayerful consideration, additional clarification and confirmation.

Body and mind are obvious values that describe being committed to good health, regular physical activity and good education. Every government is for that.

Family is not only a value of Christian ministry but also a value that is recognize as being a core value that determines the success of every race or ethnic group. Stronger family values and commitment to the health of the family is critical to the success of every people group. It is a value that is severely under attack in Muslim countries. We must help the youth of these countries realize that lack of respect for the contribution and value that their mothers, and other women, bring to their lives, and to their families, is of great importance to God. Any religion that teaches otherwise must be questioned and those questions resolved according to what God’s plan is for their family.

Faith is critical to the overall values and health of any society, it begins with each person, and progresses through their relationships with their parental family and extends to their inherent need to be part of a “spiritual family” of God’s design. Once young people begin to understand that it is what they believe, and why they believe, that defines their character and values in life, then we can begin to engage with them and walk with them on their journey to discover who is God and what is my purpose, apart from what the government and my rabbi or priest tells me it is supposed to be.

We know that only Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. We must engage them in a way that allows us, through the power of the Holy Spirit, to lead them to that undeniable conclusion. Faith is the politically correct term we can use to help every person understand what they believe, and why, and then use that understanding to shape their values for life.

In summary, one of the humbling and humorous sides of trying to understand why God might not have me on this once in a life time, educational trip is that He has never been able to reveal anything of value to me on an airplane (that is my problem, not His). I am so focused on trying to occupy my mind, to provide for my own creature comforts and endure long plane flights that I am kind of spiritually unavailable for entire flight, and a few hours after I have arrived. Yesterday, through my brokenness and spiritual searching to understand why He allowed this, I became more spiritually available to receive a revelation that may shape how we will do sports ministry in countries like Syria, Iran, China, Egypt and others.

Rest assured that I have already been in contact by email with our team shaping the discussions they will have with our local leaders in regards to how sports ministry will be use in the future to prepare athletes, and their families, to hear the gospel. I already miss the relationships that would have come out of being on this trip. I can only trust that God’s plan, and why he has this team working through this without me, has greater value in the way it will shape their lives for His purposes in the future.

What Satin intends to use to defeat us, God can use for His good. His ways are higher than our ways, regardless of how lofty we may have perceived His plans for us to be – His plans are perfect and therefore, we must be submitted to His change in our plans – or even to what we may have perceived His plans to use us for His greater glory might be. He is God, we are not – His ways are not our ways

I thank God for this disappointment and humbling experience. I can only pray that He will continue to use it to help me understand more about what He wants, how He wants to shape me, how He will use us to reach the lost, and how we will bring greater glory to His name through the ministry that He has given us. HE chose us, we did not choose Him. We are blessed to be called His own. His love and His grace never end!

Tom Parr
Work in Progress