“What Happened To Them?”
A little ove a year ago, Ric and Jane España moved to Thailand with their four children. They have endured many trials during their first year of mission service, but they are so grateful for how God has held on to them, delivered them, and been patient with them through this period. We wanted to share a few excerpts from their latest blog post with you here:
By Ric España
In our previous post, we discussed feeling lost and unsure about the direction we should take, especially regarding our visas, which became complicated. Since that post, the challenges we faced seemed to only grow more daunting month after month, far exceeding what we thought was our breaking point. We reached a point where we stopped posting, entered survival mode, and succumbed to emotional and physical exhaustion, followed by despair. We didn’t even know what was happening to us. We were hopeful that life would calm down, but a break never seemed to come as we continued pushing forward while following Jesus to the best of our abilities.
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30
This wasn’t sudden; it was a slow build-up, like water coming to a boil, and it felt like the pot boiled until it was dry and became red hot. We faced great difficulty in settling our visas, finding a car, purchasing car insurance, finding our first home, setting up our home from nothing, dealing with unbearable heat, battling an insane ant invasion that destroyed our expensive electronics, experiencing culture shock, coping with crippling back pain, and more.
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Understanding came painfully slow. Things started to become clear. Last fall, as a family, we began to pray more frequently, even praying every other hour throughout the day, asking the Holy Spirit to prepare us for what God wanted to accomplish through us. We felt strongly that God intended to do something remarkable, especially with the unprecedented times that lie ahead, beyond what we were prepared for. Little did we know that our prayers would be answered through trials and tribulations.
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My consolation has been Jesus telling me, “You are the light of the world. I think you are amazing, and I’m doing something very special in you right now. Yes, it’s taking time, but that is because you keep asking me for more of the Holy Spirit than yesterday. You will be so happy with the result.” God has never failed me. My success has been in waiting on God. Jesus continues to help me persevere like Jacob, “I will not let You go until You bless me!”
“Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and he will strengthen your heart: wait, I say, on the Lord.” Psalm 27:14
Read the full article here.
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