Leah Cox's blog of youth ministry in the Czech Republic with Josiah Venture (plus stuff)

Tuesday, December 06, 2005

a little story of God's faithfulness...

In my last fall e-mail update, I talked about feeling kinda blurred and frustrated about my local ministry. A lot of my confusion had to do with the church plant I was involved in, and increasingly feeling like that wasn't the place for me...and also feeling like I had to be involved in it, because I'd already told our church leaders and others that I would be. I talked to different people about what I was feeling and thinking, but everything still seemed kinda fuzzy.

HOWEVER, God is faithful! At the beginning of every month at Malenovice the Czech team (Kam) gathers for a few days to have different meetings and reconnect. One of those meetings was for people involved in local ministries, where we together discuss and work on whatever issues we have in our separate ministries. SO, we talked about my issues with the church plant in Karvina, with Cesky Tesin, my future...and everything started to crystalize. God made it clear through the counsel and wisdom of the group that I shouldn't be in Karvina (the church plant) and that I may eventually be headed to Southern Bohemia (more about that later). But also that for the rest of this school year I'm full on in Cesky Tesin with the church and youth group there. What a relief! I felt a peace that I hadn't had in months after that meeting. But there was one unpleasant task: I had to talk to one of the elders. I was nervous about it, and our evangelism team was praying a lot for the conversation.

When I met with the elder, I told him everything from start to finish, and it was so amazing...not only did he not guilt me or try to reason with me, but he totally blessed me in ministry in Cesky Tesin and wherever God leads me in the future...also, a week later the elder told me that he explained everything to Pastor and even kinda defended my decision. God is so good. And it's funny...I still go to Karvina (I hang out with some high school girls and the Greek Federation from last year) once or twice a week...but I know how to prioritize time and energy now. WHOO HOO!!!