Last week we left off with God showing up in a big way to answer my questions of is this really what He wanted and how will it be used for the ministry He has called us to here. Since God was showing me this was definitely something He wanted I made myself share with my spiritual mentor because again I wanted to have accountability. I knew if I shared with her she would ask me every time we met if I had pursued this yet and where we were in the process, and she has which has been a great help to me, even if I didn’t always WANT to be asked those questions :). So the next thing I needed to do was answer the questions “Could I find a good school where I could study from Guatemala?”, “How will I find time to study in my already overly busy schedule?”, and “What is Servants policy on missionary continuing education?” I researched all the schools that offer online degrees in counseling and out of 19 schools that I found and that were recommended to me there are 4 that are either all online or that only require a very short time to be present for a class or 2 before you do everything online. So I figured ok well there are at least some options out there.
I then did a lesson in my spiritual growth study where it had you evaluate the things you do in life and ask yourself in how many of those things do you truly feel God’s presence with you and that you are doing what He wants you to be doing. Through this lesson I realized that about half of the things that I do in ministry I do because I have always done them. I started doing them when there were only 3 of us working in the SARF ministry and when there were no leaders who had been raised up in the church in which we serve and I’ve kept doing them even though there are now more missionaries here to help and more leaders in the church to help. So I started praying and seeking how the Lord wants me to cut the things out of my schedule that He does not want me doing, that He has not gifted me to do, or that He has raised up someone else to do. I am now in the process of turning those things over to other people and guarding my schedule so that it is not overwhelming and that there actually could be time to study.
Finally, I talked with Trent, our boss at Servants, to see what their policy is on missionary continuing education. He told me that they fully support it and that there is actually a part in the missionary hand book that explains all about it. The missionary hand book states that missionaries are encouraged to be life – long learners and can pursue a degree after 4 years of continuous service with Servants. And of course, in June of 2016 I was with Servants for 4 continuous years. One of the best things I read in the missionary hand book about Servants continuing education policy was this: Servants views continuing education as essential for one’s personal growth in ministry. So not only do they encourage it but they view it as essential. Ok God!! I get it…hahahaha
This is where I will stop for this week again I want to keep this at a reasonable length. And again I ask that you would continue to pray with me about all of this as we look forward to next week’s post which will be the final one in my “Don’t give up on the dream” blog series.
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