If You Can't Stand The Heat ...

I used to love Billy Joel growing up. One of my favorite songs was "You've got to learn to face yourself ... PRESSURE ... you're just like everybody else ... PRESSURE." For those of you who followed the pop icon of the 70's & 80's you know what I mean. I also loved to play the position of point guard on my elementary, junior high, & high school basketball teams. I can still hear Coach Don Walker's screams ringing in my ears, "BRAD, MAKE SOMETHING HAPPEN." I don't know if I'm a glutton for punishment but I seem to get caught up in stressful situations.

Yesterday marked the countdown of 1 month until our 1st of 2 workshops with Healing Hands International from February 11-22. The first one will be brand new for all of us on "Food Preservation for Borno Women." It will involve underground pot-in-pot storage, solar drying, smoking, canning, and pickling. The equipment needed for this workshop is far greater than any materials that we ever needed for our first drip irrigation workshop in August. Therefore, Jen is running "helter-skelter" throughout the town with Comfort Misari (the INTERCEP secretary) searching for the needed supplies and personnel to create them.

I'm also feeling quite a bit of tension right now in raising the necessary funds for our leaking water reservoir, the upcoming food preservation workshop facilities, & the operational expenses for both workshops. Additionally, to manage the 4 way partnership between INTERCEP, Arewa Aid, the Wulari-Jerusalem church of Christ, and Healing Hands is delicate. We see the unbelievable potential here for influencing the local people to consider the implications of following the Gentle Healer but everyone has expectations. For people mired in Nigerian poverty, it's difficult for them to even consider taking on volunteer ministry. Most people in Africa are merely struggling to survive to feed their families, thus, to ask them to give of their time, resources, and sweat is an amazing sacrifice.

Hence, to make these upcoming two workshops on food preservation & drip irrigation for Borno youth a success we need one thing right now: PRAYER. Jen & I spend many a sleepless night tossing & turning wondering how all these issues will be resolved: funding, inter-agency partnership, integration with the local church. The One to whom we pray is in control of all of these matters but we need to be reminded that He is. We know that the LifeGiver has all of the financial resources in the world and will open the storehouse of heaven if we are faithful. The Prince of Peace can resolve any conflicts of interest that occur when competing assumptions meet concerning how each party will benefit.

On the night of February 22nd, we will be kicking back with Dave Goolsby & Randall McCadams reminiscing on the topsy-turvy moments from these two workshops. However, until then we really need all of you reading this to be on your knees on our behalf. The resources needed seems overwhelming, the cooperation for all 4 partners needed appears to be quite a stretch, and the ultimate impact in Maiduguri and Borno State is unknown. We believe that the more that we intercede before the Maker of Heaven & Earth that these issues will begin to resolve themselves. Please approach the throne of grace requesting that we will trust and obey ... because there's no other way.