Personal Retreat Day

Every month each ReachGlobal staff member is supposed to take what is called a “Personal Retreat Day”. The point is to allow you one full day away from team and ministry responsibilities to re-align yourself with God’s plan for your life and ministry. To spend time in prayer and in His word, to get away from the phone, email and people that need you on a daily basis. Yesterday I decided to take my PRD due to having been gone for the previous week, and having returned to the ministry far from focused.
We have two weeks of Bible studies left that will culminate to a Celebration Event on the 15th. After this event we will be traveling back to Lima for a few weeks for various conferences, meetings and health check-ups. Beyond the desire to “finish well” this series of Bible studies and this year of ministry, I am beginning the process of seeking the Lord’s specific direction for what He wants me to do in this coming year. Yesterday, as part of my PRD I watched a few sessions from a DVD of Willow Creek’s Leadership Summit from 2007. Bill Hybels spoke on the topic: A Vision To Die For, and he posed the question: “What does God want my ministry to look like 5 years from now?” Obviously this won’t directly apply to my situation since my ministry here in Tarma is limited to one more year. But it was an appropriate question to ask myself as we are closing out this first year, and will be entering the second: What does God want my ministry in Tarma to look like one year from now? This has been a question that I’ve been pondering over the past 24 hours and will continue to pray over in the coming weeks. We as a team have been making plans 3-4 months at a time, but I’m starting to wonder if I need to have a decent idea of what can be accomplished in one year’s worth of ministry, in order to actually accomplish it.
Overall, this past year has been one of transition, one of trusting God in the high’s and low’s of change, learning how to be a roommate, teammate, a foreigner living in a foreign land, and realizing how much God had blessed my life in the States. If I’m completely honest with myself and with all of you – I haven’t accomplished anything of kingdom value in this first year of missions. The nature of transition, of my own selfish nature and of circumstances has brought me to this place of re-evaluation. We moved to Tarma on August 5, and in the past 4 months, God has given me the grace and time to get used to life here. But now, with a ticking clock, and a down-hill motion of passing the half-way mark, my heart and mind are rallying to seek God’s one-year plan for me in Tarma. It is possible to accomplish great and incredible things if the Spirit would move and God would chose to bless our ministry. So this is where I am, finding myself at a defining moment. Will I work hard for the kingdom? Or will I just exist doing nice things for people for one more year in Peru? I pray to my Father in Heaven that He will use me for purposes more significant than that.
Be praying with me as I wait upon God’s direction and His plan for my final year in Peru.