an ordained time

We've been on outreach now for almost seven weeks, and there are only 17 days left until we return back to Tbilisi. Kobuleti was a great outreach location, working with the church there. Now we're in Svaneti, a very different place than Kobuleti-- but great in its own unique way.

our team in Svaneti

I confess I felt a bit of conviction today. I can say that in some way, I've been counting down the days until outreach is over. "... 17 days until I will be with Wim again... in the comfortable city of Tbilisi... with all of my belongings and comforts..." In one way, its normal. Probably a form of home-sickness (and Wim-sickness) or something.

But in another way, it seems like a grave sin. God ordained this whole outreach, and that includes the next 17 days-- and I believe that He has a plan for these PEOPLE-- these Svans, who live and move and breathe without hope, without help in their times of need, without comfort in their pain and struggle, without God. And how selfish it is of me to think only of myself and my comfort-- knowing that God has ordained this time, yet stealing my heart from the present and placing it in the future.

I understand that I am not the savior. I don't need to make everyone repeat the "repentance prayer" after me. But I have a responsibility to let the light that is within me shine out for the proper and ordained amount of time. And I want to commit to that.

"But my life is worth nothing to me unless I use it for finishing the work assigned to me by the Lord Jesus-- the work of telling others the good news about the wonderful grace of God." (Paul speaking about himself in Acts 20:24)