“We will experience fatigue in the midst of a demanding ministry unless time is set aside to rest and realign ourselves back to God and his original design"― Wayne Cordeiro, Leading on Empty: Refilling Your Tank and Renewing Your Passion
We're down to month to go before our family take our first sabbatical ever after 7 yrs in ministry. (I def don't recommend waiting that long) We're excited, we're ready, we anticipate hearing from the LORD and growing more as a family.
exhale....
We're looking forward to rest. We want REST to be A primary responsibility for us. We want to model rest before our daughter, the kids in the community and most importantly, we want to honor the Lord in our service and we know we cant do that without proper REST.
One of the many, difficult ( I say difficult because we've failed in this many times) lessons I've learned over 7 years within inner city ministry is that, while people needs are great, and their expectations of us are endless, WE CANNOT base our life or ministry to them off of their expectations of us. Can you say potential burn out?!
I can't thank the Lord enough for friends, church family and mentors who not only hold us accountable for margins in ministry; but also, labor intensively over us making sure we enter and return from this sabbatical in a healthy way.
One of my favorite bible passages to meditate on as a intro to our time off is Isaiah 40:28-31
The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,and his understanding no one can fathom.
He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.
Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary,they will walk and not be faint.
I love this because it's the right slice of humble pie. HE will NOT grow tired or weary. We will. He gives strength, we don't. I think its very selfish, arrogant, and unloving to the people in our community when we choose not to take a sabbath from work. We give them a false view of God , of who we are and we definitely can be creating dependence on us that shouldn't be there. My prayer has been that the Lord would protect us and the people in our community from such results.
Please pray with us and for us as we enter into this time of REST. We're in need of finding a FREE spot outside of our neighborhood to live. One of the main reasons most ministers/missionaries don't take sabbaticals is because they cant afford it. We know this, we're experiencing this and we're asking God to provide, we trust that He will.
Lastly, we ask that you pray for our time as a family, our marriage ( we'll be celebrating 12 years while we are away-yay!) our spiritual growth and that we would hear from the Lord clearly as we pray and seek Him on a variety of things.
I'm looking forward to all that 2014 has for the Kings.