This week at CI, I feel like Satan has been spiritually attacking so many of us, because it's one way to discourage us and diminish our testimony. Spiritual attacks come in the form of many things, including relationship crisis, illness, financial trouble, and reminders of personal struggles. It can also come in the form of attacking those close to you, so your heart yearns to be near them and help them instead of focusing on the ministry at hand. In the past four days, I have seen every single one of these examples happen to me or people on my team. Even on the very first day, I felt so overwhelmed by the burden of so many cares on my heart.
But I can see all those things for what they really are; distractions orchestrated by the enemy to keep me and the other teachers here from being fully committed to spreading the love of God to these precious children. In some ways, it's almost encouraging, because why would Satan attack us so hard if there wasn't a real, tangible opportunity to change these little hearts for Christ?
Last night, I shared on Facebook about some of the struggles we'd been dealing with, and asked my friends and family to pray for us. I also joked that they keep today in their prayers as well, as I was sure that Satan would send us a new challenge since he'd been very punctual every day this week! I was not "disappointed"; my wonderful assistant team leader came down sick and couldn't attend the evening session, and I began to become sick myself. It would have been so easy to just throw in the towel and say, "seriously God?"
But our Lord is faithful! Even though our team leaders were greatly reduced, God put a special blessing of calmness and attentiveness to the kids on our team, so we were able to manage with just one Chinese-speaking teacher and myself. I could feel the hand of God on our team, blessing the time we spent together. Instead of rushing around trying to wrangle small children into some semblance of a circle and attempting to make a craft without anyone hitting each other or bursting into tears, we were able to finish our crafts on time and even spend some quality time on a lesson. I felt like the kids listened their best tonight; better than any night this week.
I share this story because it's just one example in a long chain of examples of how God looks out for His own and puts a hedge of protection around those who ask for it. Satan is strong, but our God is stronger still and He's already won the victory. We do not need to fear!
Pictures in this post are courtesy of: John Huang
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| Elisabeth Corduan |
