Teachable Moments

I am learning African geography... Sudan borders Uganda's north. I don't know much about politics, but I know the basics: North Sudan is scary. South Sudan is not so scary. Wherever Jesus leads is not even a little bit scary. Okay, it could be a little bit scary, but only when our eyes are on the big waves we happen to be walking on. (Matthew 14:29-31)

There are three churches in South Sudan with pastors that are really starving for encouragement. They are pretty isolated and seem to be growing weary in well-doing. Theresa has been a missionary in the Uganda/Sudan area for almost 10 years, and she knows these guys really well. She knows they need a Jesus-loving man to come alongside and cheer them on. Tyler has been praying about this for months, and today was the day. So this morning, a team of 6 went for a motorcycle ride up to Sudan.

Micah was bummed that Tyler was leaving. I told him that Daddy is just living like Paul the apostle. He travelled around to different churches to encourage the people to keep following Jesus. He sent them letters and walked for days to get to these different places. "Ephesians" isn't just the name of a book in the Bible. It's a letter to specific people from a place called "Ephesus." There was no FaceTime then, so Paul had to write letters.

Micah said, "Yeah, but Paul didn't have a family to leave behind when he went to visit those churches." I had him open up to 2 Timothy 1:1-4. He loved Timothy like a son and couldn't wait to see him again. He even knew Timothy was crying. But, Paul knew what God's will was for his life and had to do it.

Micah was not so impressed by this spur-of-the-moment sermon I was giving.

I told him, "When Daddy gets to heaven, God will say, 'Tyler, this crown is for obeying Me when I asked you to go to Sudan.' And a few years later, if you submit your will to God in this, you will stand before the Lord and He will say, 'Micah, this crown is for releasing your Daddy to do my will because you knew my plan was best.'"

Jonah piped in, "And will we get to wear those crowns?"

I said, "No. We will give those crowns back to Jesus because we know we don't deserve them. We have no strength in us at all to do hard things. He is the One who helps us to go, or stay back."

Tonight we were praying together before bed time. We prayed for the pastors in Sudan and that God would fill Tyler and the rest of the team with words of encouragement and really bless their time there.

And nobody cried for their Daddy at bedtime.