Ask the Lord of the harvest....

Hello everyone,

There are some prayer requests that I’d like to bring up as the start date for seminary is coming up quite rapidly.

1) I sent in my security deposit for the 2^nd off-campus place, the one that I had emailed many of you about. I’ll write about that story another time, but, for now, the guy has yet to receive the security deposit. I sent it last Monday, and I checked with the guy last Saturday. I sent it to his mailbox address on campus, and for now, he’s living with some relatives till he can move in, so he doesn’t get to check it very often. Please be in prayer concerning this.

2) As many of you might not know, I have and am in continual prayer and trust in God to provide fully for seminary. This has included housing, the acceptance of the seminary applications, personal finances, finding a church home, and also paying for seminary.

So far, God has proven faithful in providing for my needs financially. Although I did not receive some scholarships/grants (because they turned out to be for undergraduates only), I have received a $2,000 scholarship quite un-expectant, which was quite a blessing. Additionally, I received $900 from my church for the first semester! Also, praise the Lord, I went from on campus living ($3020 * 2 semesters= $6040) to off campus ($237.5 *12months= $2850/year), so I’m saving about $3,000 and I can store my stuff for the year! The housing ordeal is quite a story in God providing for me, and as I mentioned before, I’ll definitely write about it another time.

God has also provided me with a job for the summer, with which I can use to pay for my housing at school, and for that, I am really grateful.

So all in all, I am trusting the Lord to provide for the final $1520 needed for this semester. I’ve been reading about George Muller and a book called Fresh Wind Fresh Fire, and have really learned a lot about the power of prayer, the work of the Holy Spirit and what it means to rely on God. I am asking that you all join me in prayer over this. I’m not going to ask people directly for money; rather, I’m asking people to pray that God will work in certain people’s hearts to support me in this need. There might not seem to be a great difference, but there is! By me asking, I can attribute it to my persuasive skills or how articulate I am. But by praying, people will be partnering with me… because of God (!!!!) and not because of me. Besides, just because there is a need, does not mean that we ought to jump to try to alleviate the need (there’s a little about that with the verse below. Feel free to contact me too for a further explanation/discussion). Rather, we should first pray that God will tug at certain people’s hearts to have a passion for that need and if we are given the passion or the heart tug for this need, then we are to act.

Doing this is definitely not easy. Earlier in the spring, I decided not to take the money that comes with the Chaplaincy program, which would have been about $6k because of the obligations that come with it. I also passed up $8,000 in government loans, at my mother’s urging, because bringing on more debt is not something wise for a future-possible minister (or for anyone for that matter). Both would have shackled my freedom to follow God right after seminary. That was really hard to do, because that is a lot of money, and at the moment, those looked pretty good. But, I trust that the Lord can and will provide. I trust that if He is truly calling me to seminary this semester, that He will work in the hearts of his people to provide.

In Matthew 9: 35-38, when Jesus saw the crowds, he instructs his disciples to “ask the Lord of the harvest to send workers out into his harvest.” He doesn’t tell them to start giving money, or to plan an outreach event or to even send missionaries….

rather… He told them to pray. Will you pray with me?