Taken From Chapter 10 of "Always Enough"
by Rolland & Heidi Baker, Missionaries to Mozambique Africa
So as jars of clay we enter the spiritual fray by faith, straining toward what is ahead. It is amazing to us that He is able to qualify us for this fight. Just when we think we know how to minister to the one, a thousand or ten thousand more present themselves urgently and desperately.
We barely find time and patience to handle one drastic crisis only to run into ten more the same day. We pour out love and compassion one minute only to run dry and turn irritable the next.
We preach our hearts out and see vast response only to encounter great ignorance, misunderstanding and hardness of heart the next.
We receive miracles of financial provision only to be robbed and cheated on a grand scale the next. We teach faith but begging continues on all sides. We preach power, but the hungry die before us, forgotten by the wealthy.
We preach unity in the Spirit, but we have to deal with jealousies and offenses of all kinds. Our marriage, family and closest friendships are under assault every day from intense stress and impossible demands.
We are asked for counsel and direction as though we have the answers at all times -- How do we become missionaries? How will I support myself? Can I please have a truck? How can I run my churches in my district without a phone, an address or even a pencil and paper? We haven't eaten in weeks. How will I get to Bible school? What will happen to my family? Can you pay for my child's funeral and buy a coffin for us?
Every day requests come pouring into the office for finances, always for good, legitimate, desperately needed things. Heidi faces long queues all day long, every person in a tragic, difficult situation needing help. We see their lined faces and cracked weathered skin, survivors of Africa's harsh realities. There are so few employers to send them to, so few missions who will take them in, so few other churches that will teach them how to live the Christian life. Everyone is at capacity, stretched to the limit unable to do more.
Yet in the face of everything Satan can do, we maintain that there is always enough. We were advised to give up and leave Mozambique years ago, but we are still here because we believe the Gospel of Jesus Christ is adequate, and that in Him we are more than conquerors even as we lay down as sheep to be slaughtered.
We are, in fact, hard pressed, perplexed and struck down-but not destroyed. We don't know how we will endure through the day or the week. We don't know how to please everyone, answer all our e-mail, send all our reports, pay for every need and minister with anointing night and day. We don't know how to keep all our staff, brief all our visitors, reassure the disappointed, lift the weak and provide clear direction for everyone. We are only a few jars of clay! Yet Jesus has revealed that because He died, there is always enough, and we will never deny that revelation.
We are only jars of clay, but God's power is made perfect in weakness. And in all our weakness we will keep submitting ourselves to Him, that we can see His glory, that we can be part of His answer for Africa and the world.
We will always say, "Go to Him. Eat and drink of Him. What we don't have, He has. Be desperate for Him. Have faith in Him. Love Him. Look into His eyes. His body and blood are enough for all who will receive Him." And we know we will see more revival. We will keep testifying to the Gospel of God's grace.
