Endurance, character, hope, and joy

Usually I find the space to write these blogs in the very early mornings, as the jungle comes to life. Tonight however, the sun has faded many hours ago, and the envelope of darkness seems to frighten even the beam and reach of my flashlight. I wish I had the bravery and courage of our Nest dogs, who go barking and chasing things that go bump in the night with reckless ambition.

But I think it’s appropriate for this blog to be born out of fear and darkness. After years of spiritual confetti and joyful blessings, I feel vulnerable enough to say that the Nest as of late has been under spiritual attack.

The weariness of the work, opposition and discouragement have come visiting us in various ways. The community around us while still accepting us, has experienced a lot of violence and crime. Last week we rushed to drive a young mother to the hospital to be with her 11 yr old daughter who was diagnosed with a severe kidney infection. While we were returning to the Nest, she called us in panic, having learned that her daughter had tested positive for an STD and admitted being sexually abused by a family member, whom with she had left in charge of her other young daughter while she was away! I had to drive the quad over to another village and retrieve the girl who was in tears, and deliver her to the Nest until her mother could return for her.

This story is not an isolated case, and it reaffirms the sobering truth of what God has sent us here to do. The police are also actively searching for the abuser of one of our Nest girls, who’s been reported to be back here, hiding out inside the territory. Of course concern of his retribution is heavy on our minds. There’s been drunken parties and criminal activity happening as well quite near to us, and it dawns on me that we here at the Nest are right in the middle of hostile territory.

Are we a light on the hill? Absolutely, but there’s a world of darkness pushing itself right up to our gates. That’s not figuratively but literally.

I know there’s a reason to be joyful in trials, when we have a target on our backs, and the enemy attacks, that’s no real surprise. It means we must be doing something right! But it still sucks.

It appears the closer we get to establishing The Nest as an official shelter for abused teen girls, the more opposition we encounter. After eight frustrating failed attempts to hire a lawyer to advocate for the Nest Shelter we think we’re finally making progress with a new law firm, which will enable us to get the license to operate with the federal child protection agency, but there are still hurdles to overcome in terms of appeasing the Tribal Council to approve us as well.

The Nest was and is born out of an organic, and spiritual vision from God. So to hand it over to the machinery of government and law feels very unnerving and scary. We have to trust God that He is in this necessary phase as He has been throughout everything else.

Last week out of nowhere, officials from the department of Health showed up at the Nest. Their first question was “ are you evangelizing and gathering children?” Summarizing their intent, we were told that the Tribal Council had sent them over to investigate us. It turns out we require a license to simply feed the children who come for our outreach, which we’re happy to do, but the whole thing just seemed more than odd.

Discouragement has also been a theme lately with cancelled church trips, and several previously faithful supporters gracefully bowing out of financial giving. I have to accept the things I cannot change, knowing God is still in charge and other avenues of support are waiting in the wings.

Perhaps the greatest challenge in bringing the Kingdom of God to earth, is that starting with me, then we, then everyone around me, have mountains of dysfunction and sin to deal with and somehow we have to sort it all out in order to find unity and a singular purpose in Gods mission here at the Nest. As Karina and I try to forecast years ahead who might be called and suited to succeed us, it’s like staring into a void. God has definitely hidden that intention from us.

And so?

And so we carry on, chop wood and carry water , as the saying goes. We continue with prayer and praise to our shepherding Savior and share that Joy with the Nest staff around us. We enterprise, incentivize, and encourage one another to the higher ground as a flood of trials gathers at our feet. And those four uplifting words I chose to title this blog with?

Endurance, character, hope, and joy? I purposefully took them out of context because the word that preceded them all is suffering. But even so, I find an incomprehensible peace settle over my heart.

I’ll let scripture speak for itself and then drop the mike on this blog.

Romans 5: 2-5

Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

James 1:2-4

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”

With love and gratitude

James Beach