Is it worth it?

 

We hardly ever talk about those who give to us financially, other than to say that we couldn’t be here without your prayers and support. We want to say, again: thank you to each one of you – not just all over the United States, but ALL OVER THE WORLD - who are praying for the Pal people and faithfully supporting us financially.

Yeah, Pal kids hate family pictures too.. although our friends are very happy to have printed family pictures of themselves. Would you consider adopting a Pal family to pray for? We truly believe that unless God builds the house they labor in vain that build it.

Years ago, we were ready to begin building our home in Pal. Ready in every way…except for the finances. We knew the large amount that we would need in order to move forward without further debt and we began to pray fervently for God to provide for us. We purposely didn’t tell our churches or supporters of the specific need, deciding instead to go directly to Him. We set an internal deadline for rescheduling the building trip…and a day or two before that, the exact amount we had prayed about was put into our account from a very unexpected source.

These supporters weren’t wealthy. Much later, when we shared with them the direct and specific answer to our secret prayer, they told us how they had saved for years for a trip to Europe and at the Spirit’s prompting had decided to give it to us – at just the right time, they later learned. We were humbled, thankful, and…dare I say it? A little sad at what they had given up on our behalf – well, not for us, we knew, but for the Lord and because of His great love for the men and women of Pal. I was hopeful that maybe in the future they would be able to take that trip after all.

We recently learned that one of them had been called home to heaven. Our hearts grieved and here, far away in Pal, I walked and prayed and cried, thinking of our dear friends and of the trip to Europe together that now would never happen. And wished I could have given it to them.

And yet…and yet…I KNOW that one – before our great and beautiful King – is even now hearing, with unspeakable happiness,

“Well done, good and faithful servant. Come and share in your Master’s joy.”

Is His joy worth it? My heart trembles with it even as I think of standing before that Throne.

Our boys know how to get down and dirty while playing…and they know how to help dad join them.

Sometimes we wake in the dark of night and think, “What if our Pal friends turn their backs on the Gospel when the time finally comes for them to hear in their language? What if they choose to stay with the old spirits of their ground or the new gods of ‘easy money’?” As the weeks slip by and we make steps ever closer to beginning to share the story of redemption, we face days of discouragement when everyone we see seems to have a request that we are unable to help with*, we ache because we are far away from our dear families, we face fiery arrows of all kinds assaulting our faith and hope.

This week I had a few difficult days and my heart was strengthened again in the truth:

He is worth it. And my prayer, like Paul’s, is that I may “…in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body.” (Phil. 1:20)

And what joy there is in the privilege of knowing Him, serving Him, walking with Him day by day.

Don’t count the work of praying for this time as light. We need and depend on your prayers as these weeks – full of literacy class, laughter and earnest discussions in relationships, Bible and lesson translation work, and the daily routines of homeschool, laundry, cooking and cleaning – roll by.

2 days from now: A specialist is flying in to help with a need that one of our kiddos has. Wow, amazing to have help like that here in the jungle! Will you pray with us that her time will be very effective and that we will get the help needed?

In 1 week: we will be taking more “Pal family portraits”…we hope each one of you will ‘adopt’ a Pal family to pray for! Recently a very bad cold has been going around and we’ve helped care for multiple cases of pneumonia. Pray that men, women and kids remain alive to have a chance to hear the Gospel.

2 weeks from now: we hope to make a ‘final’ decision with the Pal community as a whole about the location we hope all will gather for the ‘big talk’. We will spend nearly 4 months meeting daily as we carefully go through God’s Word and we have been praying for many months now about where to do this as our village’s hamlets are very spread out. Pray with us about this.

All praise to the One who is worth it!

Elizabeth for the Claasens

*Winner from last week: “My baby’s cheek is swollen, give him a shot right on it.” – my friend Owu.