Greetings, church.
I’ve been back for four months so I apologize for this late post. I’m re-reading my last update and I’m right back there. I’m reminded again of God’s sovereignty, and how He is still teaching me about His sovereignty as I settle into my final year at Ryerson.
In Benin, my team and I stayed in our organization’s compound in the city of Cotonou. We had to drive a few hours out each day to get to the villages. Our drivers were often other local missionaries, but since there were 13 of us, our entourage of cars was sometimes driven by friends from their church or other people they hired.
During our time there, we had car troubles nearly every day. The first day we drove to a village, our 16-seater broke down. The three or four replacement cars all had their fair share of hard times later on.
One day, we were heading to a village, Agodenou, to show the Jesus Film and perform some dramas highlighting who Christ is. This is a village we had spent the entire week building a church and running errands for. We were praying that God would use our time there to bring many to Him. Excitement quickly turned into anguish when one of the cars broke down, stalling the rest of the group at a gas station while our leaders figured out what the problem was. I remember asking God, “Why is this happening? Are we being spiritually attacked? Where are You in all of this?” When we finally got a replacement car (and a new driver), we ended up being late in Agodenou, missing out on opportunities to invite the locals to come and watch our presentation.
There weren’t a lot of people there that day, I remember scanning the crowd for this girl that had been following me around; I soon felt her hand gripping my finger. We prayed for more villagers to come, but there weren’t many more. I felt so discouraged and it was then that God revealed my faithlessness to me. I found one of my teammates who shared with me that the new driver had actually asked him to pray with him to receive Christ!
In the midst of all that was going on, I was restricting God to work in the way that I thought He should – by driving without car troubles, by getting to the village on time, by bringing lots of people to come and watch us. Ephesians 3:20 it says that God can do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine (NIV). Imagine if He had done only what I was asking for! I would have greatly missed out on His blessing of allowing us to be a part of this new brother’s testimony. He orchestrates these moments all to His glory and allowed me to see His sovereignty over it all.
The God who was working in Benin is the same God we worship in Toronto. He is working and doing it sovereignly. Let’s expect great things from Him.