The Periodically

                                                         1. We are grateful our daughter Nicole spent two months with us this summer while she worked for a company in California. The internet allows you to do things like that these days. Nicole is 20 years old and will be starting her Junior year of college at Purdue University in just a few days. 2. We continue to have discipleship classes with our next door neighbors. We meet with Rosi the nurse and the elderly lady, Tere. Both are very excited and grateful for the gospel. The Lady Marisol had a conflict with her mother, who is Tere, and has refused to attend the class for over a month. We pray she will humble herself and come back, but also trust the Lord to reveal what is in each person's heart. 3. The third wave of covid is filling up hospitals and taking the live...

1. My mom has successfully moved into independent living in a senior residence center and is settling in well. We are very thankful. 2. Hope Alive! students are doing much better with the tutoring that we are providing while schools are closed than they do in their very large classrooms (60 – 100+ kids). We are looking for ways to increase what we are able to offer as schools continue closed due to the pandemic. 3. The transition to a new executive director for Hope Alive! is moving forward well. Caleb Smagacz is in Uganda with his family. He and I continue to meet via Zoom. The expected date for handing off the baton is January 1, 2022. I will then focus on fund-raising, partner development, and curriculum development and hope to travel to Uganda two or three times a year for a few weeks. Please pray that the transition will be smooth.

Often when we are experiencing hardship, our natural tendency can be to turn inward, focusing on our pain and isolating ourselves from God, the body of Christ, and those who sin against us. Often, we may spend hours crying, but we do not direct our cries to God (Hos. 7:14). We may think no person can understand the depth of our sorrow. We may simply have no words to express what we are feeling. We may feel too ashamed to draw near to God or others because of the devastating effects of sin in our lives. The last thing we feel like doing is interacting with someone who has hurt us. Even if we don’t actively retaliate, we very purposely avoid. However, Peter is clear that if we are going to glorify God in our suffering we must engage with both God and people. Our relationship with God is the foundational relationship of our lives. The quality, depth, and intimacy of this relationship affects how we interact in all other relationships – with ourselves, with others, and with our circumstanc...

Peter encouraged his readers to expect suffering. He encouraged them to embrace suffering – to accept it willingly because it is God’s will for His people and because of the opportunities that it provides. The teaching of Scripture is that suffering for the sake of Christ is a gift of grace (Phil. 1:28) that brings great reward (Phil. 3:9-10, 1 Pet. 4:14). Peter also encouraged the suffering Christians to follow the example of the Lord Jesus and entrust themselves to God. To entrust means to “hand something over to someone (usually a right or authority).” In entrusting ourselves to God, we give up our right and authority to do whatever we want to with our lives. We give up our right to do whatever necessary to make our lives turn out the way we want. We hand over the responsibility for the care, keeping, and outcome of our lives to God. 1 Peter 5:6 speaks of this attitude of submission. “Humble yourselves therefore, under the mighty hand of God.” Humbling myself means giving up the rig...

To expect suffering is the clear teaching of 1 Peter and the rest of Scripture. It catches me off guard less often now, but Peter also encourages the believers to embrace suffering. An attitude of embracing suffering is essential if we are going to respond to suffering in a way that glorifies God, but this has been one of the hardest aspects in my journey of developing my theology of suffering. To embrace means to “to take or receive gladly, to accept willingly, to avail oneself of (an opportunity).” Accept willingly? See it as an opportunity? Throughout my life I have struggled and pushed back against suffering. I have tried to avoid it. I have railed angrily against those who have caused my suffering and against the God who ordained it. I suspect I am not the only one who has felt this way. What makes it so hard to embrace suffering? Some reasons are obvious. Whether physical, emotional, relational, or spiritual, suffering is painful - sometimes mild, sometimes excruciating, but neve...