Speaking of ministry opportunities in Ephesus, the Apostle Paul wrote, a great door and effectual is opened unto me. (I Corinthians 16:9) This is exactly how we feel after two years of closed doors for our ministry.
Delron returned from Liberia just one day before the international travel bans were put in place as the pandemic began to spread around the world in March of 2020. With those sanctions in place, we had to cancel seven trips that were already planned and booked plus all other international ministry that we would have done over the past two-plus years. Now, with airlines flying again and nations opening their borders, the Lord has opened the door to the world for us again. Amazingly, our first mission will take us to the general vicinity of the city where Paul experienced the open door he spoke of in the verse we have quoted.
Even though the invitation came with a very short window of preparation time, we didn’t hesitate to accept. However, Delron’s passport had expired will it was sitting idle for so many months and was still in the process of being renewed when we had to confirm that we could participate in the conference. Even though the passport service initially gave us an anticipated date for the new passport to be issued, we decided to make one more call to see if there was any possibility that it might be ready on time. In order to verify Delron’s identity, the agent asked for his birthdate and address. To our amazement, the agent responded that he was also born on the same day (although in a different year) and that he had been stationed in Colorado Springs while serving in the military – indications that God had granted us favor by connecting us with this specific agent. The end result is that the passport was issued that very day and sent out via over-night mail!
The training conference is to encourage and equip the leadership of the Muslim Background Believers underground church in a restricted nation who will cross the border from their home country where sharia law strictly prohibits Christian activity to enter a more tolerant Muslim country where we will be able to minster to them in a relatively free and safe environment. We consider this exciting and challenging mission to be essentially “the cherry on the top” in that it is not only an open door for our mission but a new door that has not previously been open to us!
