It has been more than 15 years, since I first began to ask Dewayne Liebrandt to come to Colombia and help us start a deaf ministry. It has been nearly seven years since he made his first trip. For six years now we have been working closely together to get deaf churches started here in Colombia. This morning we will attend the deaf church here in Bogota and I will worship in a language that I am not proficient in. It has been a great time of working together and God has blessed our partnership and the work. Dewayne and I have become close friends and it has been a special blessing to work together.
Now, the shoe is on the other foot. Dewayne has been asking me to travel to Thailand and help him with deaf ministry there, where he worked and served for more than twelve years. He wants me to do some specialized teaching in areas where the deaf have a special need. While I do not relish the idea of nearly 24 hours in an airplane to get there, I do feel a special calling to help with the deaf ministry and provide an opportunity for spiritual growth that is currently lacking. Added to this request, there are invitations to teach at our Bible colleges for the hearing there in Thailand as well.
When Dewayne comes to Colombia for ministry, he pays his own way from the ministry funds that God and his people have provided him with. If I am correct in wanting to go to Thailand to teach the deaf there, I feel God will provide me with the funds for the trip through His people as well. Currently it will cost me about $2,000 for the round trip ticket to Thailand for a teaching session. Our general fund and our travel funds are extremely tight now and so even here in Colombia I am limiting my travel.
So for that reason, I have chosen to lay a fleece before the Lord and ask Him to provide if he wishes me to make this trip. Dewayne is currently planning a ministry trip for early May and would like me to go along. I have placed both the trip and the timing in the Lord’s hands. If funds come in, I will travel to Thailand to teach. If we do not have funding designated for this trip, I will wait on the Lord’s direction and timing. So I ask your advice; should I travel to Thailand to teach? God will give direction through you as His people.
