A Season of Faith: The Battle is Waging

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

The Battle is Waging

Here we are, just a few days away from beginning the next phase of our journey. I want to take a moment to update you on the latest and then let you know how you can be praying for us. Last week our van, the one we use to pull our trailer. The one we were set to use to go wherever the Lord led us, the engine went out on it. This was a tough blow. The Lord wanted to get us to a point where our dependence was completely on Him. But He provided us with a newer vehicle, one that is a little more durable and will have no problem towing anything we need it to anywhere in the United States. Two days after purchasing this vehicle, He also provided us with a renter, who will cover our house expenses for at least a year. Now, our focus can be on what lies ahead and not on unfinished business in Minneapolis. We also gave away all of our furniture. We have about a dozen bins in the rafters of the garage left to come back for later. Other than that, we have a trunk and trailer full of stuff and our trust in God. So we are about ready to go.

One of the things Jean and I both agreed upon was to approach this last week not just as a week to prepare to leave, but as a week to prepare for something else. I do not have the luxury of just going and resting somewhere, because I need to be focused and alert to how the Holy Spirit is leading my family. Will you say a prayer for us? We are finding it difficult to transition. Moving is a lot more work than we realized and given we don't know where we are going, what we will need, or how long we will be on the road, it is tough to decide what to keep, what to store and what to give away. Also, the spiritual opposition we are facing has been intensified. I am used to the warfare given the type of ministry I do, but it has been turned up a few notches the last couple of weeks. We are dealing with poor nights of sleep, extra cranky and defiant children, as well as temptations.

So as we spend the next few days finishing up preparing, will you commit to praying for us? I have prayed everyday that every member of my family would be covered in the blood of Jesus. I have prayed for faith to increase and for the peace of God to overtake any worry and doubt. And I have prayed for the courage to keep moving forward when the temptations come to retreat and go back. Will you join me in this journey of prayer? And come back in a few days to find out how God is answewring your prayers and ours. God Bless!

No comments:

Post a Comment

Background: what led up to this adventure?

This has been about three years in the making. Three years ago, while attending a conference in Houston, Jean and I both sensed the Lord was telling us to begin to get ready for something. We didn't know what but we knew we had to start doing things differently. I started restructuring Community of Men and had a renewed passion for empowering leaders to take more of a leadership role in things. We sensed God was telling us to be ready in the fall of 2012.

Later that year, I began to get the nudging by the Holy Spirit to go and pay a visit to a friend in Alabama. I didn't know why and I began to pray for him. The more I prayed, the more I sensed I was to pay him a visit. Finally, in January 2010 I made the twenty five hour drive through all the elements nature can throw at you to see what God was doing. We had no money, but said we couldn't afford to be disobedient. It turns out God used me to confirm some things in him and I was blessed with the money needed to cover the cost of the trip.

Later that year, we took our first Family Ministry Trip. We left home with $500.00 in our pockets as we began our three and half week road trip that took us to Iowa, Nebraska and Colorado. God used every member of our family to serve other believers who needed some encouragement. I had received a vision from God. He showed me a map of the United States and told me that every place I saw a town, he had a remnant of people who loved Him and served Him. That was our mission, to be a support to the remnant of God's people. And it was awesome to see the opportunities that opened up to us and the ways in which God provided for our financila needs the whole way.

The next year, we sensed we were to take another Family Ministry Trip. The Lord had impressed upon my heart to go to Cody, WY, a town I had lived in when I was a boy. I had a vision of a mobile home park and the words "an overlooked people" in my head. So we hit the road, along with another family to see what God would do. He miraculously used us to draw people to Himself. And when we got to Cody we met a man who did ministry in a mobile home park where he told us, he and his wife ministered to the overlooked people in Cody. It was amazing to see how God had made that connection. He and his wife were doing a form of urban ministry but had no skill set or experience to do so. They had been praying for God to send them some help, and then we showed up. We ministered alongside them as well as doing outreaches in the local parks.

Which leads me to the latest thing. God had begun to impress upon my heart back in the spring of 2011 to resign from my current role at Minneapolis Believers In Christ and to begin to prepare for the next season of ministry. After going back and forth about it all summer, I finally decided this was God's will and I did so in August. That same week God spoke to me and said "Pack your family and get ready to move. I will show you where you are going when you are on the way." I consulted the scriptures and found a similar call God had given to Abraham. He packed up his whole family and left on a promise that God had a place reserved for him and that he would make him into a great nation. The Lord showed me that just the same as He led me to do all the things mentioned above and that lookinhg back I could see the evidence of why He did, this time will be just like all those others.

We do not know the full details of what God has prepared for our family. He has showed us glimpses of what we might be doing, but we don't want to get ahead of ourselves and try and figure out God's plans. We are excited to discover them as they unfold.

As I write this I reflect back to the time frame that we had always thought of and the time of fall 2012. That is a time when some obligations that we have to fulfill would be completed and always made the most logical sense for when God would open up the next chapter for our family. But faith defies logic. And often God's purposes for us require us to go by faith and not by sight, because He knows better than we can ever imagine what is in store for us. Please return to this site regularly as we update you on what God is doing, showing, and using us to do in the coming months. And pray for us as we take the biggest adventure we've ever embarked on. God Bless!

Brad Peglow
bpeglow@gmail.com
612-388-5320