Getting My Feet Wet

So it’s the end of my third week at First Glance. For those of you who don’t know what First Glance is or how I got here read my previous posts below. Just a quick update financially. I am about half way funded for the next two years. It has been an amazing experience as I have watched your support and love pour in. I can’t describe to you the feeling you get when you feel completely blessed by God as new support comes in. It is an amazing feeling to step out in faith then see God provide. It is such a faith building experience. I continue to pray that more support would come in so I can continue my ministry. I know that God will provide.

I have another circumstance which I am praying for and I ask you to pray with me. The house I and my roommates currently rent is getting foreclosed on. This means I am going to have to move very soon. This is both a blessing and a curse. It is not ideal because this means I have to move very quickly. However, this is God providing in a way because I desire to move into Kenmore amongst the people I am ministering to. We could not have gotten out of our lease this quickly and I did not want to leave my roommates in the “lurch”. It is definitely an answer to prayer for me. However it is causing me to really have to trust God more because I don’t know my living situation after October 1st. Would you join me in praying that God’s will would be done whatever the situation, but also pray that God would provide affordable housing in the area I am ministering. Pray that I would be ale to discern God’s leading.

One area I have been struggling with as I start out on this new adventure is discerning God’s voice among all the others. I feel like the more I seek him the more I seem to have to struggle to find him. I believe part of this is due to the fact that Satan does not like how I am following after God and he is throwing a lot at me to try to confuse me. I believe also at time God allows us difficulty in seeking him to grow our faith. I have taken comfort and hope in Psalms 42

1 

As the deer pants for streams of water,
    so my soul pants for you, my God.

2 

My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
    When can I go and meet with God?

3 

My tears have been my food
    day and night,
while people say to me all day long,
    “Where is your God?”

4 

These things I remember
    as I pour out my soul:
how I used to go to the house of God
    under the protection of the Mighty One[d]
with shouts of joy and praise
    among the festive throng.

5 

Why, my soul, are you downcast?
    Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
    for I will yet praise him,
    my Savior and my God.

6 

My soul is downcast within me;
    therefore I will remember you
from the land of the Jordan,
    the heights of Hermon—from Mount Mizar.

7 

Deep calls to deep
    in the roar of your waterfalls;
all your waves and breakers
    have swept over me.

8 

By day the Lord directs his love,
    at night his song is with me—
    a prayer to the God of my life.

9 

I say to God my Rock,
    “Why have you forgotten me?
Why must I go about mourning,
    oppressed by the enemy?”

10 

My bones suffer mortal agony
    as my foes taunt me,
saying to me all day long,
    “Where is your God?”

11 

Why, my soul, are you downcast?
    Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
    for I will yet praise him,
    my Savior and my God.

I hope this encourages you to seek God during your “dark’ times when God does not seem to be near.

The first three weeks have been a learning process as I learn about First Glance and how it operates. I have also enjoyed learning about new students I meet and learning about the culture of Kenmore and the inner city. I have been blessed to meet with numerous experienced leaders from various ministries in Akron and have been trying to soak up their advice and input. It has been very valuable as I seek to follow Jesus and get to dialogue with people who are further ahead in the journey then I am. I pray that God gives me the grace to be humble and realize I will make mistakes, and I can’t do this on my own. It has been exciting to see how First Glance is entering into a season of harvest and I am blessed to be a part of it. I hope you can be blessed in sharing with us in it as well. If you ever want to physically come and be a part of First Glance our doors are always open for more Christlike volunteers. Contact me if you want more information.

Love as a brother in Christ,

Benjamin Rahe