Just recently I have been teaching all my classes various units on Ecology and one of the things we talk about a lot are resources. We talk about types of resources, resource partitioning, resource depletion, and recycling of resources to name but a few topics related to resources.
Abundant resources of water and energy are available to us.
As students prepare for exams we have been talking about their resources – time and energy and how to use those so that they can gain the most benefit.
I also have been doing some planning for our upcoming home assignment from July 2017 – July 2018. I have been exploring resources available to us as we set up for a year. In the past we have bought a car or van each year we are home and then sold it at the end of the year – or more often than not, someone else had to actually buy the vehicle for us before we arrived in the country and then sell it once we left since we needed a vehicle from our first day until our last day in the US.
This is the resource available to us but that we are choosing to allow a family to receive who need it more than we do.
This is more like the vehicle we think we need for the coming year.
So I considered a ministry that leases (at great prices) vans to missionaries while on home assignment. It seemed like a great deal but their number of vans is limited (and thus the families they can help is limited), most vehicles are in St. Louis and we will be in California, and we really don’t need a van any more with only two of us. So I have decided that this is a resource I need to make available to someone else and consider again our options. Please join me in praying that the right resources will be available for our needs this coming year.
Another resource that has been on my mind recently is that of education. This is partially because schools in some regions of Cameroon have been closed for months due to political struggles and strikes. The denial of education is resource that is not easily replaced. Likewise at RFIS, we are trying to plan how to stretch the resources available to us for next year.
Who is going to teach Science classes next year?
Currently the school does not have enough teachers to offer the program we would like, especially in the sciences and math. So we are looking for teachers to come and volunteer for a year or two in a wide variety of areas. We are thankful that Carl and Marcia Elwood have come forward with a desire to serve as hostel parents next year.
Carl and Marcia Elwood have been called to serve as hostel parents. If you have resources that can help support them, please go to this link .
That will mean that we will not have to turn away boarding students who need a place to live while they attend school. However this resource could be wasted (or not used here) if they cannot raise the support they need to come and serve as hostel parents. So financial resources need to be raised in order for these human resources to fulfill their call.
So many resources are available and so many are needed. Unfortunately they don’t always get partitioned in a manner that allows all the needs to be met. Will you join me in praying for the right resources to be available to the right people in the right places at the right times? We know God has abundant resources which He gives to us to use (or misuse) in the world around us. Thanks for joining us in striving to use our resources in ways that will bring growth and healing to our fractured world.
