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April 23, 2002
Dear Friends,
A Refreshing and Challenging Change
Prayer often centers on us, our needs and our wants instead
of what God might desire. Last Sunday we experienced a refreshing
and challenging change during the worship service when a member
walked to the front and shared from Habakkuk’s prayer. She
prefaced her reading with the oh so painfully familiar litany
… "Each of us has prayed so hard for new leadership
in the country. We prayed that the president would be defeated
and the new party take over. We prayed for this because we were
so sure this was to
be God’s answer for us. But it didn’t happen. And we
were devastated, weren’t we?" Then she slowly looked
across the crowd. With her eyes seemingly fixed on each one of
us, she said, "Now, I want us to take great courage from
the words of Habakkuk 3:17-19.
Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes
on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce
no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in
the stalls, "yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful
in God my Savior.
She paused for a moment and then continued,
The Sovereign LORD is my strength; he makes my feet like
the feet of a deer, he enables me to go on the heights.
Instead of being defeated by the perceived negative outcomes
of the election and the devastating drought conditions, God made
this woman, and all of us, stronger. He is strengthening the Church
in Zimbabwe through hardships and discouragement. It seems that
it is in times of hardship and struggle when the faith of God’s
people is the strongest. We may not understand why certain things
have happened, but we can rest confidently in the eternal truth
that God will work through these circumstances for our good and
His glory.
Please join us in praying for the Church in Zimbabwe. And pray
that our faith will be like the faith of the Christians here,
that no matter what, "we will rejoice in the LORD, we will
be joyful in God our Savior."
In the Name of Jesus our Savior,
Bob and Bobbi Snyder
The 2002 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 53
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