Iron Sharpening Iron

April 24 was a strange day for me. At 11:00 that morning I was struggling with strong emotions. One part of me was extremely happy, while the other was depressed. There is a good reason for my emotional roller coaster. On April 24 I said goodbye to a good friend Ken Rathbun. Ken came to teach in March for short term missions work. He taught a class at the Bible College, spoke at a few churches, and was the speaker at a singles retreat in late April. God used him in those ministry opportunities. And he was used by God to make a deep impact upon my life. Not through a sermon or lesson, but through his friendship.

In late March I moved into a three bedroom house. Ken helped me move in and lived there until he left in April. During April we bonded while watching DVDs that I had of American Television shows. But he also began to minister to me as we watched those DVDs. I am a fairly passive laid back person by nature. I very rarely demand things from people or become aggressive in any way. My laid back personality also lends itself to an “I’ll do it tomorrow” attitude. It is not that I am lazy and don’t want to work. It is just that I don’t like stressful situations. So anything that involved a lot of stress I would postpone.


Ken slowly showed me that attitude was hurting my ministry. Avoiding a stressful situation would only make matters worse. The best thing to do is face that situation head on and pray to God for strength. Missions work is filled with one crisis after another and by God’s grace I am supposed to face each one with confidence.


We had a lot of conversations about stressful situations we were dealing with, and how we could face those situations with confidence. As April came to a close I could see a change in the way I acted. When given a choice between one of two things I would actually choose one of the options instead of giving my usual, “whatever you want is fine”. But more importantly I was no longer running scared from stressful situations. I was thinking through them, praying over them, and developing a plan of action.


When I left the airport on April 28 I had a very hard decision to make. This decision would directly affect not only ministry, but the ministry of those around me. My first thought when faced with this decision was to do nothing. But my time with Ken taught me that would not be the right thing to do. I had already made my decision when I left the airport that morning, but I was scared to death about sharing it with others that night. But I did and God blessed the situation because I was honest about my decision. I thank God for Ken’s influence on my life, and for teaching me that sometimes it is okay to be aggressive.