The Story in Maesalong (or, “What all those depressing facebook updates have been about”)
By Paul Vernon on Jul 28, 2010 in Ministry Updates
Before we get into all of this we have to first say a heartfelt “thank you” to all of you. Friends, family, strangers, leaders… you have all been so supportive of us and your prayers for Maesalong have been felt. I know that most of you follow us on facebook, but for those of you who don’t, we want to share some of the “lowlights” in our status updates over the last few weeks:
Maesalong Status Updates
- PAUL (July 18, 2010): …just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as ransom for many. “Matthew 20:28.”
- LORI (July 18, 2010): Heading up to the village tomorrow to attend some meetings. Prayers appreciated. In other news, psych is back and does not dissapoint.
- PAUL (July 19, 2010): lots of confusion in Maesalong right now. heading up there, but could use lots of prayer.
- PAUL (July 19, 2010): near disaster in the meeting this morning, but some well timed apologies have led to some more mature conversation. keep praying for our church and for the Akha of Maesalong.
- PAUL (July 19, 2010): is brokenhearted.
- LORI (July 19, 2010): really rough day today.
- LORI (July 20, 2010): home from the village, spent and brokenhearted.
- PAUL (July 21, 2010): reeling from the last few days, I’m sitting in a meeting with all the pastors in our organization unpacking all that is happening in Maesalong.
- PAUL (July 22, 2010): we get a break today from all that’s been going on. teaching at the monthly pastor’s training tomorrow then back up to the village on Saturday.
- PAUL (July 24, 2010): change of plans. instead of going up to the village this weekend we’re going to practice fighting this battle “not under our own power”. pray for maesalong.
- PAUL (July 24, 2010): heartbreak after heartbreak with news out of maesalong.
- LORI (July 25, 2010): up at 4am worrying about the trouble in MaeSalong. prayers still appreciated. this can’t be solved by human wisdom.
- PAUL (July 25, 2010): “sovereign stillness whispers ‘trust in Me’.”
So that should catch most of you up to the vaguery of our 140-character updates. Now for the background story, it’s fairly convoluted so please bear with me as I try to unpack it for you…
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So sad to hear your news! I have been praying and will continue to pray! love you guys!
Paul and Lori, We have beeen praying with you so much. Wow, our heart breaks with you. I know you can relate to our recent post about how we want stories to have good endings. These are not the fun posts to write.
We love you and what you are doing there. We’ll be back soon and look forward to calling you on the phone in the same time zone.
We continue to join our hearts with yours in prayer.
our hearts have been so burdened with you all. i believe that in all these things, God means it for good. it’s a powerful concept that has been breathing into my life recently. Not that what one means for evil, God will use for good, as though God is reacting, but that He means it for good all along.
Hey guys,
While we’ve never met in person and seldomly chat on Twitter, we just wanted you to know what we are praying with you. When we first started seeing the updates on Twitter/Facebook we really didn’t know how to pray. Now we do…