Renewed in His Presence

Coming back to Nicaragua after being in the States for three weeks, I wanted to spend significant time with our staff at each of their ministry sites. I wanted to connect, to listen, to  observe, to encourage, and take the overall pulse of how everyone was doing.

It was great to join the staff, hear their stories, and talk with people to whom the staff minister in the community.  In our absence, the staff had done a great job of faithfully fulfilling their ministry responsibilities just as I had expected.  I did however get the sense that they were feeling somewhat depleted physically, emotionally, and spiritually.                                          
As we talked about this, we decided to set aside an afternoon for a retreat.  We cancelled the afternoon's ministry activities and met at the Students International base with our bibles, journals, devotional books, and personal worship music.  We had no programmed agenda other than each of us getting alone with God and drinking deeply of his Word, his grace, and his presence.

The words of Isaiah are so true, "those who wait on the LORD shall renew their strength".