“When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord suddenly took Philip away, and the eunuch did not see him again, but went on his way rejoicing. Philip, however, appeared at Azotus and traveled about, preaching the gospel in all the towns until he reached Caesarea.”
– Acts 12:39-40
On a recent trip to Southern California our family had the opportunity to go sailing with a friend of mine. We had a fabulous time. The immensity of the ocean speaks to God’s glory. While sailing we were able to positions ourselves right in the middle of a pod of feeding dolphins. It was an absolute thrill to see scores of dolphins jumping all around our boat.
In addition to this awe inspiring experience I got to learn a little about sailing. For example I did not know that sailboats do not merely get pushed along by the wind. This does happen but it is the least effective way for a sailboat to travel. A sail can also create an aerodynamic force like the wing of an airplane does. When the sail is used in this way the aerodynamic force pulls the sailboat rather than push it and it can actually pull it at a speed faster than the speed of the wind.
Lessons from sailing for missionary service are many. For example sailing is not possible without wind and when the wind does blow the only direction a sailboat cannot move is directly against the wind. Likewise, without the movement of the Holy Spirit missionary service will amount to nothing and when the Spirit moves we have a lot of options as missionaries, but we must not oppose it.
However, sailing is more than waiting for wind and not opposing it. In sailing the wind creates all of the energy but the good sailor knows how to position the boat and use the wind to its’ fullest. The story of Philip in Acts is a good example. When the Spirit moved, Philip was not being pushed around by the Spirit unaware of what was happening; rather Philip was working in the midst of the movement of the Spirit. In obedience he put himself in the right places at the right times. As a result of Philips’ efforts in concert with the work of the Spirit an Ethiopian eunuch was baptized and many towns heard the gospel for the first time.
At the end of June we did not provide full allowance to all of our missionaries. After designated support funds were used up, we needed an additional $49,852. We used the entire $41,420 General Fund balance to bring the minimum allowance payment up to 81.2 percent of the target allowance. Of our 49 missionary units, 16 received full allowance and 32 received the minimum allowance. Thank you for your ongoing support and prayers.