We all have challenges. We all get discouraged. We all, at some point, experience the feeling we’re the only ones doing all the work. Yet the question lingers: “What are you doing here?” Are we following God’s leading, or are we running the other way? Are we doing what God has asked or are we focused so much on the problems, we’ve lost sight of God?Contributor: This week Ruth shares with us about the time when she went as a Student Missionary to Poland to teach English. She went to teach English...but was that her sole purpose? God was going to use her in a way that she never expected.

We all have challenges. We all get discouraged. We all, at some point, experience the feeling we’re the only ones doing all the work. Yet the question lingers: “What are you doing here?” Are we following God’s leading, or are we running the other way? Are we doing what God has asked or are we focused so much on the problems, we’ve lost sight of God?Contributor: This week Ruth shares with us about the time when she went as a Student Missionary to Poland to teach English. She went to teach English...but was that her sole purpose? God was going to use her in a way that she never expected.

Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.

Starting with Jesus

Heather Bennett

Reflect and Renew February 2023

From Wisdom to Foolishness

God Cares for Elijah

Mount Carmel

Elisha Accepts God’s Call


I went to Poland to make a difference in the lives of my students, but I don't feel like that's why I was there. I think I went for Helena. And even though I was discouraged in my dealings with the students there, I was elated to hear that Helena loved Jesus. Welcome to Reflect and Renew. Hey, I'm Katie.

I'm so glad that you'll be joining me today. We will be learning and growing together in our walk with Jesus. You will surely be encouraged and challenged as we study week by week and hear from the experiences of others. What am I doing here? Have you ever asked yourself that?

Maybe you know that God has put you right where you are, but it's hard and you're questioning your calling. That's how Elijah was feeling and we're going to talk a little bit about that today, but first have you checked out our devotional, Renew, Staying with Jesus? Go to our website, startingwithjesus.com slash renew, and you can read the free devotional every week we release 1, or you can email us at renew at starting with Jesus calm and let us know that you want the devotional sent straight to your Inbox so that you can be reading along right with us. We really want to encourage you to do that This week Merle focuses on the story of Elijah. And in the digging deeper section, she also goes into more detail about the significance about Elijah throwing his mantle over Elisha's shoulders, about his calling.

So you'll want to check that out but let's go back for a minute Elijah is there on the mountain with God and it's not just any mountain why is Mount Horeb special well Mount Horeb is also known as Mount Sinai That is where God had given the 10 Commandments, where he had met with his people. And now here he's meeting with Elijah. Elijah is so discouraged. In fact, when God is talking to him twice, Elijah gives him the same response. But God didn't leave Elijah there.

He didn't leave him alone in the cave. No, he had Elijah go back to work. Sometimes we think that a relationship with God is in all these big experiences. I know for myself and my husband, we are working out here on the Navajo Nation. And there are times when we are so depressed and we just question God's calling because it seems like there's just so many little things and there's no big thing.

But you know what? It's not in those big mountaintop experiences and those big, huge answers to prayer. It's sometimes in that quiet reflection in the darkness of a cave going what am I doing here? It's there where God is right with us a relationship with us that He wants to have. Each and every 1 of us has challenges.

It might be with our spouse. It might be with our kids. It might be with our relatives. It might be at our job. It might be at our church.

It might even be in ministry. We get discouraged. We face those times where we ask, what am I doing here? Did God really lead me here? Well, here's a question.

Did God lead Elijah to Mount Horeb? Yes. In that darkness of the cave, God was there with Elijah. And we have to ask ourselves, are we following God's leading Or are we running the other way? I don't know what you're dealing with.

I know the challenges that we've gone through. And sometimes I realize we're running the other way. And that's when it's time to stop and pray and say, Lord, Help me even though I don't understand. And in the midst of that running, how did God help Elijah? Well with an angel, right?

And then when he got to the cave there on the mountain, what did God do? He continued to call. He didn't abandon Elijah, but he called him with a still small voice. And he does that for each of us. You and me.

If you're facing a challenge in your life, I want to encourage you to study deeper this story. Go to our website startingwithjesus.com slash renew and study the devotional because it is powerful. Asking us the question, are we where God wants us to be? Are we doing what God has called us to do? Because God is ready and He's willing and He's waiting to refresh and renew us as we journey on together with Him.

Today we're going to hear from Ruth. She is a homeschool mom of 2. She's going to share with us about the time that she went to Poland in college as a student missionary to teach English at 1 of the schools there. But was that her sole purpose? Because when she was there, she was questioning, God, why am I here?

And now that she looks back, she can see that God put her there, not for the reason that she thought, but to be a witness and an example to someone unexpected. When I was in my third year of college, I was given the opportunity to go to Poland to teach English as a second language. I eagerly picked that opportunity up and went to a small town called Kołobrzeg on the Baltic Sea. While I was there, I taught all ages. Kids, adults, I had tutor students, I had classes in the evenings.

I somewhat enjoyed my time there, but I struggled. A lot. I wondered if I was doing the right thing in going to Poland. I was confused and sometimes I felt like I wasn't making a difference at all. I felt like God had led me to Poland and then abandoned me.

That hurt a lot, especially since I thought that he had called me there. So in my interactions with the students, I struggled to see how I was making an impact, how I was helping them even learn English. I wasn't even that good of a teacher. It was very difficult. I really wanted to be a good teacher there in Poland in Kowabszeg, but I struggled to find my place.

I lived in this little apartment block that stemmed from the Soviet era. I lived with a woman there named Halina. She was a mother and a grandmother and a stand-in mom for me. She knew very little English, next to none, and I knew very little Polish. We would have meals together that she would make in her little living room.

I would sit beside her. She would ask me to pray. I would pray in English. She wouldn't understand. Halina knew that I was praying.

We would sit there together and eat our meals quietly at first and then as the days passed we would talk in our very broken way. I had my English-Polish dictionary there beside me and I struggled to make sentences, but I tried my best and we made it work. During the day, I would sit in my room and plan. She would knock on the door, I would say, come in, or chodź, which means come in Polish, and she would come in and put 2 little mandarins on a little plate and some cookies and set that plate down on my nightstand. And then she would leave the room and close the door behind her.

I found myself feeling a sense of love and care for Halina that I didn't expect. Every Sabbath, she and I would walk the couple blocks over to the Adventist church in Kowabzeg. I would sit by the other student missionary that was there from Andrews. I was from Walla Walla. And I would sit there with him and Tom, the director of the school, and try to understand the preacher and what he was saying.

Halina would sit on the quote Polish side of the church and enjoy church with her friends over there. When there wasn't a potluck we would go back to her home and she would make this beautiful lunch for us, just her and I. Sometimes I would invite William over, but mostly it was just her and I. I was in Poland for 7 months. Not once did Helena and I take a walk together.

Not once did we go see the Baltic Sea together, even though I asked her quite frequently if she wanted to come with. Not once did we go grocery shopping together. We didn't do any activities outside the house together besides go to church. But we had this understanding between us that there was this sense of love and respect and regard for each other. It was absolutely beautiful.

When I had to leave Poland, at the end of my stint as a student missionary, I found it extremely difficult to leave Helena. I was ready to leave my students, even though I was a little bit emotional there too, just because I had been there for 7 months and gotten to know some of them quite well. But when it came to leaving Helena, I struggled a lot. I still didn't think I made a difference in the lives of my students, but I really, really did not want to leave Halina. I considered staying longer and then just decided that wasn't what was good for me and I didn't feel God calling me to do that.

So in tears, I handed her a letter the morning I left. Tom, the director of the school, had translated it into Polish for me, and so she could read it in her mother tongue. A whole letter from me, telling her how much I loved her and appreciated her, enjoyed having her as my second mom. Told her I would miss her and that I would pray for her and she made a difference in my life. When I went back home I called Helena twice on the phone.

She and I spoke for about 10 minutes each time and we told each other we missed each other. I asked what the Baltic looked like. She would ask me when I was coming back, and I said I didn't know. Years went by. That was 2009-2010 school year, and in 2014, Tom, the director of the school, emailed me and said with sympathy that he found out that Halina had died.

That was extremely difficult for me to hear. But 1 thing that Tom told me in his email that really stuck with me and that makes me happy even though the circumstances weren't that great. Tom told me that there was something different about Halina after I left. Before I came to Poland she rarely went to church. He rarely saw her.

He was even wondering if she wanted to be part of the church anymore. So I came and we went to church every single weekend unless Helena was sick, which didn't happen very often. We celebrated the Sabbath together. We went to church together. Tom told me that Helena continued going after I left, that she would be there every week, and that the pastor had been talking to her about possibly being baptized, and that she was open to it.

I went to Poland to make a difference in the lives of my students, but I don't feel like that's why I was there. I think I went for Halina, and even though I was discouraged in my dealings with the students there, I was elated to hear that Halina loved Jesus and wanted to be with him forever. Sometimes when we think that God is calling us to a specific thing, we think he's going to use us in a specific way and we have ideas in our mind of how he will use us, what will happen when we get there. And the honest truth is that sometimes we just don't know the impact we're going to have and sometimes we won't know the answer to that this side of eternity. God uses us in special ways that we could never imagine beforehand And I am grateful that he knows the end from the beginning, that he is Almighty God, and that he's working in and through us if we let him.

I am grateful for my time in Poland, and I miss Halina very much. May this devotional affect you and make you think about the ways that God is using you and to trust that he is using you in the perfect way that he needs to use you. Sometimes we just don't know the impact that we're having on those around us. Are you challenged by Ruth's story? How is God using you?

Is it in the way that we think or is it in His way? Are we trusting that he is using us in the perfect way even if it's not what we think or expect? Are we letting him work? Ruth expected to go to teach English to students, but God used her to help Helena. We have a challenge this week from our Renew devotional, and that is to think about your call.

What is your call? What has God called you to do? It might be in ministry. It might be in mothering. It might be as a wife.

It might be as a grandma. What is your call? Can you remember the first time that you recognized that call? And what have you learned since that time? I hope you have a journal or a prayer journal that you're able to write down thoughts as you study God's Word.

I want to encourage you to write these down. What is your call? What was the first time that you recognized it and what have you learned since then?" Makes you wonder what Elijah would write. What would he say? Oh, this was when I first knew my calling and then this is Looking back on his life.

This is how God led and this is what I've learned following God We'll have to wait to hear about that from Elijah when we get to heaven Let's close in prayer. Oh dear Lord You have such a calling for each 1 of us. You want us to have a deeper relationship with you. You have a calling for each 1. I pray that you will put that calling on our hearts, so that we will be able to trust you and follow you and do what you have asked us to do.

Give us the strength like you gave Elijah the strength. Give us The ears to hear your still small voice like you gave to Elijah and help us to come out refreshed, ready to do what you have called us to do, even if we don't understand, but that we will follow your leading. In Jesus' name, amen. ♪ This podcast is sponsored by Starting With Jesus. To find out more about other programs or to find out the links that were shared in this podcast, just check out the description box below.

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Reflect and Renew February 2023

Elisha Accepts God’s Call

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Other Teachings in Series

From Wisdom to Foolishness

15m

God Cares for Elijah

15m

Mount Carmel

18m

Elisha Accepts God’s Call

16m

Sound Doctrine