By Eddie Aldape, CBF field personnel
We recently celebrated the early retirement of 13 of our colleagues and people kept asking me why I did not take the generous offer. A year ago, I was asking myself if my time of service had come to an end. Macarena had just retired, and things seemed to be stagnant.
The church we were most invested in decided that they did not want to continue participating with the community outreach. We could continue but they would not participate. The other thing was that our landlord first told us how we were the best tenants and that everyone in our building loved us but that she needed us to vacate the apartment. She gave us plenty of time to move but we were traveling to the U.S. to attend General Assembly.
Could this be God’s sign telling us it was time to go back home to the U.S.? The third sign came when our financial report arrived and once again, we were below the threshold of our operating budget and I needed to raise funds. I wanted God to be clear. Was our time over? Was it time to go elsewhere? Or were we to remain in Albacete? I am not good at asking for money/support so I have always said that if He provides, I will serve.
We returned to the U.S. and started visiting churches and supporters and at every single church they would talk about Jeremiah 29, when Israel is exiled to Babylon and God tells them to make themselves at home. They will be there for a while. I wondered who God was talking to. After hearing the same message several times, I said, “Okay God. If you are talking to me, show me the money. I must raise this amount of money before I can return.” At the last church we visited, a member of the missions committee approached us and asked how much we needed. To our disbelief, he wrote a check for the amount we had mentioned. Praise be to God!
Two months later a very generous offer was presented for early retirement. I was tempted to take the offer, but I had already asked God to show me His will, and His provision would be taken as a sign. He did His part, so I did mine for His plan.
We moved to a new location and God has blessed us with opportunities to serve as mentors to new partners who will be here much longer after we leave. Exciting things are happening, and our strength has been renewed.