Helen Jenkins

Thank you for your response, Cheryl. I know that you do know about refining and waiting on God. I have concluded that maturity is to put down the issue of ministry and simply be committed to doing what God leads us to do. No-one can stand in His way or thwart His purpose and He is sovereign in my life just as He was in all Job’s testings. The Bible says that we must not bury our gifts but must multiply them for His Kingdom’s sake. Those who make women bury their talents will be answerable for that, but they cannot prevent His purpose from happening. As you rightly say, His opportunity can be very different from our expectations. While waiting for His purpose to unfold, I taught religion at school and was able to tell the gospel to literally thousands of young people, so I was obedient to his command to ‘do the work of an evangelist’ even though that is not really my gifting.So opposition to my ministry (such as it is) only led to the furtherance of the gospel. I take comfort from the fact that Moses was 80 when his ministry began and Abraham waited 25 years after being promised a son at the age of 75, before the fulfilment of the promise. God gave Job double what he had before and God is able to do the same for me – and everyone else who is trusting Him through testing. Helen.