Not That We Are Adequate…

By Julie Mosse

In the Friday morning quiet, the shimmering vista of Utah’s Wasatch Mountains is breathtaking. Sun’s just coming up, and its rays are flaming, bolts of joy. Sunrises are the absolute antithesis of sad or tired. The meeting of hearts and souls in good conversation with good friends is too. So begins our week with Dave and Terri Butts, our good friends in Salt Lake City.


Last week at a German Bible school, with 100+ of our fellow SEND Eurasia missionaries, we heard of God’s hand working in and through all of us in the former Soviet Union, and were encouraged in our spirits from II Corinthians. We were ministered to as we listened intently to Paul’s words about the deep pain he experienced as he labored to be salt and light, the deep enablement of God in ministry, and the messy interdependence of the minister and those ministered to. II Corinthians puts a poured-out life of ministry into the most sublime context of God’s joy filled sovereignty...even the broken, untied, perplexing loose ends which are the reality of serving in the cause of the Gospel. Consider...

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God”

“Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God, who made us adequate as servants of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the spirit.”

“But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves; we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed, perplexed, but not despairing, persecuted, but not forsaken, struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.”

Ministry these last two years has cost us. But we are not alone. Sasha and Lyuba Abramov are counting the cost with us as they serve at Odessa Seminary. Andre Polylak is counting the cost as he begins fulltime village outreach after graduating from OTS. Ilina Podilok is counting the cost as she reaches out to her teaching colleagues with the good news. Svyetta Barabash is counting the cost as she raises her children to love Jesus without the support of a believing husband. We invite you too to count the cost with us and enter the joy of the poured-out life.