Courage
It was 8:30 a.m. last week Wednesday and I was sitting in a radio studio with a microphone in my face. I was on the air with Brad Bales, general manager of KNDR (104.7 FM), an excellent Christian radio station based out of Mandan. We’ve worked with them in the past to announce upcoming events, and this was no exception. We discussed the National Day of Prayer event at the State Capitol on May 2, as well as our upcoming gala scheduled for May 28 with guest speaker Tony Perkins. We were chatting and suddenly I saw a twinkle in Brad’s eye and he said, "This is one of these on-the-spot questions, but how can our listeners pray for North Dakota Family Alliance?" It was a tremendous opportunity for his listeners to lift up our ministry in prayer and I didn’t want to "waste it."
I paused as dozens of different things raced through my head; more donations was an obvious first answer, since our existence depends entirely on generous donors. But that somehow didn’t seem correct. Perhaps asking for winning more bills next legislative session? Maybe that God sends the right person to us for help with our abundance of administrative work? For some reason, I felt that those didn’t fit either. What I finally said was, "courage."
Over the past few months, NDFA has experienced intentional attacks on who we are and what we do. From being drawn into a lawsuit defending pro-life laws (more on that in a future email), to even more threats from those opposed to us, and challenges being thrown in front of us as we launch our new Legislative Academy and Church Ambassador Network. Our staff and their families have also been under attack personally on the health front. We are used to being in the fight – it’s par for the course in our work – but the intensity of the evil we are experiencing has definitely increased.
By the same token, we’ve been very blessed in many ways over the past few weeks. We’ve had a donor step up and offer meeting space (we currently work from our homes, to keep our costs low). Others have sacrificially given toward our work. Trust me, we know that your giving comes from your heart and belief in our mission, and we truly thank you for that. There are many other things that I can’t list right now, but I can say that it’s been amazing to see God work in this way on behalf of NDFA.
Clearly, dramatic things have happened in our ministry of late, both positive and negative. However, the defining characteristic of all these is the magnitude – something I’ve never seen in the eight years I’ve been in this role. God is doing something different; the winds are changing.
I mentioned this situation to my wife and her response was, "God is preparing you for a large battle." Not the answer I was looking for. A day later I was describing our situation to a colleague at SBA Pro-life and she said, "You know what’s happening, don’t you? You are being equipped to serve the Lord in an unexpected and much larger way than you’ve ever had to before." I didn’t particularly like that answer any more than my wife’s. Over the next few days, I received basically the same message from various other people. While I’m incredibly honored that God would choose to use NDFA to serve Him in an even greater capacity, I’ll be honest and admit that there’s a part of me that’s a bit apprehensive.
If God is preparing us with this magnitude of change, I don’t know what lies ahead, but I’m pretty sure that it’s not going to be easy. Then again, NDFA has not been around for decades to tackle easy things, but to address the hard things in public policy from a biblical foundation. It is truly an honor to fight for your deeply held beliefs in the political world, and we will keep doing that, no matter what.
In the end, that’s why I asked those radio listeners to pray for courage. Courage for NDFA to stand strong, and courage for those of us who are directly involved in its ministry. I have no doubt that God will fight for us in what lies ahead. However, that does not mean we won’t have to sail through rough seas. Your continued prayers are greatly appreciated, and we truly thank you for lifting up NDFA and its ministry to the Lord, whatever lies on the horizon.