A lot can change in a day.  Yesterday, about seven hours after I posted that encouraging blog, we heard that the principal candidate turned down the position at ESSA.  He had come from a difficult position as prinicpal of another South African seminary that ended about a year ago, and probably wisely, he decided that he and his family weren’t ready to dive into another challenging position.
 
And so the seminary has a feeling again of being back at square one, or somewhere even behind square one.  There is as great a need as ever to pray, and keep on praying, for the remaining staff, all of whom we dearly love and respect, as well as the students at ESSA.  By human standards, there is far too much work for the staff to do, and far too little funds to hire any more staff.
 
Oswald Chambers, who seems to be hitting home lately (I just tweeted and blogged about him on the Into the Mud website yesterday), wrote “Our spiritual strength begins to be drained when we stop lifting our eyes to Him.”  He says this describing Psalm 123:2: “As the eyes of servants look up to the hand of their masters… , so our eyes look to the Lord our God.”  Oswald counsels not to stop standing tall, not to say this desire to take a stand is “just a passing impulse” and “you could never hold up under the strain.”
 
I pray this with all my heart for the ESSA staff, who are tired and overworked and left without much certainty for the leadership or finances they will have next year.  I pray they will be able to keep their eyes focused on their master, who asks more than we believe possible, but gives the very strength we need to complete the tasks he assigns.