Unfortunately, ministry comes with unforeseen challenges. Whether you do ministry in your community or in communities across the world, you will have challenges. On our 10-day mission to Mozambique we experienced many challenges. Getting stopped at the airport by customs and being told we were not going to be allowed to enter the country, being stopped randomly by police who falsely claimed we needed a visa or an international driver’s license in an attempt to get money from us, being denied entry to a prison, inmates yelling at us who did not want us in their prison, flight being delayed 11 hours, my son getting sick, our vehicle being broken into, having arrived in Mozambique when their currency was being changed and some places taking the new currency and some not, and the rental car company only having manual vehicles available. Challenges happen when doing ministry. Paul speaks to some of his challenges in 2 Corinthians 11:25-28 which seem way worse than ours, “Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been in the deep; in journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; in weariness and toil, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness—besides the other things, what comes upon me daily: my deep concern for all the churches.” As challenging as his mission was, he still kept his focus on the churches. He was concerned with the work the Lord had sent him to do which was to plant and empower churches. You never read of Paul saying the challenges were too much and he decided to give up and just return to Jerusalem, quite the contrary, he kept going in the name of Jesus. James’ epistle tells us to, count it all joy when you fall into divers temptations; knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. – James 1:3 Going through things has the benefit of making us more patient. Be encouraged in whatever ministry God has given you, which will have challenges, they do not mean stop; stay the course. Furthermore, our testimony is that the Lord brought us through it all and the work that He empowered us to do was completed. The bottom line is He is always with us, as He promised. God told Jeremiah when He called Him and sent Him to do the work of the Lord that, “They will fight against you, but they shall not prevail against you. For I am with you,” says the LORD, “to deliver you.” – Jeremiah 1:19