What Nona Freeman told Me
Nona Freeman
Some years ago, Sis. Freeman spoke on Sunday morning at the church I was attending.
I had been in agony to find the will of God for my life and to know the direction He wanted me to go in.
It seemed that the things I felt I had heard from God were just not coming to pass, that the way seemed blocked somehow.
It wasn’t from a lack of prayer, fasting or supplication. I had spent hours and days on my face before God and I knew I had heard from Him but it just wasn’t going anywhere.
I felt lost and confused, like I wasn’t doing something right and doubt had slowly begun to creep in. Honestly, I felt very foolish.
After the service, I was blessed to have a chance to speak with Sis. Freeman for a few moments and I shared with her what I had been experiencing. What she said shocked me profoundly.
She told me that she and Bro. Freeman had known for a long time, totally sure and convinced, that God had called them to Africa. No doubt about it.
However, she said that the Missionary Board wanted them to go to another country instead.
She said they spent 9 years working in that field and doing their best, knowing all along that this was not where God had called them to be. I was stunned.
She then said, “God often works through people. Sometimes things that are supposed to happen cannot happen until THE OTHER people get to where they are supposed to be.”
It seemed that THEY knew where they were supposed to be, but the Board did not and they could not go to Africa without permission.
She said God did some things in the place they went to, but it was not the fulfillment and success that they knew was meant to happen.
She said it took a lot of patience and prayer during this time and that they were so happy when they finally got to where they should have been to start with.
Sis. Freeman told me not to give up, to be busy wherever I was at the time.
Her advice to me was to WAIT while God was working on the other end with the other people that were needed to complete the mission HE had given me.
Those moments of sharing changed my life forever.
Even today, I am hanging on to those words.
First published: January 3, 2010.
~ Robert Blackburn
Incredible. Amazing.