ja_koniga

April 3, 2011

Dear praying friends and family,        

One day in early February some friends from church watched our kids so Melissa and I could spend the day fasting and praying about what God was doing and what exactly He was calling us to do.  Several things kept coming up as we prayed and read Scripture.  The end result of that day was a certainty that I could not continue to effectively divide attention among so many things.  Good and necessary though they seemed, if we were to be effective in the most important things to which it was clear from what God had been doing before that and what he had shown us that day, something needed to go.  God clearly showed us that we need to pursue ministry with more fervency, or clearly ministry will continue to suffer.  So I determined that I was going to fulfill a commitment made in October to build a 36x24 addition to a house for someone, and then we were going to step up to pursue fulltime ministry and trust God to provide the needs for our family of six.  Two days later I started that addition.  The first step was to tear off part of the roof of the existing house so I could tie into it.  Over the years, I have done many complete roofs much larger than this little part of roof I removed; always my back has hurt – that’s just the nature of the beast!  That was Saturday.  Sunday – no work.  Monday – back to work.  I noticed that my back was still hurting; again, that’s the nature of the beast.  However, this time it seemed worse, but I was already at the point of no return.  To make a long story short, I am now awaiting a May 4 appointment with a neurologist to see what is going on.  My general physician, who said based on the MRI report that I shouldn’t be doing anything but lying down, is “concerned” (I didn’t tell her I was building a house).

Naturally, this has changed operations here at Pilgrimage, since I am currently not able to do all that I am used to doing.  However, this has been a good thing, and has prevented me from drifting off the course God showed us before this happened.  For one, it has given me a reason/ incentive to turn down some paying jobs.  I have a hard time telling people “no”… besides just wanting to please people, there is a great hesitation to give up the income, especially when I am responsible to provide for a wife and four kids.  Of course, this also changes the financial needs of Pilgrimage dramatically, as suddenly staff that has worked for a salary around 30-40% from Pilgrimage and the rest from outside work is now looking to receive 100% salary.  Although, I have been getting some income for preaching the past several weeks, Melissa is starting to decorate and sell cakes, and God has provided in some other ways.  Secondly and more importantly, it forces me to seek help in projects I have always just taken on myself (perhaps that is partly what has brought me to this point to begin with).  So I am becoming more aggressive in asking people (individuals and groups) to volunteer their time and talents serving the Lord here.  Since I started here, this has been a weak area for me.  It is easier to just write a letter describing what needs to be done or make a list and hope somebody volunteers to help; then when they don’t respond, which typically people don’t, I just do things myself.  Call it laziness of not bothering to ask for help, chalk it up to “it’s just not my gift” to recruit, call it a prideful attitude of “I can do this myself”; whatever it is it now has to stop.  For one, I’ve been told by God, and two, He has now put me in a place that I can’t keep working like this. 

We have been asking you to pray for God to develop new connections to further the ministry.  Part of this request is to involve more people in the ministry.  It’s more than just a request to accomplish some never ending list of projects.  This is a request for lives to be changed as people become involved in God’s work.  There are plenty of great opportunities for Christians to be involved in God’s work, and contrary to how it sometimes seems, there are NOT more opportunities than there are Christians!  There are just more opportunities than there are willing and surrendered Christians.  Our prayer, our aim is that God would use the opportunities here to move people to a place that they realize how God can use them, they can get a taste of serving Him, and as a result they would come to the point of being one of those willing and surrendered Christians that God uses to change the world [through their church].

Related to this is a request we had last month (and many times before) for God to continue to work in the life of the youth we have discipled in some case for as many as ten years or more.  This week, one requested prayer for knowing how to be more involved with missions.  What a huge encouragement!  What a confirmation that God is using Pilgrimage-Cedar Springs in the way I just suggested He can – this youth has had ample “tastes” of serving God, and is coming to a point of complete surrender!  Oh that more would get this “taste” in their mouth, and discover the joy and satisfaction that comes with living this way every day seeking and then putting God’s will above their own. 

Thanks for your prayers and support,

-Phil & Melissa Pinto