It feels like this is the stage we are at with the birth center. We're out of the starting blocks, just like the Israelites were when they finally began their flight. We at Casa Compasiva have at least begun the journey 'out of Egypt' but now we are facing seemingly insurmountable odds. By this point onlookers might conclude that this is an ill-conceived plan and that we will be forced to abort. They might assume that the lack of committed, full-time midwives and the lack of sufficient funding indicates aimless, futile wandering around in the desert, with defeat as the end result. “ The wilderness has shut them in.”
But ah, they would be so wrong!
Now is the time for the Lord to rise up and contradict the naysayers, to get glory over all the impossible obstacles! Now is the time for God to show Himself strong—that the 'nations' looking on will know that He is the Lord! God orchestrated the events of Exodus 14 in such a way as to make it look like the Israelites were trapped between the sea and the pursuing Egyptians. He told Moses exactly how to camp facing the sea so that Pharaoh would conclude that the Israelites were trapped and desperate. He set it up on purpose-- framing the story in such a way that He would get all the glory over Pharaoh!
So do you get it? Can you see what is happening here? God has been setting up this birth center story in a similar way, framing it to be humanly impossible. When we first started on this endeavor a year ago, we had one fabulous, committed, experienced midwife who planned to direct the whole project. It was still huge, overwhelming in scope, and ambitious-- but do-able. Too easily achievable on a human level for God to get the glory. So God had to up the ante! Lo and behold, that midwife's plans were completely changed by marriage to a wonderful man, suddenly leaving us with no director. In removing her from the equation, God raised the project description from do-able to difficult. Yet we were still instructed to go on-- right up against the sea. And now, in withholding money and committed midwives until the eleventh hour, God raises it from difficult to impossible.
He is setting the scene, deliberately giving the impression that it is a lost cause.
But what was the end of the story? Obeying God's instructions, Moses raised his staff and the Red Sea miraculously parted, allowing the children of Israel to walk through on dry ground. The pursuing Egyptians tried to follow and were drowned, the threat of defeat swept away in an effortless move of Almighty God, all to His glory!
So we will wait here in the wilderness with our faces toward the sea--appearing helpless and hopeless, with no route of escape. But God. And with God on our side, who can be against us?
Casa Compasiva-- for the glory of God!
And Moses said to the people, “Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord, which He will work for you today... the Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.” (Exodus 14: 13 )
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