Description A time when everything seemed doomed to fail, yet I had to trust God's promises and stand firm This book is written first for believers who feel discouraged before the wall of reality, to remind them of God's calling and promises. It is also written to restore those who have grown weary from striving to expand God's kingdom in this world. After twenty years on the mission field, going through several major upheavals of seeking and wrestling with God, I have come to be able to share my experiences of His guidance and the fulfillment of His promises. / From the prologue God's continual challenges and promises kept coming into my life. And through my faith's response to them—through waiting and endurance—a longing gradually grew in me to live as one who pleases God. My own ambitions and drive faded away, replaced by a desire for God's will to be accomplished in me. (p. 8) Throughout every season of change, it is simply astonishing that I was still able to enjoy God's faithful guidance and protection. My family and I truly came to taste and know what it means to find peace in God alone. (p. 17) While praying, I seemed to hear a very sorrowful weeping in my ears. 'God, what is this weeping?' A thought came to my heart: 'It is the sound of God weeping over this people.' 'Oh, God was weeping too. He weeps this bitterly over lowly lives like ours!' (p. 45) I realized that the reason God established the school even amid impossible circumstances was because He had a special plan to bring about good change in the children He loves, through our school. (p. 114) 'Ah, God isn't giving me this hardship to make my life difficult. He gives it because He sees that I can walk through it with a smile. God isn't burdening me to wear me down.' (p. 220) Of course, it is not only when we choose faith that God's thoughts come to us. Even in moments of failure and wandering, God's thoughts can break through into us. That is why it is necessary to continually confirm, through the course of life, the direction we believe God has given us. (p. 241) In the end, this book is a story about 'God's faithfulness.' God is faithful, and He is the One to whom we can entrust our lives. David compared this God to a shepherd. Abraham and David, who both lived out the journey of the fulfillment of God's promises, lived the life of a shepherd. (p. 265) Bearing witness to the astonishing fulfillment of God's faithful promises! God designs our lives, makes special plans for us, and gives each of us a 'promise.' And whether that promise is great or small, certain or unclear, He surely blesses the life that looks to the promise and keeps the faith. A young man who finished his doctorate at Harvard and intended to devote only two years to the mission field has now spent over twenty years there. In that time, he had to move to different countries nine times. Through extreme climates, declining health, threats from people, financial scarcity, and countless other obstacles, the one thing he never let go of was God's promise. Of course, a life lived looking toward the promise was accompanied by long waiting, endurance, and bitter pain. The author confesses that he wrote this book to lift up those who have collapsed before a wall of reality that seems impossible to break through, by bearing witness to the process through which he learned about God, grew in faith, and matured in character and relationships during that time.