I sat across from friends in Central America recently, exhaustion and defeat written plain on their features. You could say it had been a hard season—if a season could last for years. Uncanny tragedies, thrust-upon leadership roles, team conflict:...

Volunteer agreements…team dinners…event hosting…an internship program…the ideas kept coming. “I can do this!” I thought. “My gifts can really help this ministry!” 

“I can plod,” said William Carey, the father of modern missions. “That is my only genius. I can persevere in any definite pursuit. To this I owe everything.” 

Alone. Webster defines the word as “separated from others; isolated.”