I have this favorite Wear His Word shirt that says “Let your Faith be Bigger than your Fears.” I was wearing it when I was reluctantly submitting the finished and refined Church of the Nazarene Articles of Faith StudyMap iOS app to Apple. I never knew that this shirt would later be a great reminder for me.
June 7, 2013
“Your app status is Waiting for Review.”
The moment I received that message on my email, lots of troubles, burdens and heartaches were lifted in me and all my lips could utter was “You are so good Lord!”
Since the birth of the idea for creating an app of the Church of the Nazarene Articles of Faith in October 2011, our department has tried several ways to make it happen. The journey was like a roller coaster ride.
The app was first created using PhoneGap a program that we hope would serve 7 mobile platforms but unfortunately it didn’t get through Apple. The development in PhoneGap took a long time to finish. After we were rejected on the first submission. We did everything Apple have asked us to do. We submitted it again but Apple ended up rejecting our application for the second time.
After our second try, we decided to wait and rethink what our next move will be. We were already feeling frustrated and almost at the point of giving up because we felt like we have given our best for the project. But I realized that God is not telling us to just give up. He has been with us in this journey and we only need to trust His way and not our way.
In June 2012, I was sent to MINT(Meridian International College), an international school that teaches development in pure Objective-C, the programming language used in developing iOS apps. I passed the course upon presenting the Church of the Nazarene Articles of Faith app as my final project. Although I was able to make the app in iPhone deep inside I am still not confident to submit it to Apple yet. I felt that I can still improve it and not settle for a mediocre work. So, I extended the development of the app to also accommodate iPad. The days of developing the app were not easy but I always hold onto Paul’s encouragement in Phil. 4:13 “I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.” He alone can give me wisdom, knowledge and intelligence. There were times when I just prayed, “Lord, make me intelligent even just for one day. Amen!” It sound funny but I am dead serious when I asked the Lord for that.
June 15, 2013
“You app status has changed to Ready for Sale”
Tears just flowed down and I could not say any word anymore. All I can say was Thank You God! We have waited for so long for this app to be approved. The Church of the Nazarene Articles of Faith App project not just helped me understand the belief of the Church of the Nazarene but it also opened my eyes to see His active work in me and through me.
