I rejoice at the good work the Lord accomplished through us this past week! Praise the Lord for all that He has done! I am so thankful for the friendships made, the ministries we served, and the team that came together to do it. To hear one of our daily reports read here.
Looking back over this past week and our local service here in our city, the Lord really impressed me with a few lessons:
There are so many needs in our backyard!
I am amazed how easily deceived I have been into thinking that frontier missions is where we need to send the laborers. The Great Commission is a call for one and all to go forth and share the love of the Christ. Not all are called to a foreign field, but all are called to serve where you are. The gospel can be so clearly communicated through the demonstration of Christ’s love in service. Serving others opens the doors for the gospel! There were widows that needed the love of Christ and why not demonstrate and communicate it through cleaning their backyards? There were homeless men and women whose hearts were touched and more receptive to the gospel because we gave them a pair of flipflops! How simple is that?
Families serving together is a powerful witness to the world – including the little ones!
The family model in our day and age is disintegrating. We need the witness of families (small and large, father, mother & children) out there serving and showing others a picture of godly families. I was blessed by how the Lord impacted two of my younger siblings (Brandon & Brooke, age 10), throughout the week. In our debriefing gathering on Saturday evening, you could see how their hearts were powerfully touched by serving others. They opened up in prayer several times for those we met, and they shared how they had such a fun time serving others as a family. They had worked really hard throughout the week.
One of the days, a gentleman that was heading up the project, Chuck, was so impressed by Brandon’s diligence, he commented, “He gets two stars, he is such a hard worker”. That is a testimony! Why leave the children behind? This is an opportunity to serve together and implant seeds of compassion in their hearts as they see the needs around them. IT was beautiful to behold! Young Anna, age 3, joined our team for four of the six days along with her mother and brothers. She worked hard, and although she may not been able to accomplish much, she was serving together with her family and learning much about working, serving, and loving others I am sure.
Don’t waste your life
After witnessing the needs in my community, and realizing the great love that Christ has poured out for me, I was filled with a renewed passion to want nothing else but Jesus and Him alone! Nothing else matters eternally- the pursuit of materialism, money, a nice home, comfort in this life – oh that all these temptations the world presents us would fall away from my view! I want Jesus and I want to serve Him alongside my husband and children in complete abandon for the building up of Christ’s Kingdom! From this moment, I am able to see that I have no excuse. Whether I have one or ten children, we can serve together in the cause of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
For a powerful call in this direction, read Don’t Waste Your Life by John Piper & Ministries of Mercy by Tim Keller.
We are eagerly looking forward to further service in our community! We desire for this not to happen just once a year, but on a regular basis! We are going forth from here with eyes opened to see the needs. Where can we serve others and share the love of Christ today, tomorrow and for the rest of our lives?
I am finally getting caught up on responding to e-mails and comments from this past week, so I appreciate your patience with me. For now, I need to take a little nap as this blueberry in my womb (the size of my baby now at 7 weeks) is making me tired…How in the world can a blueberry zap all my energy?
