the FACE OF MISSSIONS....PAST and FUTURE

March 1, 2010

Jeff and I drove to Dallas yesterday to share at an annual SIM related event sponsored by the church our SIM regional rep attends. During the 3 hour event, we ate a great BBQ lunch, heard testimonies from other missionaries, and were encouraged by so many prayer warriors. We met one of our supporters for the first time – a feisty 98 year old who told me that she supports 60 missionaries! Another lady in her 90s made a bee-line for us and although we had never met, she said that she prays for our family daily by name. She told us that she was so thankful to finally meet us. How humbling!

There were 6 other missionaries who spoke that afternoon. Since Jeff and I shared last, I used that time to silently rehearse what I was going to say. My testimony begins something like this:

I am so thankful to not only have grown up in a Christian home but in a home that was very mission minded. From a young age, I was encouraged to take mission trips, my family was always hosting missionaries and all my close friends’ parents were either training missionaries, had served overseas, or were preparing to go out. Behind the pulpit at our church hung a huge banner which stated the Great Commission – “Go into all the world and preach the gospel…” As I read those words week after week and heard incredible testimonies of real life missionaries, I thought, who wouldn’t want to sign up for this kind of life? In Jr High God sent a lady into my life who had worked in Africa as a nurse. I saw her pictures of malnourished, big bellied children, burn victims, orphans, and cripples and I just knew that I wanted to serve overseas as a nurse.

As I silently rehearsed, I looked around the table at my children who were very attentive, listening to the others and watching ministry videos. It was such a flashback to my childhood! An overwhelming joy washed over me. They are so blessed to be surrounded by such faithful men and women of God. I have always prayed use my children for your glory, o Lord, but then I realized what a ridiculous prayer that was. Being used is not an option for the Christian. Being used does not depend on Him, but on us – our wholehearted desire to be at all times in the center of His will. Lord, may my children hunger and thirst to be use by you.
There is no way to predict where in the world all my children will end up serving the Lord. It is exciting to think that perhaps one day they will be the ones speaking to a crowd and saying, “Not only did I grown up in a Christian home, but one that was very mission minded….”