*This is inspired by Jon Weece. Senior Pastor of Southland Christian Church in Lexington, Kentucky*
Jon Weece shares in one of his sermons titled “Everybody is important”…
The love of Jesus is free and freeing. The bumps, broozes, guilt and shame along the way are what qualify you to receive his love. There is a list that God has, an invitation list to the biggest party ever thrown. And EVERYBODY IS INVITED. Everybody gets to come to the party!… you have to choose if you want to be there…
Luke 15:8-10 (New International Version)
The Parable of the Lost Coin
8″Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Does she not light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? 9And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.’ 10In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”
Everybody is invited… so everyone is included. The coin represents something of value, something significant to you. This is the way Jesus sees us. We are something of VALUE to him. There isn’t a person on the planet that should think of them selves as a no body because everybody is a somebody because every body is important! Everybody is important because Jesus died for each one of us on the cross- because he LOVES each one of us THAT MUCH.
EVERYBODY is important! LOVE WINS.
SO I was thinking…If I were having a party this weekend and had to compose a list of people to invite… who would it be? I think I would look at it from another angle now… after being on this missions trip for 9 1/2 months I have learned A LOT and met A LOT of really AMAZING people. Gosh my list would BE SOOO LONG. I want to share with you some of the people that would be on that list… and their stories. I had to narrow it down and I started with the people who have made me laugh or smile or brought tears to my eyes in the last 9 1/2 months…
This is AnnaBelle (second from the right- grey tanktop… standing next to me). AnnaBelle lives outside of Manila, Philippines (her house is pictured above). AnnaBelle has a husband and three children (a boy- oldest, and two little girls- the older of the two girls is all the way on the left of the photo). As you can see Annabelle has very little, she lives in this shack with no electricity, no running water, no need to go on. She was the first person I feel in love with on the race. Tangi & I met her one day while walking through the village we were living in. We (Team Karis- back month one) decided we would bless the people in the area by making a sidewalk for them to walk on instead of the muddy path that they would use day after day, rain or shine (IN THE VIDEO POSTED). Where the kids would walk to get to school, the ladies would walk to get to the markets… getting their shoes muddy and wet all the time, the path was covered in garbage. While we were building the side walk we met Annabelle. Her house is right across from where we were building the sidewalk. She would come out every day and watch us as we played with all the kids in the area. Her kids are very shy so they would just watch from a distance at first. We approached Annabelle and we were happy to hear that she spoke a little english. She was ALWAYS smiling and waving at us, she had a very inviting personality. After meeting Annabelle we started to visit her regularly… daily. She would teach us Tagolig (language of the Philippines) and we would just enjoy each others company. One day we (Tangi and I) went to her house and we were sitting outside talking and she mentioned that she liked my earing… so I took them off and gave them to her. She seemed SHOCKED… but what was going through my head was… this is my opportunity to do as Jesus told us “Whatever you do unto the least of these you do unto meâ€� and “The best thing to do with the best things in life is to give them awayâ€�. With blessing someone else I was in turn blessing myself… not even knowing I was doing it. One day Tangi and I decided that we wanted to make Annabelle a meal… we were going to make MEXICAN. We brought cokes and ICE CREAM for the kids. She loved it!… but my favorite part of it all was that she went and found all of her friends in the area and invited them to come eat with us. So what ended up happening was we were able to bless more than we imagioned! We prayed that God would multiply the food… and he DID. There is no way that what we made could of fed that many people without Gods hand in it all. Annabelle and her family were a TRUE BLESSING to Tangi and I. I will never forget her. Oh yes and I forgot. The day that we brought Annabelle a random gift (a dress for herself, and some toys for the kids)… IT WAS HER BIRTHDAY…. and we had no idea till we showed up and gave things to her. Later the following week Annabelle had US over for lunch. She cooked all day and prepared FISH and green beans and more more more for us(picture above of the meal that day). She has very little money but she blessed us by cooking up a FEAST. Truely the heart of JESUS. When we left town to go to Hong Kong she came to where we were living to say goodbye and hug us. As we embrassed I felt her start to shake and saw the tears forming down her face… We gave her some photos we had printed off for her and her family to remember us. We met JESUS in the Philippines and she did not even realize it. She was the most AMAZING woman and I will NEVER EVER forget her. I know one day that God will bring me back there to Annabelles house and we will be reunited again! AND I CAN’T WAIT!!! LOVE WINS.
Thank you for taking a trip down memory lane with me!! It was fun to relive that memory!
I have many more people to tell you about that I would invite to my party if I were to have one… BUT I must go one at a time! So next time I have the chance I will tell you about CHINA!!!
LOVE WINSSSSSSSSSS. ALWAYS!!!
