I’m laying on my creaking, wiggling, bunk bed, that I share with Lauren E. We’re staying at the “Happy Hostel” in the capital city of Romania, Bucharest. There are 15 of us in one tiny room, and all 50 of us are sharing 3 bathrooms, which contain one glass covered shower and one toilet. Oh yeah baby, welcome to the world race accommodations!
I’m four months into the race, and I’ve had four great individual short-term missions trips. But on our last day in Albania as the National director of CRU gave a little talk, I finally caught the vision! I mean seriously, I don’t know what I thought world missions was before, but I know I didn’t have a heart for it like I do now.
I’ve been to Haiti on short-term trips eight times (I think). I’ve gone over to Switzerland for a month to serve a small church there, and I’ve helped out on an evangelistic team to Canada. Then I signed up for the biggest missions trip of my life, the World Race. And yet I didn’t grasp what the real purpose of the world race was! I thought it was so cool that we got to see and experience so many different countries and cultures. I saw this missions trip as serving God by going to un-reached people, helping out, giving of myself, having a great experience, growing personally, sharing the good news of Jesus with people and then going home. I didn’t have a vision for what reaching the world looks like. My desires were good and I will be doing all of those things, but there’s more!
You know how the Bible talks about all us Christians, collectively, being THE CHURCH. Well I never honestly thought of the church working together worldwide. I was passionate about the different churches in my area being united and working together. But this body of Christ, that I’m a vital part of, includes all believers everywhere! And the simple fact is that we all need each other!! Each individual and each country has a special part to play, and a job to do, in the great commission that Jesus has left us with. We all, and that includes you, every individual and every nation, needs to be united and pushing forward together.
God really gave us a great analogy when he used our physical bodies to describe his spiritual body – The Church!
Collosians 1:18 And he (Jesus) is the head of the body, the church
I’m no anatomy person, but I do know what is contained in every persons head, a brain. Applause… yes, I guess mine is still working ;).
The brain tells the rest of the body what to do. Since Jesus is the brain and we (believers) are the body, we take our commands from HIM! We move, carrying out HIS thoughts, HIS desires, HIS wishes, and HIS goals! As an individual believe and as the Church (universal body). As in a functional human body, the appendages, and organs, and everything else we have, all work together for the good of the whole body. Are you getting the picture here, Christians are a body. We all work together for the good of the body and to accomplish what our head (Jesus) tells us to do.
Matthew 28:19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.
You and I are different for a reason. God has wired us together as the Church so that we need one another to accomplish His desires. Think about wiggling your toes. The only reason they move is because the entire rest of your body is sending the messages through all those nerves, tendons, muscles, and blood, down to your toes so that they are alive and active!
Albania is a ripe harvest ready to be picked before the crop dies off. The people of Albania were bound under Communism for 40 years, people could get put in jail just for praying. Albania was the first and only country to pronounce themselves atheistic. But for the last twenty years the weight has been lifted and now there is freedom of religion. God is doing amazing things in that country, a revival is breaking out. People are desperate for truth and open to the love of Jesus.
Twenty years ago there were only 13 know Christians in the whole country. Now there are thousands!! During our month in Albania we got to be a part of the miraculous transformation of thirty new believers. Praise God!!! I love when sisters and brothers are added to my big happy family!!
And that’s not the end! There are so many more people world wide to be reached! It’s a big, huge, undertaking to reach the world, and that’s why we need to be united! We need everybody!
Yes YOU!
We all have a part to play, a job to do, and there’s nothing to small to do and nothing to big to dream! Some of us need to go to school, study and get a high paying job to fund the mission work around the world.
Some need to pray, pray, pray and get the angels of God moving and fighting to clear new territory and free hearts from the power of the devil!
Some need to learn new languages and carry the name of Jesus into un-reached people groups.
Some need to provide a safe home for youngins to be raised up in a loving family. Moms and dads who can fully invest their lives, passions and visions into young strong solders who can carry on the work generation after generation.
Some need to teach, encourage, disciple… the list goes on and on.
You have an important part in the big plan! Get excited and keep going at it!
In conclusion: I have discovered what having a heart for the world practically looks like. When your heart is IN something you do whatever it takes. Having a vision for world missions is what the world race is all about. We get to go to the places others dream about. We get to invest in ministries around the world. We get to tell all of you about the things we see and experience. And when we go home, it’s not over!!! I will continue reaching the world even after my young years are behind me and I’ve settled down and am unable to travel like a crazy person. Because now I know that I have brothers and sisters around the world. I personally don’t have to BE THERE, physically, to still be involved in world missions!
1Corinthians 12:14 For the body is not one member, but many.
I can empower the members of MY BODY who are in different countries around the world through my prayers, and money to continue on in the ministry.
It’s all soo exciting to me!
As small and helpless as I feel at times, I know that I am an Irreplaceable part of my family, my body, THE CHURCH! And YOU are too!
“A single thread in a tapestry, though its color brightly shines, may never see its purpose in the pattern of the grand design”
Never back down or shrink from the calling God has given you! We all have great things to do! And we have a GREAT God who can do all things. Through our weaknesses HE shows Himself strong!
Hebrews 12:1-2 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Amazed by Gods creation on a hike to a cave in the Albanian mountains!
