I am turning the corner on month SEVEN of the race and in so many ways things haven’t changed. I can look back even to month ONE and say MY GOD HAS ALWAYS BEEN FAITHFUL! It’s not something he promised me once I reached a certain goal or checkpoint in my faith (even though I thought that for a while), or something that I could earn once I knew him well enough; but rather, something that is freely and continually given.
I want to take a look back at my month ONE. As many of you may remember, my ministry month ONE was my biggest fear: door-to-door evangelism. I knew the day would come when I’d have to preach, but I at least thought I’d have until I reached Africa to prepare…WRONG!
God used me from the get go.
He used ME in my brokenness. He used ME when I didn’t realize how trapped and lonely I was. He used ME when I still valued my party lifestyle over him. He used ME when I didn’t believe in myself. He used ME when I was still one of the lost. He used MY TEAM when we didn’t even know one another. He used MY TEAM when we were all terrified to fulfill our ministry. He used MY TEAM in the midst of our mess. AND HE DID IT ALL FOR HIS GLORY!
That first month, in the midst of all this newness, we saw people come to LORD! Let me emphasize this again. I am talking about the month where we were most unsure in every sense imaginable, God still used us as a vessel for people to accept Christ AND for already practicing Christians, to guide them to a church to be encouraged and grow.
WHAT?!?!?! Was God out of his mind? Sometimes when I look back, it is hard to not think YES. Why did he choose me? Why did he choose my team? The team who had no preaching or evangelizing experience. It made no sense.
However, I write halfway through the race to celebrate the victory that was our month ONE. To tell you that the Lord doesn’t need months to prepare you. He can use you exactly the way you are, where you are AND he can use you in your brokenness.
I write to you to tell you that short-term missions (even the month long type) make a difference! That even though my team’s hearts broke to have to up and leave right after people accepted Christ, and not be able to walk these new believers through their faith journey; that GOD WAS SO FAITHFUL!
Just a week ago, my translator from month ONE Facebook chatted me. I was shocked to see his name come up on the screen. I hadn’t talked to him in 5 months so naturally I started overwhelming him with questions. After exchanging pleasantries, he told me what now causes me to write this blog. He told me how God did a great work in us that month we were in the Dominican Republic because everyone we got to go to church five months prior was still going to this day! The three people that accepted Christ in front of our eyes were still practicing believers and the communities of support and discipleship we had tried to set up before leaving were flourishing!
Here I was living out another month of preaching and thinking to myself, wow look how much I have grown. I am not the same person I once was. NOW my relationship with Christ is where it should be. NOW I am more knowledgeable. NOW I am equipped. So maybe now I can live out the purpose God has for me and my team.
But no, look at what our translator said. THE LORD’S WORK WAS DONE! The people he had prepared are still going to church and they are following Him! How humbling to know that it didn’t depend on whether or not we got to stay there. We were just sent to plant the seed and he would surround them with other followers to keep their faith going. We might not have known everything to say, nor do I now, but THE LORD’S WORK WAS DONE and he was pleased. And the best part is that all that happened in the midst of the chaos. In the middle of the process when neither my life nor my faith journey was figured out.
THIS STORY is a beautiful testament to God’s affection for me. There is no reason that I needed to know coming into month SEVEN that these believers from my first month were still following the Lord. They were in His faithful hands and I had already played my part. But God said, here you go my daughter. Be satisfied with what you did and know that your work has magnified my Kingdom.
Could there be a better reminder at such a time as this? At a time when picking up my things and relocating to a new home at the end of each month has become normal. At a time when my heart for ministry is fighting the urge for complacency because I have come so far and am now tired and/or things are getting too hard. At a time when I have started forgetting why it is I began this journey just because it was so many months ago.
Yes that is right! God is such a good daddy to remind me of his plan at that if I submit and give all of myself then the world can literally change. But also to humbly stand before him and say that even if I don’t do those things. Even if I am still missing the mark that His power is more than enough!
As we mark this halfway point together, because after all, we are in this TOGETHER, I wanted you to know God is at work now! The world is changing and he is using you and me, his imperfect, but oh so beautiful, children to get it done!
