Guest blog: From none other than my dad. Here is his take on the week.
I was
reticent to go and it was kind of obvious to friends and family. I told folks
that I was not looking forward to being on an airplane for over 17 hours, alone
and with no one to commiserate with. But truth be told… (Flash back a quarter
of a century to the year 1988). I was working in my dream job in Phoenix and
did not want to yield my life completely to the Lord. I knew there was a call
of God on my life and I was semi-running from Him. I thought that if I
surrendered my entire life to His ways and His will, He would send me to “outer
oogie boogie” and make me live in a grass hut and minister to half naked people
while subsisting on a diet of bugs and worms. Let’s just say that was one of my
greatest fears.
Now fast
forward and here I am in the full time ministry as a pastor of a church north
of Dallas and about to board a plane to Nairobi, Kenya. I was headed to Africa!
This was not my idea! It was a conspiracy planned by my daughter Moriah and my
sweet wife Mary. They renewed my passport, lined up my immunizations, sent out
support letters to friends and basically made it so that all I had to do was
man up and board the plane. The plan was to spend a week with my daughter out
on the mission field in Kenya and experience all that she and her team mates had
been doing for the past 8 months. Other parents were coming so I was going to
meet them along with some of her team mates.
So with my
greatest fear lingering in the back of my mind I used the rest of my mind to
wrap around the idea of setting foot on the soil of and meeting the people of
Africa! Well leading up to and at the outset of my trip I sensed God’s presence
in a unique way, reminiscent of a few times in my past and that sense of grace
stirred in me an attitude of expectation and anticipation. I was really looking
forward to seeing my girl but I knew that God just used her as bait and there
would be a divine switcheroo forthcoming. My prayer which I repeated over and
over as I rushed through the Heathrow airport to make my connection was, “Lord work through me and in me, Lord work
through me and in me this week.”
Well God was
faithful to my request and Moriah and I not only had a wonderful, life long,
memory making time together as father and daughter. Yet in addition He used us as
ministry partners and compatriots to see men and women come to faith in Christ (both
Americans and Africans) and allowed us to see a miraculous healing in an 11
year old African boy by the name of Najel!
My favorite
part of the parent’s trip was the last night, when each of the racers spoke
life and Gods word over their parents. It made me cry, still does, it really
ministered to me. As parents you are ever aware of your shortcomings. None of
those parents would have been there if they didn’t love their racer. Thanks for
leading Moriah and breaking definitions of the past and speaking life over the
present and future. It’s what our Heavenly Father does.
The week was
exceedingly and abundantly beyond anything we could ask or think, God moved in
and through Moriah and I as we were quick to listen and slow to act on our own impulses.
At week’s
end, I found myself on one of the flights back to the states, pondering how God
and only God could take one of my greatest fears and turn it into one of the
greatest weeks of faith of my life. That’s our Lord, He takes our fears and
turns them into acts of faith and trust. He redeems our inadequacies, He
restores our faith, He rebuilds our brokenness, and renews our trust in Him.
Thank you
Lord!
