Taylor asked me if I would write a blog entry for our time with her on the Parent Vision Trip (PVT). It was fun, challenging, stretching and holy. It was great to serve God with her again.
I wasn’t sure what to write about as there were so many significant things that happened. I decided to write about God’s glory being displayed on the earth and his pursuit of us.
When I was in my early twenties I knew I would be involved in something glorious. At that time I had not surrendered my life to Jesus. I actually wasn’t even interested in Him so I assumed it would be in business or something like that.
In my twenties I actually wondered where the Glory was and when it would come. In my late twenties I became aware that there was a deep emptiness inside me. My life was a mess. It was full of sin, selfishness and I was broken. I knew things needed to change. I tried morality and religion to fill the emptiness and it didn’t work.
One Sunday at a random church service, which I rarely attended, Jesus rescued me. I say he rescued me, because before that service I really didn’t know much about him and I certainly wasn’t looking for him. He pursued me! I didn’t deserve it, but he pursued me anyway. I was loved by him to such an extent, that even in a life completely overrun by sin, he pursued and rescued me. I repented (turned away from my sin and turned towards Jesus) and I have never been empty since that day.
Jesus pursues those who don’t know him, aren’t looking for him or even hate him. He reveals our need for him, rescues us from a life of sin and restores our relationship with God our Father. That is the most glorious thing I have ever seen.
That is exactly what I saw on the streets of the Philippines at the sex bars (see Taylor’s previous blog entry). Jesus was tenaciously pursuing women trafficked in the sex industry with no real way out. He is revealing himself to them and showing them a way out using people who traveled over 6,000 miles (World Racers and their parents) and a wonderful organization named Wipe Every Tear. (www.wipeeverytear.org).
One of the girls we met working at the bar already quit and entered the housing provided by Wipe Every Tear. She has a safe place to live, receives money to send back to her family, has an opportunity to go to University, is out of the sex industry and is introduced to Jesus. That is totally glorious.
To see our sons and daughters, serving and loving people with a tenacious, persistent love so people can be rescued from their sin and their current potentially horrible situations like these girls is glorious.
The glory that I knew would be part of my life is seeing Jesus change people’s lives. I got to see the Glory of God displayed on the Walking Street of the Philippines. God is pursuing those girls in the midst of darkness and hopelessness. Girls are leaving the bars and coming to know Jesus. What could be more glorious than that?
-Sean Duggan
