When Missions is Life

I think the hardest topic for me to write on may just be – Missions.

Everyone loves a good missionary or missionary kid story. We (myself included) love to see pictures and updates about ministries growing and lives being changes. Exotic, embarrassing and unusual stories excite us.

When I look for post ideas this is what you ask for. And, I get it – I love this too! But, can I be honest with you today?

Do you realize weeks and months pass and the word missionary doesn’t cross my mind? What was once abnormal is so normal I don’t realize you would read about? I don’t drive in my town everyday and see unusual things. I don’t try unusual foods but maybe once a year. I don’t strain to understand all the conversations in the bus around me.

Of course I have stories of sadness & pain and guns & danger. I have stories about healed lives & changed hearts and ideas that seem upside down to me & new experiences. But they aren’t my everyday life.

This is my Jerusalem.

I pack bags of food for neighbors because it’s what neighbors who have do for those who don’t. I listen to a friend cry about this broken world because that’s what friends do. I set up play dates for kids to meet and play and I take kids to visit a widow – it’s a pretty normal life. I drive a truck to pick up people for church because that’s what Christian’s do – help others get to church. I teach Bible Clubs because kids need to know about the one who died to save them. I teach reading lessons and wash dirty hands because that is what teachers do.

When all you have known is full time ministry for most of your life – it is life. I think that’s okay. Because that’s what God calls me to – to live life in another country.

I can pull out first experiences for sure. (And, I am working on some for you all too read.) There is still some crazy life stories – but I normally forget they are that abnormal.

It is not lost on my that I get this opportunity to serve the Lord full time. I am so thankful. But I think we forget, or people don’t know, that after many years missionaries have a new Jerusalem and they do normal things everyday.

Journal Entry – October 2017

I just came across these words again that I wrote for myself in 2017. Now, it’s 2021 and in the last year we have seen change faster then most of us imagined. These words are relevant today & so I am preaching them to myself and sharing them with you this afternoon.

---

This world we are living in & raising little ones in is scary! Technology is nice – but scary. People aren’t what they once were. Socially accepted morals and normality are so far from right. This isn’t the world I grew up in, even tho that wasn’t that long ago. This world, it seems, continues to get scarier and more wicked each day.

I wonder how will these little people handle this messy world when they are grown. This world that hands out pain, troubles, wickedness at every turn.

The Lord gave me a beautiful answer to these worries! Like it was written fresh and new for me today! And, really it was written for ME! (And, YOU, friend!)

“Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.”

Hebrews 13:8

The same God who used Paul in mighty ways, who led Gorge Müller and Charles Spurgeon to reach the masses – He never changes. The God who met His people in the concentration camps of Nazi Germany, freed his people from the wicked king of Egypt and the One who walked with Brother Andrew over closed boarders to deliver His Words to His people – He is still the same today. The same today and the same tomorrow!

He’s the same God who fed us and supplied all our needs growing up, through so many unexpected ways. Who answered my childhood prayers, thus making my faith grow.

He is the same God who continues to work miracles in our lives today. The One who lets a happy little girl run and play today, when the doctors said she wouldn’t make it. He is the one who we have seen plead the cause of the needy and orphans more times then I can write. He turns fears into peace & nightmares into answered prayers!

Our Jesus is the same in the days of yesterday, in our current trials and prayers, and in each childs future. He was enough for the ones who went before us. He has been enough for me. He will be enough for these little ones.

At the end of each day I see every area where one child need improvement and the needs of another child. I look at my planner and think all the things I want to do for and with these little ones – my mind is full. But in that moment I must remember this: it all must boils down to one thing!

A relationship with Jesus Christ! Because Jesus is enough!

If I can give all the children in my life and ministries one thing to take to adulthood it MUST BE the knowledge of what a relationship with Jesus is! I can’t give them one, they need their own. I must show them & teach them the way. I must live in a way that shows – Jesus is enough. So that one day they will find Jesus to be enough & not all this world has to offer. He is so much more than enough.

This is a beautiful promise that leads me to evaluate my days. I will not say I have any idea in the world how to do it. All I can do is to ask Jesus each day to somehow shine through me – letting them see Jesus!

My Sandal Print

As we walked back up the quiet dusty road Javier looked down and quickly exclaimed “These are from Mama’s sandals.”

“Look, Mama, these are from your sandals.” Shoe prints in front of us; showing the way we had walked earlier that afternoon.

How does he know that – so quickly?

A small tinny detail. A detail that I had never given any thought to. Yet, he knows it and it excites him.

Javier then proceeded to look at the other foot prints in the dust and identified the shoe print of each person with us after a few minutes.

I had to stop and ponder. What other footprints am I leaving as I travel this life? What prints am I leaving in these tender minds and hearts? What prints do others see when their path crosses mine?

He knows my sandal print in the dust. He knows it showed him where I had walked earlier that day. It teaches him something.

But, does he know the print that tells him I have been spending time with Jesus? Does he know a print that will point him to trust Jesus when he has a need one day or a difficult circumstance? Does he know a print that shows him how to love, be generous, talk of Jesus, help one another, work hard?

Every single one of our mundane habits – mine and yours – are leaving foot prints behind. Impacting other hearts. What do the kids around us see? What do lost see in our Christian life? What does the weaker brother see?

“Footprints are the impressions left behind by a person walking or running.”

We leave a print behind in every interaction – be it someone we life with or someone we see for 5min a week. Impressions about who we are, who our Jesus is and how that affects our life. Negative or positive – we always leave behind a print.

What foot prints will you and I leave on hearts this coming week?

P.S. I am really excited about something coming to this blog on Wednesday. So be sure to check back. A little thank you to you all for being in this space and being my friend!

He is our Mountain

The mountains stand tall & majestic against the pale blue sky. A contrast to this worn, broken city I stand in.

When the rainy season began lifting a couple months ago it was like seeing these mountains again for the first time. The air clean & clouds gone. Leaving the mountains to paint their tree covered tips lines against the crystal sky.

Mountains stand on all four sides of our city. There isn’t a street in which you can’t look up and see God’s beautiful creation. They have blessed my heart many times through the years.

A few days ago while reading Psalms aloud I found a new verse. I obviously had seen it – but I hadn’t. Like God was saving it for me for this time.

“As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the Lord is round about his people from henceforth even for ever.”

Psalms 125:2

These mountains surround – He surrounds me & you on every side.

Mountains stand strong – He is our strength.

Mountains have quite literally protected us from many bad storms – He is our protection in the storm.

Mountains are unchanging – So is our God! I never wake & wonder if the mountains are still there – even so we should never wonder where He is!

Mountains are completely breath- taking some days – So is our God & His miracles.

But, many days I can’t see these mountains that surround me. Many days the storm clouds or fog don’t let us see but the very bottom of these mountains. But they are still there, aren’t they. And no matter the storm clouds and fog in your life today – He is still there. That is a truth as solid as the truth that the mountains around our town are still there on stormy days.

I am thankful for this visible reminder I have each time I look up to the mountains surrounding me. And, friend, the Lord is there the same for you. He is round about you today!

The Words He Left Us

It was an intimate super full of food and conversation with so much emotion at that table. It was their last supper together; Jesus with these twelve who had walked through the past years of his life and ministry with him. After telling them that in a little while he would be taken away from them, he rose and departed; his disciples followed. He no doubt started the walk to the mount of olives and as they went he began to talk with his disciples.

John chapters 14 and 15 are packed with teachings of Jesus we all know well. To not be troubled, how he (Jesus) is the way, that he would send the comforter, to abide in him and to love one another. Then in chapter fifteen verse eleven as Jesus continued talking with his disciples he states why he has taught them these things.

“These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.”

John 15:11

Jesus left us his teachings. He knew his words would leave us his joy and make our joy full. If we know the Lord personally he gives us joy but he desires for that joy to be full. Not just a surface joy of knowing the Lord. But a full joy found in his presence and words.

“…in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.”

Psalms 16:11

When I am delighting in God, dwelling in his presence and growing in him I find a well of joy springing up in my soul. A joy found in knowing he is sufficient and his words are sufficient for me – today & tomorrow. But, not only that…

Joy in my life testifies to God’s goodness and faithfulness. My joy testifies to the fact that he is real & he is God. It shows the world around me – those I see only in passing each day and those I spend my days with. They will see in our Joy as Christians that He can be trusted. He is all we need. His love, strength and light sustain us each day. He walks this daily life with us and enters my ordinary days making them blessed!

May we continue to delight in him and dwell in his presence this week. Let’s let the joy of the Lord radiate, friends.

A Closeness With the Lord

I walk down the street looking for a house that a friend has recently moved to. This neighborhood near the center of town is packed with people. At first glace the block boasts six or seven small homes on each side of the road. The old short houses covered with adobe brick. A pink one, then a blue, then a yellow one – houses that once used to bring pride to their owners in vibrant colors long faded by the sun and wear and tare of life. Every two-foot ally way leads to six or more little rooms. Little rooms that are six-foot by ten-foot.

On the stoop of the next house is half a dozen children using the small piece of concrete to play a game of marbles. They laugh heartful laughs and jeer each other in play. Their laugh is contagious and one grabs my hand to come see the game.

Have you ever watched a child and just wondered at their Joy? Children, generally (there is exceptions of major abuse or sickness) are joyful! They smile and giggle. Their eyes sparkle at the tinniest things in life. They have a underlaying joy even when they are just enjoying a typical day.

As she grabs my hand I recognize her. Not from this neighborhood but rather a Colonia outside of town. “Are you and your grandmother visiting down here?” I ask. (She lived with her grandmother.) “No, my grandmother send me here to live with another relative for a while” comes her reply.

Yet her eyes still sparkle with her play. I know a couple of the other little children personally and know that the most meals they see a day is two. But, they still have joy. They don’t know another life. They haven’t learned to be discontent yet. (Generally talking about children 5 and under.)

Joy – A product of an intimate & constant relationship with the Lord.

Before children come of age to the understanding of the gospel – Are they closer to the Lord? Have you ever heard a child pray? They seem so near the Lord. If you teach children to pray and trust in the Lord – God answers.

When I was a child there was a preacher who used to call my Mother whenever he needed real prayer. He wouldn’t call asking for her prayers but rather her children’s prayers. My parents taught us to pray at a young age. To take everything to a real God who could answer prayers. And, you can bet that when we got a call to pray we all stopped, gathered together and prayed. This preacher said that whenever us children were praying for him or the circumstance at hand – the Lord answered. I have heard many more stories about the closeness little children have with the Lord in prayer.

As I pondered Joy this past week I realized that it naturally grows the more time that one spends knowing and loving God. The more consistent my relationship with the Lord; the more Joy I naturally find in myself.

Children find that joy. I just wondered yesterday if they are closer to the Lord then we realize. I shared the story about about my childhood as an example that children have amazing relationships with the Saviour. Jesus tells us to become as ”little ones” to come to him. Littles ones with not a need in the world and little ones who will pick up food off the street still have a beautiful joy about them. They have a Joy that allows them to forget the last way they were wronged. A Joy that delights in the simple beauties of life.

Oh that we Christians would know true Joy. Joy that doesn’t allow us to dwell on the last way we were wronged. Joy that knowing God is sufficient and sustaining. Joy that comes from being in his presence.

(Share with me your thoughts. Does children’s joy stem from their closeness with the Saviour? (Sure some from their ignorance of the world.) But the more I think on this the more I think they are born with a love and knowledge of God our finite minds do not understand.)