Hello, Danielle here. I’m hijacking the blog from the normal author for a few moments because something is pressing on my spirit. We as a team are desperately calling to Jesus. Our airfare money is due in 7 days exactly, and if the money is not in—then we will as lovingly as possible be drawn off our mission team.
I’d like share a story from the book, Voices of the Faithful.
“Fourteen women stood in a circle as we prayed for the young Costa Rican woman who was about to leave as a missionary to a Muslim country. All of them were committed to pray for our church’s first international missionary. But what brought tears to my eyes that afternoon was not their commitment to pray.
In many evangelical churches across Latin America, God’s Spirit is raising up a missionary movement from areas that have traditionally been our mission fields. From our small church in San Jose, Costa Rica, He called out “Farisa” to go to one of the darkest corners of Central Asia.
When Margarita’s turn came to pray that afternoon, she prayed, ‘Lord, You know our family’s commitment to the faith promise offering so that Farisa can go to another land. As I’ve told my children, ‘First, we will give the offering, and then if there is anything left, we will eat.’
She continued her prayer, but I didn’t hear the rest. Tears flowed as I realized that this woman, whose husband was dying of cancer, was truly committed to the high cost of reaching the world for Christ. She was teaching her children where a Christian’s priorities should lie.
In the United States, the vast majority of those who support missions do so out of relative wealth. But the missionary movement from the Two-Thirds World (outside the U.S., Canada, England and Europe) is being supported in most in most cases out of dire sacrifice.” – Wilma, pg 305
When I read it I immediately felt God telling me that the vision for this Missions Ministry is still much larger then we have made it to be. We are in obedience of God by pursuing this vision. EVERYTHING so far has been set in place by his hand. I have NO interest in pursuing my own plan. I only want Jesus’ glory to be made magnificent among us and the whole world in huge, glorious ways.
The question that we are asking ourselves is, “Is our missionary work worth Margarita’s family’s food?” Is our work THAT valuable, that we could accept an offering like that?
The honest truth is that as a follower of Jesus—redeemed fully by him. Our body could die tomorrow and we would be okay because we would finally be with Him, but there are lost nations. There are pre-redemption stories everywhere we look. Don’t think that this mission work is not valuable… I would be hesitant to accept Margarita’s offering, but she understands something about the dire need to further the kingdom of God through the world. She understands it so deeply, that she will not feed her family until it happens.
How do we make this personal? Please pray and give generously and sacrificially to these mission efforts. Allow the Holy Spirit to “break your heart to the point of giving to missions with exuberance, not only because of the vast lostness and depravity of the peoples of the world, but because the supreme sacrifice of redemption has already been made for their salvation, of only they hear. Amen.”
“For I testify that they gave as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability. Entirely on their own, they urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in this service to the saints.”
2 Corinthians 8:3-4
Children in Liberia at one of the poorest orphanges in the country.
PS: If you'd like to know how to give, please e-mail haiti.we@gmail.com
