seeds

I have been a lifelong supporter of Christian foreign missions. When I was very young, one of the guys in our home fellowship went to the Philippines as a missionary with his new wife. I was intrigued with the idea that a person could leave everyone and everything to share Jesus with others.  Fred was many years older than I and was like an big brother to us in many ways...he sure knew how to tease us! I made cards and wrote him letters for all those years that they were overseas and still have all the letters that he wrote back. Treasures.

Fred Williamson died last year. I had lost contact with him many years ago, back in the mid 90s. He had been very sick, due largely to the drug-laced past that God had been saved him from as a young man. I didn't find out about his passing until after he was gone. I ran across his daughter and ex-wife on Facebook and reconnected. So many years later, but I cried like a baby.

I was ten years old when I attended my first Missions Conference at Liberty Church back in 1986. There was just something about all those sessions of hearing missionary after missionary share about their work among the masses of the world that set my little heart on fire for missionary work. I opened my heart up to God's calling to sharing the Gospel. I raised my hand and pledged $10 a month to support my first missionary family, the McManuses in Bangladesh a few years later.

In recent years, I have been supporting children in the SEED program out of Arise & Shine Academy in the Philippines. The Student Evangelization Education and Development was birthed from the out-of-the-box missionary work of Dirk and Elizabeth Wood, grads of Liberty Bible School back when I was a kid. My first student to graduate from ASA and then college was Angela. She is an wonderful girl who loves the Lord, helps to lead worship in her church, and is now employed as a nurse after completing college and passing her exams. She used to send me the more adorable handmade cards and crafts, and continues to stay in touch with her "Tita Mary Beth." She is precious!

I just received notice that my second girl has graduated now. Hannah is the eldest child of a Filipino pastor and seems to be shy. I started supporting her last year, so I have not had a chance to really get to know her yet, but I plan to support her for as long as she is in college so I'll be able to.

I want to complete GLOBE's Perspectives class one of these springs. Several of my former students have completed it and mentioned to me that I would love it. Perspectives is a class that emphasized our "world-sized" role in God's global purpose for His Church. The course is focused around 4 loci or perspective points: Biblical, historical, cultural, and strategic.  I look forward to taking it one day.

What a blessing it has been to sow into Jesus' Kingdom. I will never know, this side of heaven, who has been won to Christ via my efforts and monetary sacrifices. But it is all nothing, considering I have not given up my life as Jesus did or as some of these missionaries have to serve our Lord. All these seeds will grow and spread like fire. What is done in Christ's name and is grounded in the Gospel will last forever!

So what missionary endeavor do you support right now? What ministry has God asked you to sow into for the furtherance of His Kingdom and the Gospel? The eternal rewards are just that, eternal.

I can think of so many missionaries, both novice and veteran, who need support as finances are stretched across the globe. Several of my friends are embarking on their own journeys as English teachers to share the Good News in a difficult field, a sensitive nation in Southeast Asia. They need support right now, as they are in their fund-raising stage of preparation. Open your heart and wallet to support those that Father places in your path. Contact me on Facebook, and I will be happy to connect you with them! www.facebook.com/marybeebzz

a day to fill the cracks

I have been needing a day off. A day to fill up the cracks in my faith.
Off from work, from family stress, from financial pressure, from life in general.
Sometimes I get too entrenched in it all.

So today is that day. Actually, a combo of yesterday morning and today that I have managed to eek out. A day just to soak and read the Word and pray and worship and let the Holy Spirit heal my soul and minister to my spirit.

Chris Sligh on Pandoa provides the backdrop.
My old Living Bible as the Meat.
My laptop as an apply conduit of God's Grace.

I'm reading 1 Thessalonians and more.
Verses that speak to this weary heart...

1:5  "For when we brought you the Good News, it was not just meaningless chatter to you; no, you listened with great interest. What we told you produced a POWERFUL EFFECT upon you, for the Holy Spirit gave you great and full assurance that what we said was true. And you know that our very lives were further proof to you of the truth of our message."

1:10  "And they speak of how you are looking forward to the return of God's Son from heaven-Jesus, whom God brought back to life- and He is our only Savior from God's terrible anger against sin."

2:4  "For we speak as messengers from God, trusted by Him to tell the truth; we change His message not one bit to suit the taste of those who hear it; for we serve God alone, who examines our hearts' deepest thoughts."

2:7-8  "But we were as gentle among you as a mother feeding and caring for her own dear children. We loved you dearly- so dearly that we gave you not only God's message, but our own lives too."

2:11-12  "We talked to you as a father to his own children...pleading with you, encouraging you and even demanding that your daily lives should not embarrass God, but bring joy to Him who invited you into His Kingdom to share His glory. And we will never stop thanking God for this: that when we preached to you, you didn't think of the words that we spoke as being just our own, but you accepted what we said as the very Word of God- which, of course, it was- and it changed your lives when you believed it."

2:18  "...but Satan stopped us."

2:19-20  "For what is it we live for, that gives us hope and joy and is our proud reward and crown? It is you! Yes, you will bring us much joy as we stand together before our Lord Jesus Christ when He comes back again. For you are our trophy and joy."

3:2-3  "I decided...to send Timothy...to visit you to strengthen your faith  and encourage you, and to keep you from becoming fainthearted in all the troubles you were going through. (But of course you know that such troubles are a part of God's plan for us Christians..)."

3: 10  "For night and day we pray on and on for you, asking God to let us see you again, to fill up any little cracks there may yet be in your faith."

3:12  "And may the Lord make your love to grow and overflow to each other and to everyone else, just as our love does toward you. This will result in your hearts being made strong, sinless, and holy by God our Father, so that you may stand before Him guiltless on that day when our Lord Jesus Christ returns with all those who belong to Him."

God heals and speaks through His Word!