Getting to Know You…

I have the distinct privilege of working in an office where none of my employees are believers. Chris is one of these employees. It is painfully obvious to me that he is empty. Chris is a large man by most people’s standards. He stands about 6 feet 5 inches and is about 280 pounds of pure muscle. He grew up in a single-parent home with an absentee father, and his childhood was filled with neglect and hardship. After graduating from high school, he decided to join the Navy in hopes of finding fulfillment. He quickly changed his small, underweight body into a muscle machine that even Sylvester Stallone would envy. He believed that this would fulfill him, but quickly discovered the emptiness. Soon he turned to drugs, alcohol, and many visits ashore in pursuits of women. He found his life was in a downward spiral and he could not figure it out. He had all that he needed, right? Why then did he still feel incomplete? His best friend soon committed suicide; something that Chris had often considered, but never had the nerve to do. He tells me that it is something that most Navy boys contemplate. Chris made it out of the Navy but was still plagued by the void in his soul. His desire turned to education and he enrolled in college. This would make him happy, right? He received his degree in Information Technology, but was not able to find a home in that industry. Turning to sales in hopes of an easy job, he has not been able to hold down a job for long because of his volatile attitude.

Not long ago, Chris reconnected with his sister who persuaded him to go to church with her. Willing to try anything that might make him happy, he agreed. Soon after, Chris came to work for me as a sales rep. He interviewed well and was quick to let me know that he could not work on Sunday due to his being a Christian. “Great,” I thought, “it will be nice to have an employee who has a relationship with Christ, and wants to live for Him.” It did not take me long to realize that Chris was not a Christian. His bad language, poor attitude, and trouble getting to work on time because of the previous night’s encounter with the Jack Daniel’s bottle were just the beginning. He started to tell me he did not believe the stories in the Bible were all real. After that came doubt about the virgin birth, creation, the resurrection and more. Finally, during one of these conversations in my office I looked at Chris and said “Do you realize that you’re not actually a Christian?” He paused for a moment and replied “You’re right.” It all came down to the fact that he was attempting to live like a Christian because he believed it was morally right. This has only led to his frustration and heightened feelings of failure. Chris needs Christ. There is no other way. God has granted me many opportunities to share my faith with Chris. Sometimes I feel as if I am beating my head against the wall. How can this guy be blinded to the truth? Chris tells me he needs more evidence, more science, more proof. “Give me some hard evidence,” he says, “then I’ll believe.”

It would be easier for me to focus only on the job at hand every day, without taking the time to talk at length with Chris. I could have just taken his declaration of being a Christian and left it at that. But the gospel is relational. In order to truly influence others for Christ, we must pay a price. That price is taking time and energy to sincerely invest ourselves in relationships with others. Although Chris’ salvation does not depend upon me, I am aware of the responsibility that God has given me by placing Chris in my life. I am thankful to realize that God is equipping me for the ministry to which He has called me. Where I am headed, most people have religion. They believe that they are mostly good, fairly moral, and generally in good standing with God. In order to really know if they indeed have a life-changing relationship with Christ, I have to know them. Not just as a face in the village or in the school, but as an individual with an eternal soul. In Belize, we can have the best plans for ministry, the ideal methods for evangelism and lofty goals for Christian education. But without investing in relationships, these virtues are shallow at best. True relationships take time, they take intentional effort, they require personal sacrifice.

Who has God placed in your life? How well do you know them? Are you willing to go out of your way, to invest precious time and even be inconvenienced in order to find out if they know our Savior? We have such good news to share! God does not allow us the option of being silent, or content with keeping to ourselves. He commands us to make disciples of nations, and discipleship requires relationship.

Scott
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A Full Plate...

My plate is full. I mean, piled high, overflowing and falling off the edges. At least, that is the way it feels. In the past, when I have faced such a mountain, I have had a little meltdown, and then a pity-party. After that little wallow in selfishness I have pulled myself up, pulled it together and plowed ahead. I have rarely paused long enough to step back and see that God was at work, and it was me that He was working on. I have almost always looked around at my circumstances, and being confident in my own abilities, developed a “plan” or laid out a “list” that would allow me to feel in control once again, and give me some peace about the mounting duties ahead

I am a “list” person. I like to lay things out, prioritize, group into categories, and plan how to accomplish the things on the list. It gives me a feeling of security.

But, this feeling is just that – a feeling; unreliable, unpredictable and likely to crumble into chaos at any moment. So, this plan easily fails me. Sometimes the list becomes so long and complicated that I can’t even figure out where to start! And for me, the weight of “the list” never goes away; not at night, not on the weekends, not on the Sabbath, never. Two days ago, I was with a group where I heard a friend share about her experience as a “list addict”. I listened to her and heard my very thoughts and struggles repeated back to me. But then, she told us about how God used her inability to handle the mountainous load to bring her to a place of letting go. Instead of having a panic-attack when the plate began to overflow, she faced up to the reality that she was never meant to handle it all on her own in the first place.

When God has called you to do something, He does not expect you to do it on your own. I must be the last person to discover this! For as long as I can remember, I have always assumed and acted like it was up to me to perform any task set before me. But now, with this path into missions stretching out before us, I am realizing that this is truly a humanly-impossible task. There is no way that I can do anything on my own, in my own strength, or in my own way that would even come close to accomplishing anything for the Kingdom. I must work, yes, and work diligently, being obedient in what God is asking me to do. But my most basic ability to even begin the work is wholly dependant upon the Father. And then, the outcome of the task – the apparent success or failure, well, that is also completely reliant on the Lord. All I can do is to be obedient to what I am certain is His will. And how do I know His will? As I recently heard my father say, “Read the manual!”

So suddenly, I have peace in spite of my discomfort. This time of preparation, of intense scrutiny, of standing out, of asking for support…this is painfully uncomfortable for me. Of course, most of it is because I fear man and his opinion of me more than I desire to be completely sold-out to Christ. I am praying for boldness, transparency, humility and sincerity. But the ache in my heart is that I would all-but-disappear in my encounters with others and that Christ would use me as a vessel to reveal His glory to others.

Sarah
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We want to thank you for all your prayers, emails, words of encouragement and your financial support.

God is doing great things in our family as he prepares us for His service in Belize!

We are ever aware of your gracious support, and thank God for you in our prayers.

STORIES FROM THE FRONT

Hear how God is making Himself known in Belize From fellow team-member Julie, teacher at Cornserstone High School: Erica and I have a little neighbor boy named Mitchell. He is seven years old and comes over many afternoons and does his homework. We will work for a little while, and then end up playing and running around being a little kid. The first night he came over he ended up staying for dinner, and we stopped and prayed before we ate. He asked why we had to pray at the beginning of every meal, so we explained that we needed to thank God for the blessings that He has given us. He seemed unimpressed, but each time he came over we continued to pray with him. This past Sunday he decided to go to church with us. Everyday since then he has asked when we get to go to church next. It is amazing to see how excited he is. Tonight, he came over for dinner and as we sat down to eat he stopped and asked us if we were going to pray. I responded “yes” and asked him if he would like to pray for us. He nodded and then repeated after me a prayer of thanks for his dinner. Later on, we went outside and were watching the sunset. I asked him who could have made such a beautiful sunset, and he responded, “Jesus.” He paused and then looked at me and said, “And he painted it for me.” It is so neat to see this young boy develop a desire to go to church and to pray and to know who Jesus is. Please pray that Erica and I will be used in Mitchell’s life to teach him more about God.”

Prayer Updates:
Please continue to pray for doors to open to us for support.
Pray specifically for churches to take us on.
The Lord is teaching us many things, and using this time to change our hearts and make us more fit for His service!

All praise to Jesus!