Blessings...

In the midst of my busy life it's so easy to overlook the blessings that so bluntly stare me in the face! I've had several blessings so far that have happened to me since I've told people that I'm going to the Philippines. It is so neat, I've had people come up to me and tell me since they know I'm going with Laymen Ministries that they watched it on 3abn because of that reason!

One guy from our warehouse here wants me to take his best rain coat so I'll stay nice and dry and his wife really wants to send crayons and supplies like that for the kids. Anyone who has or currently works for a ministry knows that you don't get rich there and that people generally don't have much extra cash sitting around their house! It so amazing though because the people here where I work have generously opened up their hearts and their check books to this mission experience. Just this morning I opened up my desk drawer and in it was a $20 bill with a little note on it for my mission trip!!

It's so refreshing to see people come alive when they are able to get involved with supporting a missionary or a student missionary. It no longer becomes an experience for the person going overseas but it becomes a mission experience for everyone. We are the body of Christ and without the hands it can't touch, without the feet it can't walk, without the heart it cannot give. So, I've come to a beautiful conclusion that this mission experience is not mine alone but for the whole body of Christ to share in. If I can be an inspiration to just one person through this whole mission experience it will be well worth it. I don't want to have lived my life in vain only pleasing myself but sharing the gospel of the kingdom of Jesus Christ. In Matthew 28:19-20, Jesus gives us a commission, "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." Amen