Tonight's speaker was good. In fact the last two were great! There is so much I would like to express but he did tell us that we don't want to "uncork" at people because we're so excited after the class.
Both my wife and I have such respect and love for senders/mobilizers/intercessors. We have been so honored by you and so in awe of how God is glorified.
Often we hear "I respect your faith to go" or "I wish I could go" as if somehow the going is the more highly esteemed part of the ministry. We both feel we are in no way more valuable than any other member of the church participating in missions simply because we "go". Going takes so long (an average of 5-7 years to get into the field) AND 50% of overseas goer's come back before 5 years and never go again. So really if anyone has a "bad" name it would be goer's (-;
But tonight the speaker really touched on our heart and our excitement for this ministry. To paraphrase him does injustice, perhaps I can post a sound clip in the near future
"If you do the math in the most liberal sense, less than 1% of the church can be goer's. If more people went we'd be so disorganized we'd be falling all over ourselves. So what about that other 99%? Missions is a call to ALL believers, and while it isn't the only part of being a christian, it is A part. I challenge everyone here to think about how they can answer the great commission in their own context."
he shared several stories that were so cool. One that touched me.
They were moving from Denver to Washington, and a member of their church said,
"I don't have a lot of money to send you, but God gave you the ability to go and do this thing, and He gave me a strong back. I manage a professional moving company, and I would like to handle your move to Washington."
What an amazing God we serve. He's positioned us, brought us up and uses us to serve Him. When He calls us to obey, He rarely lets us see the details of the future (lets be honest, if He did, we might be terrified until we take baby steps to build the trust), but when we step out in obedience, He often uses exactly what He's already given us to serve Him.
My wife and I are able and willing and custom tailored to go, and to go to PNG.
Some of you are custom tailored to do something else, perhaps its to join us, to encourage us, to prayer for us, to support us, to become a part of this team to go out there and get the Gospel translated.
In my head, I imagine the day I would get to work on that first computer as full time missionary and I get pumped up.
I want to dedicate myself to making technology a help to the work of God instead of a hindrance. I don't want anyone with the talents of doing translation work, or teaching or taking care of youth/children to ever despair because of a failed computer. I want them to know they can call on me to fix it.
My wife wants them to be confident that their education is in good hands, and they will learn about God and learn to read His Word.
This is the passion on our hearts, and we need to combine that passion with your passion. What is your passion?
Please feel free to write us
owens@gimpel.tv
Thank you for taking the time to read this blog and we will be updating it again soon.
