When Everything Changes!
I'm currently aboard my flight from Newark, NJ to Miami, eventual headed to Leon, Nicaragua. There's a team of ten of us that will be down there this coming week. We will be painting classrooms at Promise Christian Academy, preparing the school for the new upcoming school year; deliver backpacks and school supplies to the children of Promise Kids Foundation; and thanks to the generosity of the people of Shrewsbury First Assembly, the church I currently pastor, we will also leave them with the monies needed to purchase uniforms and shoes for the children! Oh, yes we will also be able to deliver "Christmas" gifts to the kids (again due to the generosity of some people, including La Vid Verdadura (thanks Pastors Jose and Madelyn Rivera!), along with Christmas cards made by the children of First Assembly!
So, what exactly are we looking to accomplish as we paint, work with the kids, and minister in the churches we will attend? Is it a feel-good moment for those who are part of the team? Is it an act of charity to help some people in need? Is it to make the people there feel loved and cared for? Well, yes it's some of those things. But in my mind it's so much more. Ultimately it's about wanting to see change in the lives of those whom we are going to serve. It's about wanting to see the children to whom we minister recieve the education they need; helping them learn of the goodness of God at work in their lives and seeing them follow Christ; giving them hope for their future; teaching them that what they know and experience today is not all that God has for them. It's about letting them know that their are people outside of their daily environment who care about them. Most of all, it's about letting them know that God really does love them, sees them, and cares about them.
Yet, I'm also reminded that to see their lives changed takes so much more than an act of charity or a visit here and there by a team from the U.S. Ultimately, it takes the work of God's Spirit to come into their lives, to touch their hearts and minds, and begin to change the way they think and live. It takes a touch of God's Spirit to take the education, the nurture, the charity and somehow bring it all together into a life-changing experience that will affect these kids and their families for years to come.
Isaiah, writing to people who were about to face a very, very difficult time in their nation wrote, “till the Spirit is poured on us from on high, and the desert becomes a fertile field, and the fertile field seems like a forest.” (Isaiah 32:15 - NIV) In other words, the ministry of God's Spirit would change everything! Even the calming that was coming would be reversed. The coming of God's Spirit into the lives and circumstances of the people would turn everything around!
I'm praying that we as a team would not merely be channels of backpacks, school supplies, and newly painted classrooms. I'm praying that we would not merely be instruments of a bit of charity, a little bit of hope, and a season of love. But, I'm praying that we as a team would somehow become channels of the work of God's Spirit into the lives of those whom we will serve. After all, it's the Spirit of God who changes everything !
Have a great day! Bendiciones! Nos vemos en pronto!
Pastor Tim
So, what exactly are we looking to accomplish as we paint, work with the kids, and minister in the churches we will attend? Is it a feel-good moment for those who are part of the team? Is it an act of charity to help some people in need? Is it to make the people there feel loved and cared for? Well, yes it's some of those things. But in my mind it's so much more. Ultimately it's about wanting to see change in the lives of those whom we are going to serve. It's about wanting to see the children to whom we minister recieve the education they need; helping them learn of the goodness of God at work in their lives and seeing them follow Christ; giving them hope for their future; teaching them that what they know and experience today is not all that God has for them. It's about letting them know that their are people outside of their daily environment who care about them. Most of all, it's about letting them know that God really does love them, sees them, and cares about them.
Yet, I'm also reminded that to see their lives changed takes so much more than an act of charity or a visit here and there by a team from the U.S. Ultimately, it takes the work of God's Spirit to come into their lives, to touch their hearts and minds, and begin to change the way they think and live. It takes a touch of God's Spirit to take the education, the nurture, the charity and somehow bring it all together into a life-changing experience that will affect these kids and their families for years to come.
Isaiah, writing to people who were about to face a very, very difficult time in their nation wrote, “till the Spirit is poured on us from on high, and the desert becomes a fertile field, and the fertile field seems like a forest.” (Isaiah 32:15 - NIV) In other words, the ministry of God's Spirit would change everything! Even the calming that was coming would be reversed. The coming of God's Spirit into the lives and circumstances of the people would turn everything around!
I'm praying that we as a team would not merely be channels of backpacks, school supplies, and newly painted classrooms. I'm praying that we would not merely be instruments of a bit of charity, a little bit of hope, and a season of love. But, I'm praying that we as a team would somehow become channels of the work of God's Spirit into the lives of those whom we will serve. After all, it's the Spirit of God who changes everything !
Have a great day! Bendiciones! Nos vemos en pronto!
Pastor Tim
Comments
Post a Comment