I was blown away this week when I received the newsletter of a missions trip participant that went with us to Uganda in February. It left me crying on my computer and praising God for allowing me to be apart of His work even in the smallest ways. Lara and I have always known that one of the biggest reasons we wanted to be apart of e3 Partners ministry is the joy of taking people to the mission field. We have the privilege of engaging the local church in missions. It doesn’t matter where one is in the journey or even if they have started down the path with Christ. We know that when they go and see the glory of God displayed on a mission trip and they are personally used for an eternal difference. Lives will be for ever changed! I am reminded ever time too that God can and wants to use this non qualified knucklehead to be His hands and feet. How cool and powerful that is when we realize that truth.
What is even better than being used by God is knowing what we have in Jesus and who we really are in Him. This tripper participant had no idea of what was to come. Not just for the next 12 days but for the rest of her life. I have know her for about 10 years and have been diligently praying for God to work in her life. I was never sure about where she stood on church, Jesus, and salvation but I knew that she didn’t go or didn’t talk about it very much. If I had to guess I would have had to say that there was no relationship with Christ.
When we began planning our last trip to Uganda we had no idea how life changing this trip would be for us. This lady said that she was interested and that in it self was exciting for us. Then when she went with us we were in shock to see how God used her and how Christ drew her near. I don’t think that I could tell you all of the ways we saw her grow in a relationship with Christ on a daily basis. Even today we still see God answering our prayer by working in her life.
People ask us all the time “when will you move over seas and be real missionaries?” If God wants us to we will go tomorrow but for now we are apart of one of the greatest mission opportunities here today. This lady’s story is why we do what we do. We love seeing God’s church in America go to the missions field and then come back home with a renewed fire for worshiping Him. “…I never truly experienced Him until now.” This was one of her closing statements in her newsletter, and that is a HUGE win for us and for the Kingdom. That makes it all worthy especially when she is my mother in law, Lara’s mom!
I think that you would really enjoy reading her news letter. It is powerful, so please take the time to read! Copy and paste this link. Then click download. http://drop.io/momsnewsletter
The Rousehouse 