Just a few years ago I was in Bali, Indonesia for a day. I was in a cyber cafe needing some help. Nobody spoke English. Out of the blue a young woman spoke from her desk and said she could help. We walked down the streets to buy a sim card for my phone so that I could call home. During our conversation I asked her name and who she was. She gave her name and told me that she was a pastor's wife, serving the Lord in Bali. My heart was stunned with surprise and joy. She told me about her husband and their ministry in the city in a rented building where they lived, worshiped, and also ran an orphanage. They are zealous for the Lord. I hear from her from time to time. They are having a great time this summer reaching children for Jesus... Very intentional and purposeful. Praise the Lord for the Church around the corner and around the globe. Praise the Lord for the summer ministry outreach to children and youth through VBS, camp meetings, Beach ministries, and short term missions. It is all fermenting and invigorating.
William Barclay, the Great New Testament Scholar and theologian, said we become more like Christ when we reach out to children and love them and care for them.
There are are divine moments when you know that the Lord is guiding and steering your life. The Lord stations and places His people all around us every day. There are those whom we can serve in the Name of Jesus. There are those who are there to bless us in Jesus' Name. It is a blessing any way we look at it. Those people are all around us. Our only problem is that we don’t see them. Pray that the Lord will give us His Eyes. Those are eyes that see the real needs of the people we meet. Pray that He will bring at least one person across our path who needs the ministry we can offer. That’s a prayer our Lord will answer, for there are peope all around us who need the touch of the Lord. He has blessed us for a purpose: that we might take what we have received and share it with those who desperately need it.
Some body has said, "How do you change the world?" It is not through programs. You change the world one heart at a time, one life at a time. Compassion that isn’t personal isn’t compassion. God help us to be men and women of compassion, to reach out and touch a hurting world in Jesus’ name.
I read a compelling story of a preacher and his wife from Washington, DC, who adopted a crack baby. He and his church were already committed and engaged in community outreach, but he and his wife felt called to do more. He said that when the baby was brought home, her cry was desperate, but now she is healthy, bouncy, and happy. Whenever the pastor is asked how they did it, he just smiles and says, “We loved the crack right out of that baby." It can be done. It will be time-consuming and expensive, but it can be done.
Many of us would like a personal ministry, but we don’t know where to begin. There are people in our lives who need the help only we can give. Some of them need a word of encouragement, and we are the only ones who can give them that word. Some of them are staggering beneath a heavy load, and we are the only one who can lift that burden from their shoulders. Some of them are about to quit, and we're the only one who can keep them in the race. Some of them have been hit with an incredible string of trials, and we by the grace of the Lord are the only one who can help them keep going.
In Christ,
Pastor Brown
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