People come and go… This has become the theme of my life. It’s not easy. As a missionary you meet people, love on them and you go your separate ways. This has happened once again as our kids from Thomasville United Methodist Church have gone and two other groups will be joining us today.
The participants and leaders from this group touched my heart in a way that many haven’t.
They were troopers all week but especially Thursday night and Friday morning. We took them out of town to sleep in a homeless shelter. We then gave them the news that they would be awaking early in the morning to serve the homeless people of that community breakfast. I woke them at 4:00 a.m. Friday morning so that they could start cooking and preparing at 4:30. I can’t say that they were all smiling and cheery then but there were no complaints! They worked hard cooking, preparing and serving the men and women who had been lined up since the wee hours of the morning to wait for a hot meal.
We experienced laughter, tears, hurt for the people we were working with and some major spiritual warfare. God showed up in unexpected ways and we are grateful. I’m proud of each participant. They were willing to go to the hard places and press into the Lord in ways they may not have done before. They were willing to dig into some painful places in their own lives and allow the Lord to begin healing them. I believe that they are going back to their community as new people and will spark some major change within their youth group.
So it begins again today with 20 more young people. I am excited to see what God has in store for us this week. Pray that God is glorified this week and the needs of each participant as well as the people we are ministering to our met.
Just in case I can’t get online this week Happy Father’s Day to all of you Dad’s out there!
Thanks for the update Toya. May God’s peace be with you and the missionaries.