In this article, I thought I would discuss something that has materialized since we came to the field in Europe. We are truly in a unique situation and as we look back over this journey, we can see God’s fingerprints all over it… if you know what I mean. Dawn and I now serve in a dual role capacity with imb where we not only get to work with people around us evangelistically but also have been given the opportunity to serve our colleagues all over Europe. Let me explain a little further…
In the beginning of our missional journey with the Lord, we were drawn to the work by our desire to do more for the Kingdom’s sake. We simply wanted to devote the rest of our lives to something more fulfilling (to us) than chasing the elusive “American Dream.” I don’t say that to disparage anyone… I am just sharing what God did in our lives. For us, this has been a pretty natural spiritual progression. I believe that most committed Christians come to a point in their lives when they realize that leaving behind some sort of spiritual legacy is much more important than sitting around and talking about their new bass boat or new fancy cell phone or… whatever. You begin to wonder which rewards are more important… the ones down here or the ones in the life to come. The BIG decision comes next… what do you do? Keep running in the rat race of life… chasing after that elusive dream like a hamster in a spinning wheel? Well, for us, jumping out of the rat race and into a new missional life was the answer. May the Father give us fruit for our labors and I pray that some of you join us. That doesn’t necessarily mean that you need to become a missionary. It could though. I suppose the point is that when you start thinking about the legacy that you will leave with your life, you simply put the things of God in the first priority slot… above new Androids and running to every t-ball, basketball and football game that you can possibly put your kids in… and working yourself to death just so you can fight your way up the company ladder. Ouch! Hope that didn’t hurt too much. Is it time to focus on eternal things rather than temporal?
Oh my… after that little rabbit chase I suppose I better get back on topic! Hmmm… where was I? Oh yes, I was talking about how Dawn and I serve in a dual role capacity in our ministry. Indeed, the ability to somehow impact people’s lives for Christ is the best part… no doubt! Whether we are doing ministry support and development with our Roma friends here in Brno or being a direct witness for Jesus sake, hands on ministry is the most rewarding. However, we also use a portion of our time to help the Strategy Training Team in Europe with various web based projects and database management. Look at the picture above and you will see my little work area where I spend a few hours each week developing resources for our affinity. Our organization starting using that word, affinity, a while back to describe geographic areas where similar people groups and ministries are tied together. The European Affinity is huge and stretches across something like 14 time zones. We have colleagues who minister to many many different people groups and cultures… everything from post modern people in the west to post communist (and still communist) in the east. Our Strategy Training Team seeks to provide ongoing training and development resources for all of these missionaries. Sometimes we go to them to conduct training labs / seminars, etc. However, we are also developing a comprehensive company website to help coordinate these events as well as provide areas for our people to download materials and interact with their peers. This is a big job but a fulfilling one. I never dreamed that we would be involved with such things… but God knew. So, every time that I create an area for our colleagues to utilize on the web or whenever Dawn updates a database or assists someone in other ways, it is an extra blessing. Yes, indeed… we are blessed to be able to minister in both worlds… working with people on the street to point them to our Savior and working to bless our fellow missionaries all over Europe. Thank you God for this opportunity… help us to do our best… amen.
