When I was growing up, I hated missionary Sundays. It was boring, especially since the missionaries couldn't seem to relate to kids. They gave a bunch of statistics and we were supposed to somehow put faces and emotion into their monotone presentations. Yuck! I hated it.
But, see what happens when you hate something near and dear to God's heart? God turns it around and teaches you something HUGE ... guess who speaks at missions services now?
My next presentation is on August 24th. But I struggle every time. I don't want to be like my childhood memories of missions services. I want my presentation to stir in the hearts of the people ... if they can't go themselves, send someone who is able to go. Maybe I go overboard, but I use powerpoint, music, and real items bought off the streets of the countries where we minister. I want the people to touch things, to smell the wood still permeated with the scents of dusty streets and caloused hands. It's important (at least in my feeble opinion) that people not take missions services for granted.
God forbid that people should be like I was, avoiding the missionary talks like the plague! I remember my Mom and Dad saying something like, "All they do is ask for money!" Well, yes, it's true we do need money. But we also need prayer, we need encouragement, we need someone to feel the Spirit of God stirring in their hearts and answer to His call to "Go ye..."
I'm just rambling this morning while working on this next presentation.
Pray that God will use me to impress the congregation with His heart for the lost and forgotten in this world. I don't want to give an ordinary missions presentation where people are more interested in watching the time and counting the minutes until they can leave than they are in hearing the heart of God. Pray that God will move in a mighty way, speak to His people, and ignite the flame of passion for missions.
(c) 2008 Jan Ross
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