Gtcotr/ss080722
A few days 23 people traveled from GTCOTR and joined up with 5 more members of our Church family to form our 2022 KE Resources mission’s team in Kenya. Our team represented 4 nations, 5 people groups, 6 tribes, and 7 languages. We worked and ministered together as one body, the Body of Christ, reaching out with the love of Jesus to the poor, the widow, the orphan, the sick, the hungry, the lost, and the lonely.
Together we fed more than 1,000 people, brought doctor led professional medical attention and treatments to untold numbers of sick, hurt, and infirmed people of all ages. We built 10 permanent houses for those living in the direst of situations, forged relationships, reconnected families, gave out much-needed supplies, played with children, worshipped the Lord, completed and dedicated the first ever toilet in the 51 year existence of the community, we witnessed to people both in private and in public settings, visited and prayed with many who were unable to leave their humble dirt-floor dwellings, and we brought the life changing message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to everyone we met.
It was a busy but fruitful 9 days together. At the end of our trip we had accomplished our mission and exceeded our goals, all glory to God. The relationships among our team members are treasures which will last everyone a lifetime without regard as to where in the world we live. Each one of us realized once again that regardless of the color of our skin, the culture we were born into, the language we were raised speaking, or the situations life may present us, we are family and Jesus loves us all the same. I am a much richer man for having seen God at work in and through our Church family. This trip would not have been possible if it were not for so many behind the scenes at home who did not travel with us to Africa.
I pray the eternal rewards destined to be given at the end of this age for this mission’s outreach, as well as all the others we have processed this year and in all the years past, will be equally awarded to those who went to the field to work and to those who stayed by the stuff. The work of God demands we find our place in each endeavor. Some are goers, others are stayers, yet others are prayers, and some are payers. God needs us all.
I thank you from the bottom of my heart and God thanks you from His throne in Glory. As well, the people we touched and the lives we changed thank you each and every day for all you have done. Mungu awabariki!
Let’s turn in our Bibles to the Gospel of John. This verse was spoken by Jesus to His disciples on the evening of the day He was resurrected to life.
John 20:21 So Jesus said to them again, “Peace to you! As the Father has sent Me, I also send you.”
If you ever want to know what you are called to do, here it is. As the Father God sent Jesus, so also He sends you to do the very same things He was sent to do. You see, you are the Body of Christ. Without you Jesus has no hands, no feet, no voice, and no visible presence in this world.
What was Jesus sent to do? The prophet Isaiah spoke concerning the calling of Christ under the anointing of the Holy Spirit as though he was speaking in the first person.
Isaiah 61 NKJV
1 ¶ “The Spirit of the Lord
GOD is upon Me, Because the LORD has anointed Me To preach good
tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To
proclaim liberty to the captives, And the opening of the prison to those who
are bound;
2 To proclaim the
acceptable year of the LORD, And the day of vengeance of our God; To comfort
all who mourn,
3 To console those who mourn in Zion, To give them beauty for ashes, The oil of joy for mourning, The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; That they may be called trees of righteousness, The planting of the LORD, that He may be glorified.”
This
passage catalogues the full expression of the purpose and calling of the
Messiah.
1.
To
Preach Glad Tidings
2.
To
Proclaim Liberty
3.
To
Command Prison Doors to Open
4.
To
Declare the Year of Jubilee
5.
To
Comfort all Who Mourn
6.
To
Console Those Who Mourn in Zion
7.
To
Give
a. Beauty in exchange for
ashes
i. Beauty = Bonnet; An
Ornament of the head
ii. Ashes = worthless
iii. Jesus offers
a crown of jewels to the worthless, in exchange for their worthlessness
b. The oil of joy in
exchange for the mourning
i. Gladness for grief
ii. The oil of joy – the
anointing – only God can give this
c. The garments of praise
in exchange for the spirit of heaviness
i. The mantle of praise
for the darkness around you
ii. When the darkness comes, your mantle of praise will dispel it.
So that they may be fruitfully right with God their Father, so that He may be glorified!
Jesus
repeated this in Luke 4:18&19. It is the calling of Christ and the calling
of the Body of Christ, which you are. What are you called to do? You are called to be the visible presence of God in this
world. You are called:
1.
To
Preach the Good News
2.
To
Proclaim Liberty
3.
To
Command Prison Doors to Open
4.
To
Declare the Year of Jubilee
5.
To
Comfort all Who Mourn
6.
To
Console the Saints
7. To Give Value to the Worthless.
Matthew 9 NKJV
37 Then He said to His
disciples, “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are
few.
38 “Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.”
Thank
all of you so much. Now, let’s go out and be like Jesus!
