Do You Want Your Life To Count?

The Little Man

A couple weeks back I snapped this picture of a 6 year old boy in the city dump of Guatemala City. This little man listened for several home visits to the team as they shared the Gospel and provided a bag of food to families. He then proceeded to urge with great passion our team to follow him to his house, "quickly." He shared he had to go "to work" soon as the trucks were coming out of the dump with metal and he had to be there to get what he could to carry. He led us to a small structure and introduced our team to his family. As the team began to minister, he cared for the open fire in the corner of the doorway and then quickly vanished into the street to meet the trucks.

Since this meeting I have been struggling to grasp the whole picture of this one little man's life. Today, it rang clear and all the blurriness is gone. This monring my dear friend Peter Sozi from Uganda shared with our students at church. His message was an amazing passionate plea to make your life count! Pray and seek God's face and turn from your wicked ways and God will respond. It all came clear...The Father's desire is to use one life to radically challenge and transform another.

It is God's plan for your life to count to the one whom He places in your path to touch. The little man in Guatemala was a reminder that the children see it all clearly. It is the simple ways that the Lord desires. No degrees or professional expereince required. Prayer of the one will be powerful and effective.

How about your life? Do you want your life to count today? How about right at this very moment you punch the pause button on everything and seek Him, pray, turn, listen to your name being called by the God of this universe and respond to His call to make a difference!

Remember the story of the boy throwing starfish back into the ocean? Thousands of starfish stranded on the beach in the hot sun losing all life by the moment. As he tosses each one back in the elder walks by and scoffs, "son there is no way you can make a difference in this mass of starfish...why are you trying to save them all...it does not matter." the young boy picks up a starfish and boldly declares to the elder man, "It matters to this one!" As he tosses one at a time each starfish back into the sea, he concludes, it matters every time picks one up. It matters every time you speak the truth. It matters every time you pick one up!

Do you want your life to matter? Lord today may my life be counted as yours and may i be used to impact one. It matters to that one!

In His Grip,

JT

Memories of Guatemala November 2009

After being home for a little less than a week, I can look back at how God was working in and around us during our most recent trip to Guatemala, and truly be inspired and thankful. While we were there He provided for Tabitha house, through sacrificial giving. He provided for us as a family, showing us where and with whom we would live when we arrive, prayerfully in May. He changed hearts and healed the sick and He saved souls, all in our direct line of sight. I am wondering this morning why these things shock or amaze us? He IS the creator, the King of King's, the Lord of Lord's, the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end, the ancient of days, El Shaddai, Almighty God! Do we forget so quickly who He is? And then I realize we are the same as the Israelites being brought out of slavery in Egypt. They saw the Red Sea parted and they crossed on dry land. They were fed by Holy manna from heaven and drank from the rock. They were guided with fire by night and a cloud by daylight. And yet after Moses was on the mount for 40 days they forsook all of that to worship a golden calf. I would say to you that we are just like them.
God is at work all around us. We must ask Him to make us aware of what He is doing so we can be a part of it. When we were at Tabitha house is May, we saw children who were hopeless and unloved and when we returned last week those same children were smiling and playing and they even put on a show for us. God provided a woman, Carol, to go to the dump and love and care for women and children who otherwise would not get that love, or even more, probably not survive. There are women, who just 6 months to a year ago were on drugs, in prostitution and some even thinking about selling their children to get more drugs or just to make money. Now they are working and providing for their children by legitimate jobs and they are working with Carol to care for and feed these impoverished children. These are changes only God can bring about.
They opened up more area in the dump for people and it was said to house 650 families. It was a squatters camp, like a refugee camp. No solid structures. Tarps held up by wooden posts, anything they could find to hold it together. They call this home, some smaller than most of our bathrooms or even a walk-in closet. I am hurting right now thinking about some of the families we met who just need someone to love them and show them the hope found in Jesus Christ. It's the same hope that most of the people we know right here need. The question for all of us is, are we willing to live and love as the Bible instructs us?

Greg Brown

Guatemala

Wow! God is good...no awesome! How many times do we question things in life? I do it quite frequently. While packing for Guatemala I began to question whether we had enough medicine, school supplies, clothes, diapers, etc. When we arrived we took inventory...GUESS WHAT we had so much stuff we didn't know what to do with it all.
This week has been tremendous. I don't even know how to put it into words. The team is made up of the most amazing people. Again God is great! He knows our every need. He knows how many hairs on our head. He knows every child that is staying at Tabitha House and everything they need. He knows every person that lives in and around the Guatemala City Dump and what they need. What we need to understand is that the most important thing they need is JESUS! We have seen people come to Christ. It was not anything thing we said or did while witnessing. It was the power of the Holy Spirit working in and through us. It was the power of the Holy Spirit working in the people we witnessed to. God does not need us to save people. Yet He instructs to go and make disciples!

Right now we are looking at a house near the city. We are praying for guidance! This is very exciting and I can't wait to move here. Please pray for us.

In Christ,
Kathy Brown

Have you felt your knees lately?

I recall the words of my brother Claud Crosby speaking to our team in South Africa a few years back. He shared that too many times we work for the Kingdom of God and pray for His blessing on our work. We will see the power of God move when we seek His will and spend the time we should in prayer first. Then the 30 minutes we spend in the field serving Him will accomplish more in the power of God than 3 hours or even 3 days of me working in my own strength!

My question today is have you (and I) felt our knees lately? Have we been on our knees so much seeking the presence and the power of God that the physical impression of His presence is evident in our body? It is very clear and widely accepted that the remedy for revival in our land is prayer and humility before a Holy God. Are we on our knees praying for His power and His Spirit to work in our land?

Daily we see the headlines and the news reports of chaos in our leadership. Random acts of violence are common place in the first five minutes of a news report. Medeocrity and compromise are now the norm for most leaders. Regularly we hear the reoprts of a fallen politician, pastor, or even family member. When will it all be enough to drive us to our knees? How much more do we have to see and hear before we will humble ourselves and seek His face and turn from our wicked ways? How much more?

Right now....yes right at this moment...stop reading...get on your knees and cry out to Him for help. Take a minute out of the crazy business of our self-driven culturally mandated slammed schedule and pause...wait on Him...listen to His voice...He is speaking to us all. Pause and listen to the sound of the throne...Holy Holy Holy is the Lord God Almighty...who was and is and is to come!

Let's begin now to change our daily routine and instead of seeking to formulate a list of to dos that will accomplish all that I have to do today...I actually pasue and seek His wisdom and listen to His heart for today. Am I willing to surrender all, all to Jesus I surrender, all to him truely owe, all to His will I will surrender. Today make the change...right now...stop and really listen to Him...He desires to pour into you and to me the full power of the Gospel. He desires to see the person in front of you find grace and mercy just like you did.

In His Grip,
JT