Missionary

Not Average

Posted by

1

 

Me aged 15

Me aged 15

I was never the cool kid on the block, or the cool kid at school, or the cool kid anywhere for that matter.  Truth be told, I’m not sure I really cared. 

 

When I was at school (back in the olden days of the 1980s) life consisted of a lot of groups.  We had the Rastafarian group – these obviously were the kids who loved Bob Marley.  Then there were ‘the black jersey boys’, who actually consisted of girls and boys who all wore the exact same black jersey.  I’m not going to lie:  I had one and I loved it.  There were of course the kids who unfortunately were classed in the nerd category, most of them really nice kids.  Then there were the girls, who really liked the boys (these same girls acquired names not suitable for this blog).  There were definitely the pretty people both boys and girls; these were the ones who everyone else in school had a crush on.  Then there were the rest of us… just your average kid, doing averagely well, trying to make their place in a big school but just managing to make their place in their small group.  From what I gather from my teenagers, not much has changed in the high school groups except the names of the categories themselves.  School is still full of a whole bunch of teenagers trying to find their place in high school.

But not much has changed in my life either.  I’m still just your average person, living in your average home, doing an average job and trying to make my way in this world.  But the difference in my life, and in any Christian’s life, is that we have the God of the universe beside us helping us on this journey of life.

So, although I am just average – I don’t serve an average God.  I serve the Creator of the universe; I serve the omniscient God (meaning He’s all knowing) and the omnipresent God (meaning He’s everywhere).   I serve the God who loves me (and you) so much He came Himself to earth as the man Jesus to offer his own life as a sacrifice for our wrongs, so we could be made clean and pure.  Through this act of love we are now able to have a relationship with Him because only by being pure can we enter His presence.

And because I serve God and believe His word, the Bible, He has taken this average kiwi girl and given her one incredible life.  A life filled with abundance.

Jesus says in the book of John chapter 10 verse 10:

The thief (satan) comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance (to the full, till it overflows). (Amplified Bible)

Mark, Suz, Misha & Bonnie. Dresden, Germany.

Mark, Suz, Misha & Bonnie. Dresden, Germany.

Now it has not all been good, but it has been incredible.  When Mark and I were missionaries we got to experience different countries and cultures, meet people from many nations, and live in the United States – it was all amazing!!  Of course, having our four daughters has been abundance in the good sense too.  But even in the darkest days of my coping with Mark’s illness, the incredible God did not leave me and taught me an abundance of lessons which, in hindsight, are amazing – but while I journeyed them they were a lifeline to survival.

I have discovered that God wants to talk to this average girl every day.  He wants to encourage me.  He wants to push me to do better, to think bigger, to try new things with Him beside me, to extend myself in doing things I would never have dreamed of doing – things that totally take me out of my comfort zone.  The reason Jesus wants to do this in my life is because He sees my potential. He sees what I am capable of through Him and with Him.  Every single person on this planet is NOT AVERAGE.  We have been created for a purpose.  We have a destiny to fulfill – but the only way each of us is truly going to fulfill that purpose is with the God who created us guiding us on our life journey.

I don’t want to live one day wasted.  I want to live every day with the almighty God spurring me on to things I could never dream or imagine, because that is what He has promised!

Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us,

to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.

Ephesians 3:20 (New Living Translation)

Umbrellas For Cows

Posted by

2

I have always loved God.  As a little girl I remember praying every night when I had just got into bed.I loved knowing there was a God who loved every person and who had the whole world in His hands.  We lived on a dairy farm when I was young and so my naïve prayers consisted of things like, “Dear God, please cover all the cows with umbrellas tonight because it is raining.”

But also, without fail, I prayed every night for all the missionaries in the world especially the two I knew personally, Dorothy and Mavis, who were both serving Jesus in Papua New Guinea.

_Anastasis    When I was thirteen my mum and dad took me to have a look around the Youth With A Mission (YWAM) ship, the Anastasis.  It sailed around the world with its medical operations on board, helping people and sharing the good news about Jesus.  I walked off that ship knowing what I wanted to do when I grew up – I wanted to be a missionary.

I did get to fulfil this dream, but then life threw a great big spanner in the works – a curve ball, as it were!

“However, despite the “spanner” my passion has never waned.  I still want to spend my life telling everyone I can about Jesus.”                   

This blog feels a little like modern-day missions which, I suppose, would make me a little like a modern-day missionary.

In addition to this exciting step of blogging, I (along with the most wonderful lady, Jenny, who is my editor) am attempting to put my story (the spanner) in a book.  Again, the passion that drives this book is that others may get to know Jesus through my story.

In the book of Matthew in the Bible (chapter 28 verses 19-20) Jesus says:

19 Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. 20 Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” New Living Translation (NLT)

This is called the “Great Commission” but for me is the motivator that drives me.  I am passionate about being obedient to the last thing Jesus said to do before he ascended to heaven.

So please, won’t you join me as I seek to share what’s on my heart, seek to show you what Jesus has done in my life and encourage you to get to know (or know better) the King of kings and Lord of lords – Jesus!