The Value of One Soul

Missionaries in the Assemblies of God have a somewhat unique obligation. They must raise all of their own support. While there are some general funds to help offset expenses incurred in the application and training processes, the budget of a missionary must be secured by the missionary.

In the process of meeting their financial obligations, AG missionaries go church to church. They sometimes preach for a full service, but other times are given a smaller window in which to present their call and vision for ministry. It is very easy for the itinerating missionary to become overly focused on the objective of raising support. Sometimes, this focus comes at the expense of hearing from God and maintaining a focus on Him. Yes, missionaries have this problem, just like everyone else.

For several months now, God has blessed us with an abundance of offering support. It has allowed us to meet our day-to-day cash flow needs. Additionally, it has enabled us to build up a cash reserve that is required by the Assemblies of God World Missions. We have truly been blessed in this area throughout the second half of 2005. However, that has changed in a big way as we have entered 2006.

Although the month of January is only a little more than half complete, it has already presented significant challenges. For the first time in many months, we had two service slots that remained unfilled. No service means no offering. Twice this month, Rebecca or Tammy have been sick on service days. This has prevented them from traveling with me. Frankly, the best part of the family gets left behind when that happens. Every service we have had this month has involved a significant commute. In many cases, our gasoline expenses were greater than the offerings we received -- eating into those cash reserves we had started to build. It has been a troubling start to the new year.

I was sharing these troubles with a friend at Book of Hope and he helped me to put it into prospective. His take on it reflected the words of wisdom that one of the Pastor's I've met with this month shared. God will frequently take us through a season of fire, pruning, and testing in order to refine, reshape, and prove us. These times are difficult. However, if we remain faithful to His call and His purpose for our lives, He will give us the ability to see it through.

The difficulties of this month all faded away last night. No, there was no huge offering that wiped away all our deficits. However, there were five lost souls who's names were written in the Lamb's Book of Life. Five individuals who made a decision to accept Christ as their Lord, as their personal Savior. Was it great preaching on my part? No way. On my best days I am only a so-so preacher. What made the difference? God gave me a word for this church. He told me to minimize my focus on our ministry and maximize my focus on His message.

In the end, just like every other service this month, I spent more than I received. However, at least on this one very special Wednesday, it wasn't about an offering. It wasn't about a budget. It wasn't about a target date for completing itineration. It was all about the power of God's word to deliver someone out of the darkness of sin and into the light of His eternal love and grace. It was about the value of one soul. A value that goes beyond any economic measure.

No Fear

Today was another great day in the life of Rebecca. It did not start the way she wished, as the clock went off at 3:00AM. And there may have been a few times during the day when she was not totally happy. However, all in all, it was a day of adventure that she truly enjoyed. Today was the day that we flew to Chicago for two services this weekend. Rebecca has flown before and always enjoys the experience. Today was no exception.

Rebecca is the type of person who simply looks certain fears in the face and laughs at them. We saw that today during our flight. There was a point in the flight when the pilot had just turned off the seatbelt sign and said it was safe to get up. In less than a minute we hit some very serious turbulence. While those all around us were "white knuckled" as they grasped their seats and arm rests, Rebecca was looking to Dad and then to Mom and laughing. Where others saw fear, she saw excitement.

In First John 4:18, we get a little bit of insight into the source of Rebecca's attitude. In the King James Version, it reads "There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love." Rebecca, setting there between Mom and Dad, two people who love her dearly, and knowing Jesus in her heart, was able to look at an event that was inducing fear in all those around her and laugh it off. God continually amazes me at the life lessons that I am learning from a 13-year-old child who cannot walk or talk, but who is at perfect peace with her Lord and about her life.

A New School

Today marked a major milestone in our new hometown. This afternoon, Mom and Dad took Rebecca to register at her new school - Wingate Oaks. Wingate Oaks is the home of the Roaring Lions. It is a K-12 public school that focuses on meeting the educational needs of children with complex mental and physical handicaps.

Recall that in yesterday's post, we discussed Rebecca's laugh. Well, we got another laughter experience as we approached the school. We had visited Wingate Oaks in October as we were planning our transition from Lakeland to Tamarac. Rebecca was with us on that visit. Rebecca loves school and we expected her to have some anxiety about leaving Doris A. Sanders Learning Center, her school in Lakeland, and going to a new school. However, Rebecca quickly expressed that she was happy about our trip today. As we turned down the road to her school, even before the school was within sight, she began to giggle. This was her "I'm extremely happy with my life" giggle. It is a giggle that she saves for those most outstanding activities that bring her great joy.

The giggles did not stop with our arrival at the school. Once inside, we were met by her new teacher, Mrs. Nancy, and her guidance counselor. They were quickly joined by the school nurse, the YMCA after school coordinator, and several others. Mrs. Nancy is wonderful. She immediately engaged Rebecca in conversation, asking her questions as she was asking us about Rebecca. And Rebecca loved it. She knew right away that she was going to be treated like a teenager and was going to have an opportunity to be directly involved in planning her own education activities, generating another round of giggles. Mom and Dad were really excited about this as well.

Isn't it wonderful how God enables us to find great joy in the simple, even the mundane tasks of life. How easy it would have been to have viewed the process of signing up for school as something that Mom or Dad did and that Rebecca had no place in. We thank God daily for our little girl (sorry, our young lady) and we rejoice with her at the great joy she receives form the most simple activities of life. Perhaps there is something we can all take away from Rebecca's new school experience. Are there little things in your life that God is trying to use to show you the great joy that He has made available to you?

Rebecca's Voice

One of the greatest challenges that Rebecca faces is the lack of a voice. Her disabilities leave her unable to speak and unable to use her hands for signing. The only recourse she has is to use the few sounds she can make to communicate her current needs and feelings. She can grunt, she can squeal, she can hoot, she can cry, and she can laugh with joy and laugh with anxiety. We heard that last communication sound on Friday night.

In our home, we have one and only one TV. Rebecca loves the TV, since she can enjoy the entertainment on it and not be required to perform any kind of therapy work. It is her form of simple diversion. She enjoys VeggieTales and other cartoons, as well as more "teenager" type of entertainment (i.e. comedies like Cheaper by the Dozen). The one and only TV in our home is one we purchased the same week that we adopted Rebecca. It was over 13 years old and in very poor condition. It did not survive the move to Tamarac and she was very disappointed. Nevertheless, she did not express any frustration. After all, there was more than enough comedy going on in her new home as Mom and Dad went about the task of unpacking all those boxes that got moved on the big yellow truck.

Well, Rebecca is not the only one in the family who enjoys TV. Mom is an avid viewer and Dad enjoys his share of sports programs. We were all somewhat disappointed that the old set did not survive, so we went off as a family to our local Circuit City in search of a TV deal. We found one that met everyone’s satisfaction as well as fit within our budget needs.

About now, you may be wondering what the purchase of a new TV has to do with Rebecca's anxiety laugh. Really, you had to be there, but I will try to explain. The TV is larger than our old set and somewhat heavier. Also, it had to be placed into a cabinet that was just about the same size as the TV. In other words, there was not much room to navigate getting the TV into the cabinet. Rebecca laughed with pleasure as we purchased the TV. She laughed with comic relief as we fumbled with the box and all its stuffing materials. That was somewhat egged on by Dad's over exaggeration of the unpacking process. However, as Mom and Dad struggled with the TV in trying to get it into the right place in the cabinet, Rebecca started with her anxiety induced laughing. She was so worried that she almost got to the point here she was going to cry. You see, even though Rebecca cannot walk, cannot talk, cannot deliberately use her hands, she has a clear understanding of her parents priorities. She knows that there was a 13-year gap between the last new TV purchase and this one. She heard Dad say that this new TV would have to last 20 years. From her prospective, if Mom and Dad got clumsy with the task of installing this TV, she was going to be without a TV for a long, long time.

Happily enough, Mom and Dad were able to get the TV into the cabinet without any mishaps. Rebecca's anxiety laughter immediately converted into her happy laughter. A few minutes later and the cable TV and DVD player were hooked up to the TV and life in the Brown home was once again looking good.

Isn’t it amazing how God has gifted us all with our own special and unique way of communicating? The challenge for each of us is to be open to listening to others in ways that may not be easily understood initially, but will yield great understanding if we are willing to invest the time.