Archives September 2012

I have been home a week and a half from the Dream Center in Los Angeles where I interned for a year and I can still see the faces of my friends and the neighborhood children in Watts that I grew to love as my own. It was very hard to say goodbye but I knew that God has clearly called me to come back to Houston and work with my family at Mission Critical International. I have known since I was six years old that I was called to be a missionary to the nations. It has always been my desire to minister in South America and Africa.

Amazingly God has given the opportunity over the last three years to work in Colombia and next spring I will be serving in Zambia, Africa as well. As hard as it was to leave the relationships of the last year in Los Angeles, I know that God has many crazy things for me to do this next year and I can’t wait to see what He does. I feel like my story has just begun.

My last Adopt-A-Block meeting in Watts as we were praying out one of my little children I was serving there asked if he could pray. As he was praying he thanked God for his friendship with me and thanked God that I was able to bring him to church every Thursday and Sunday and because of that prayer I realized what an incredible influence God had allowed me to have in the lives of these kids over the last year and I only hope that I will be able to expand my influence with the children of Colombia and Zambia this year.

It is obvious that God has placed in my heart a deep and unstoppable love for the overlooked, vulnerable, and abandoned children of the world. I intend to spend the rest of my life pursuing every opportunity to bring hope and God’s love to as many children as I possibly can. Pray for me as I begin fundraising for Zambia and as I jump into the work with my dad here at Mission Critical. God is good!!!

Love Rebekah

Do you ever think about how amazing it was that in Luke 5 after Jesus bids Peter and the others to let down their nets and they pull in what was probably the greatest catch of their careers “they left everything and followed Him.” (Luke 5:11) when Jesus said, “Do not fear, from now on you will be catching men.” (Luke 5:10)? I’ve been thinking a lot about this over the last few years.

The passage always amazes me because at first blush it seems like they gave up a lot and they took a great risk leaving their livelihood to follow this Rabbi who “had nowhere to lay His head” and maybe that is part of why Jesus said, “Do not fear” but in retrospect they were trading very little for the most incredible adventure in the history of the world. When Jesus said, “follow Me” there is no way they could have known the incredible adventure that awaited them. In that split second where they made the decision to follow Him there is no way they could have known what that meant. As they were walking away from their father, their boats, their nets, and their wealth there is no way they could have known that they were going to see the blind, lame, diseased, and dead healed before their very eyes! They couldn’t have known that they were going to be on the mount of transfiguration and see Jesus in His glory speaking with Moses and Elijah! They couldn’t have know that they would see God clothed in flesh die to ransom humanity and then see Him raised from the dead and ascend to heaven. Peter couldn’t have known that when he left his nets he would preach and see three thousand saved and baptized in one day! In those simple words “follow Me” were concealed huge miracles, intense suffering, wonderful marvels, deep pain, unspeakable joys, not to mention the presence of Jesus, the most lovable and admirable being in the universe.

The astounding truth however is that each of us have been called by the same Rabbi to “follow Me” and the same adventure is waiting for us if we will leave our shore of Galilee and follow Him and it excites me daily to think that there is no way we can know the incredible things He has in store for us if we will say yes! We may have to leave familiar surroundings, careers, family, and more and there is no guarantee that we will ever return (all the fishermen who followed Jesus from the shore that day were killed in foreign lands for the gospel) but I know that if those fishermen had it to do over again they wouldn’t trade their adventure with God, their Mission Critical, for a quiet life on the shores of Galilee and neither should you or I.

What God sized adventure is awaiting us? There is no way we can know unless we drop the nets and follow.

To Be Continued…