along the path...: The last speaker…

The last speaker…

For some reason unknown to me, I was asked to share at this conference at MAF…my place is usually in the background, close to the back of the church, meeting or classroom…

My familiar group is 1-5 people at a time, not 150+…

Thankfully, I had people who prayed for me…when I got on stage, the

Lights were such that you barely could see the audience…so it wasn’t as bad as looking at a crowd…

I was the last speaker for the morning…then complete silence as a rerun of pictures shown throughout the whole conference…

They showed pictures of our family through the years, how we got involved in giving and MAF, then a couple of questions, a couple more pictures, finishing with a blog I wrote awhile back about “ripples “…and what that word has meant to us…

One of my favorite pictures is with my husband’s outstretched arms…I labeled, “He gave it all”…it was his attitude of the way God supplied our needs through our lives..

“Ripples….

One of the last pictures I have of my husband was taken in the mountains near our home….we had been having a discussion about ripples and their effect…not just in the water, but in our lives…how by doing one thing it ripples out to others…

We took a picnic and drove into the mountains to the end of the road where the creek runs clear over weather smoothed rocks…taking multiple pictures of the ripples caused by him throwing pebbles into the creek…we sat and ate our dinner, enjoying the beauty of the place that we visited so much, not knowing that within two weeks our lives would drastically change with the words,” you have terminal cancer”…a huge tsunami in our lives…

That conversation about ripples, translated itself in so many ways…I even had ripples engraved on our headstone for the cemetery in the months following.

My husband’s and my conversation twelve years ago still sticks in my mind because of the ripple effect it has had on so many over years of life…just like other couples, families, individuals…they may be temporary or long lasting…

everyone makes ripples, we do one thing, small or big and it has effects that can be small or large, local or worldwide, close family or strangers…

Like a operation Christmas child box…we fill a box thinking of the child who will receive it… but in reality a family receives or a whole community is effected but one shoe box sized gift…a lifetime remembrance of a gift…

Or the parents, teachers who nurture and educate their children…the effects of those forming years, of words taught, attitudes taught, ripples out all of those children’s lives…

The pastor who shepherds his flock and how he does it effects whole congregations for years to come…

The political leaders, community leaders, those in authority….how they lead or not, effects whole nations, communities and constituents for times of turmoil or peace…

The widow giving her mite …

The books we read, the authors we follow make ripples in our lives…

Giving for a plane, a tank of airplane fuel, maintenance supplies, a playground, housing, funds given to MAF…

How many lives does that impact over the course of time….how many trips to give medical aide, fly Bibles to a people in their mother tongue, moves for missionaries, scouting for new people groups to serve…build an airplane hunger, and the myriad of other events…the giving each of us does effect others…it effects ourselves…

My challenge is what kind of ripples do we want to have…”

Thank YOU…

Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.

As it is written:“They have freely scattered their gifts to the poor;their righteousness endures forever.”

Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness.

You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.

This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of the Lord’s people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God.

Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, others will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else.

And in their prayers for you their hearts will go out to you, because of the surpassing grace God has given you.

Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!

2Cor.9.7-15

You made everything beautiful…Rebecca St. James, our keynote singer…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgsfESBDFcg