Partnership in the Gospel
"I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ." - Philippians 1:3-6
Tonight I have a new perspective on Paul's words to the Philippians, "because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now." We had our first Missionary Care Team meeting, a gathering of the folks in our sending church who want to be part of our missions journey in a deeper way. I am in awe. We prayed this week that God would bring the right people, give us the most meaningful words and help us brainstorm some ideas for increasing our ministry at home as well as our ministry partners in the future. Did He ever! Some of the blessings for tonight were fellowship with church family members we don't often interact with, sharing our heart for Spain and the urgency we feel about getting there as soon as possible, and sharing information about our field, the needs of our team and our needs during prefield.
Some of their (amazing!) ideas were:
pray regularly for us on days they know are especially difficult
pray for our sphere of influence (it's like they know how important it is for us to be successful missionaries at home in order to be successful on the field!)
brainstorm friends and acquaintances who would be blessed to know us and look for opportunities to introduce us
contact the churches already invested in our ministry team and encourage them to support us as part of their investment
help us get to Spain again soon so we can connect with our team, bond with some of the friends we made and rekindle our passion for ministering there
I'll be honest: some of the ideas sort of knocked our socks off! Going to Spain again soon would be a dream come true for us and for our team!
The amazing thing is this: their "partnership in the gospel from the first day" began over 30 years ago, when Chris's family moved to Bellevue and started attending Eastgate. Another "first day" occurred the moment I (somewhat reluctantly) walked through the doors over 10 years ago.
I am sure none of them knew that "until now" would involve sending us in His service, but God did.
(I officially have no socks!)