A Day in a Life on Mission with God

Being on mission with God means checking in first thing.  

“Father how I love you, lay my life before you, how I love you!”

It means being in tune with what He is doing in His world; Being ready and listening helps us to connect with the people in whose hearts He is already working.

A Day in the Life

A New Person at Church

Sunday morning arriving at church, I see a young man who is new. I saw him last week but didn’t catch him after service. He found our church by checking out different churches online.  He had thought he would go to bible college after graduation, but decided he needed a break from school and so he moved to our city and is now working. He’d like to meet our violinist because he himself likes to practice with the violin. He asked about last week’s service which was dedicated to Teen Challenge sharing their program needs by personal testimonies. I explain we do different things including a full worship service dedicated to prayer every 2 months. He is intrigued. Does he know Jesus? I don’t know yet, but the Spirit sent him here to our church and he is welcomed.

A Father

I approach another man who had asked for prayer at the last church family prayer time, for his kids. I had not had a chance to ask about his kids. He shares with me that he has a mental health condition that does not allow him to care for his kids. They are being cared for by family out-of-town, but he will see them next week when he has a ride. Now I know what we’re really praying about, and I encourage him about that.

A Young Mother

A young widow with a three-year-old son is here for the first time. I met her at the toddler’s music program a couple of months ago here at the church. She is not a believer, but I sensed there could be a connection there because I too, in years past, had received comfort in my own time of early widowhood--and here she was at an actual service on Father’s Day. I reach for her hand and acknowledge this is a difficult day. She is struggling because she needs to now find a job and get her son started at daycare. Daycare spots in the area are limited, and none of them fit with the required work hours at the jobs she is applying for. The daycares require a 4–4:30 p.m. pick-up while work hours end at 5, meaning she can’t pick up until 5:30. I encourage her by reminding her that we will pray, and God is the God of the impossible. I head to the kitchen to find a plastic bag for the Father’s Day card her son made at Sunday School so it will be protected when they drop it off at the cemetery. (Teachers did that for my kids’ Father’s Day cards in my time.) Some of the older women ask me about her as she is new, so I introduce her to them. After she leaves, I share her story briefly with these women and her current predicament about daycare and work hours. I ask the women to pray about being an answer to her needs as they all live in the neighborhood. Could they take turns to pick up her son and keep him for an hour or so until she picks him up after work?  Our pastor just talked about maturing as a believer in his sermon – “pick up a fork!”, he had said.  It is in serving that we are matured.  “The 2-edged sword,” I say to myself. (The two-edge sword is an image that as we join God in his mission, lost people are introduced to Jesus, AND his people are matured to be more like Jesus Christ.)

Graduation Tea & Intergenerational Prayer

The mom of one of the young women at church approaches me to confirm if I had received the invitation to their daughter’s graduation celebration to be held at church. We discuss the recent ‘Tea’ to which all the young women were invited and to which I was also welcomed.  The Holy Spirit had put in my heart a desire to work with the young people at church, but I was unsure because I am 67. The Tea had given me entry and I had been welcomed. We are planning a brunch at my place next. The mom I was speaking to mentioned the need for us to especially pray for a couple of the young women. This was a huge concern for these girls’ parents.  I suggested we invite the older women to partner with the young ones by intentionally praying for them, matching each with a young woman to pray for. I will organize this.

Widows

On this Father’s Day, my heart was burdened with the need to pray particularly for a couple of women who lost their husbands recently, and for a woman I met at a denominational meeting the day before. Her husband shared that he had been diagnosed with Stage 4 liver cancer and had almost died in January. He asked if I would pray for his wife.  My heart cried out to the Father for her as I visited my husband’s grave. This may be her last Father’s Day with her husband on this side of the grave.

I finished the day with a very full heart and swollen eyes.  I had been at the battlefield with my God on His mission.

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