Today was a great day to be in church, personally I think every Sunday is a great day to be in church! Honestly, growing up I did NOT like going to church at all. For me, the only thing I enjoyed was going there to see the guys (like Bryan!). I asked Jesus in my heart at 5 years old but as I grew up it seemed to be almost boring to me. I went to a Baptist school and then to church on Sundays and Wednesdays but it just got boring! I was hearing (so it felt) like everything every day of the week at school and then again on Sundays!
Its kind of weird because my feelings were the same when It came to History. Oh, how I hated history! Now, I LOVE going to church and I love history. Maybe it has to do with getting older that I am enjoying history more and maybe its because we are going to a church where I feel like "this is where Im suppose to be". Whatever it is, I feel like a sponge soaking up Sunday School (yes, I go to that too and LOVE it just as much) and church and I feel like a sponge when I hear about history and different stories I hear!
I am so glad we are at a big church now and a church where my kids love going! Austin is almost 15 and I think he enjoys it more then he lets on (he is there when he is with us) but Emily and Ben just love it! It puts a smile on my face and lifts my heart when I hear every Sunday morning when we walk in the doors Ben saying to Emily "race you Sissy"! and they race to Bens class! It amazes me.
Today we had a missionary at church and he spoke in our Sunday school class ~ his name is ...wait for it....wait for it....Dr. Pepper! I know kind of funny right? Anyways, he spoke in our class and he and his wife are Missionaries in Africa! Seriously, Africa! It amazed me to hear how in less then 3 years all the souls that have been saved and how 900 have been baptized and how they have built 16 churches there and hope to have 26 by the end of this year! Amazing! This is after they were Missionaries in Korea for a while, went back to PA and then felt led to go to Africa!
After hearing him today, and seeing how old he and his wife are, made me wonder something ~ if the Lord called me today to be a Missionary, would I be willing to leave my life that I have right now and go? Leave my house, my parents and in-laws, pack up my kids and family and leave. Leave the security and the freedom that we have as Americans and go to a different country. To be honest, I love my Lord ~ but I would have to make sure that this was HIS will for my life. I think I would have a very hard time going. Saying that, after everything Emily has had to deal with in her short life I have always felt the Lord has a special plan for her. It wasnt until a friend of ours, whose daughter & her husband, were going to be missionaries in China, that they lost her to cancer about two years ago. I had never met their daughter but I felt as though I had. I saw how on fire she was for Christ thru her parents and how she would have been awesome at being a missionary and then the Lord had other plans. It made me wonder, what kind of plans does He have for Emily after allowing all this to happen to her. My first thought is how He will be calling her to be a missionary somewhere ~ maybe China or even Africa.
My hope and prayer is that if Emily is indeed called to go out and teach others of the love of Jesus, I just pray she will have a willing heart to go. I also pray that the Lord will give us a heart that will "let" her go! He has amazing things in store for her and for her life....it may simply be a school teacher, a doctor, a "gym" teacher (that is what she calls her physical therapists) or a child life specialist at the hospital! Whatever her calling is, I just hope she will use it to serve Him and be a missionary even if its "in her back door"! She will do wonders for the Kingdom of Heaven and Im sure that everything she has had to deal with and will continue to deal with the rest of her life ~ it WILL bring glory to Him!
