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A Calling

Hey everyone! My name is Heather Hall. I am a recent graduate of Asbury University and a new missionary with Global Education Ministries. I will be serving as an English teacher at La Luz School in Juquila, Mexico. I would like to begin with an introduction about who I am and why I am going to Mexico. Like I said earlier, my name is Heather. Since I was a kid, I wanted to be a teacher. I used to play school with my dolls and even created a binder where I would store their assignments! I also had a passion for overseas missions, even though I didn’t have a full understanding of what that was. My dream was to teach at a small school in a rural village overseas. God used this idealistic childhood fantasy to open my heart towards missions and prepare me for the future.

 

When I was 16 years old, God gave me the opportunity to travel overseas for the first time, and I went to Costa Rica with a mission team from my church. I was amazed by the kindness and generosity of the people I met and kept in touch with a few local girls in the following years. It broke my heart to leave those people after only a week and, after that trip, I knew that a mission trip wasn’t enough. God had given me a desire to live life with the people and not just drop in and out at our convenience. After the trip, I also decided to continue learning Spanish with a newfound motivation and used it to communicate with a few of the girls I met in Costa Rica.

 

When I entered college, I chose to pursue a missions degree because my heart was still drawn towards long-term missions. Other students had told me that “Missionary Methods and Problems” had caused others to realize that long-term missions wasn’t for them. However, I loved the class and it only fueled my fire for missions. During my freshman year of college, I began volunteering as an ESL (English as a Second Language) teacher at my church and fell in love with it. During my college years, I taught English as opportunities arose and became involved in the World Gospel Mission center at my university. We hosted missionaries from all over the world, and I got to have conversations with them as I wrestled with God’s calling on my life.

 

After my Junior year of college, my plan was to go back to Costa Rica for a missions internship, but I was unable to travel due to COVID. However, God opened the door for me to use my COVID room and board refund to complete my CELTA (English Teaching Certificate) coursework and teaching practicum online with a school in Mexico over the summer. That summer, He also gave me a vision of myself kneeling in a classroom, confirming my calling as a teacher. This past Spring, I did my internship with a language school in Spain, where I taught English classes online. While teaching, my face would light up, and I knew in my heart that this is what God created me to do.

 

During this time, I was searching for something to do after graduation, and I found some job postings for English teachers at Global Education Ministries. The more I looked into the organization, the more I was drawn in. I could see their heart for Jesus in the centrality of the Gospel in their schools, the honoring of local leadership, and the open invitation to all regardless of their background or how much they can pay. I began the interviews and was able to witness these ideals being lived out in the lives of real people who faithfully follow God’s call. I came to a point where I knew that this was the next right step in my journey with Jesus. He used a sermon to break down my fears and lead me to commit. Ever since then, my calling has been confirmed. Yes, there are still fears and doubts and questions. But God is bigger than all of that, and He will provide what I need. He says, “So do not fear, for I am with you; Do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” (Isaiah 41:10 NIV)

 

**You can follow my adventures here: https://heathergranaventura.blogspot.com/ and join my prayer team on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/groups/408866517078866)

or by email (herha8@gmail.com)!

– Heather Hall, GEM Missionary

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Go.

I want to start off by saying Christ is so AWESOME!! I am truly so humbled that He can take broken sinners like me, and use us as vessels to overflow and outpour the grace, love, and mercy He has ceaselessly given us. May everything I do be done through Christ and for His glory alone. If for any other reason, then it’s for nothing. It is not I, but Christ in me. I pray that this would be the song of my heart and at the forefront of my mind with every step I take. I pray that I may continue to boast in all of my weaknesses because Christ’s power is made perfect in them!!

I have been learning this more and more throughout this journey thus far.

When I share with people that I am moving to Mexico for a couple of years after I graduate college, I have received responses of all kinds. I have got the question, “are you sure you can do this?” or “are you sure you want to do this?” I am sure that the ones who were asking these questions were doing it out of care and love for me. However, over time, these questions on repeat started to wear on me. I began to ask myself… “can I really do this? I must be crazy for thinking I can!” Following that came the urge to prove to myself and to others that I could. Well, God used this to teach me a hard but beautiful lesson.

I found that the more I tried to prove myself capable, it only magnified my incapability.

The answer to the question, “do you think you can really do this?” has a simple answer: I know I can’t…

…but hallelujah I know the one who can!!

Christ in me who has called me by His great name! I can do all things through Him because He strengthens me. That is the only way.

Vessels are best filled when empty, so that’s what I want to be. Empty before the Lord so that I can be filled with more and more of Him.

Here’s a quick summary of how the Lord got me to say a joyful “yes” to moving to Mexico with GEM:

In college, the Lord started revealing things in my life that I had a death grip on. He kept saying to me over and over again that He wanted it all. Not just a piece of my life, but the entire thing. When I submitted to what Jesus did on the cross for me 10 years ago, my life had died. I had known this, but I was suddenly burdened and was made heart-wrenchingly aware of the blueprints I sketched for my life that I had been hoarding for myself… my comfortable kingdom I was building here when there are souls dying every day who have never heard of the name of Jesus! The name that had set me free and given me Life…people were dying without even knowing of Him. (As I am writing this I pray that this Truth will continue to overwhelm our hearts and bring us to our knees. May it send out laborers! For the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few — Matthew 9:37) This began to wreck me…but it also stirred up a passion within me for the gospel that was overwhelming me to do something about what had been shown to me. At college group one Sunday night, I was sharing what was on my heart and my youth pastor pointed out to me that it sounded like I had a calling to ministry and to pray about it/look into different opportunities.

After months and months of prayer over where the Lord wanted me/what He wanted me to do, I went through some interviews as well as looking at different avenues I could take in the mission field. Nothing seemed right, and at one point I thought I was trying to force something that wasn’t supposed to happen, so I stopped looking yet kept praying.

Boom.

One Wednesday night my youth pastor mentioned Global Education Ministries (GEM) to me. I was immediately intrigued just from reading their website, but there was a problem… I was a marketing major… not an education major. I didn’t think they’d have a need for someone in Marketing.

Not mentioning my major, my youth pastor’s mom, who has been a part of GEM, reached out to them about my interest and this was their reply:

That right there is undeniably the Lord. I get chills thinking back to this moment.

To be honest, Mexico was not where I would have chosen. The only way I would have even considered going to Mexico was if the Lord gave me a heart for it.

Well after all of my interviews… I fell completely in love with GEM and what God is doing through their ministry. It is like my passions and the Lord’s desires beautifully meshed together it is so awesome and exciting!!

Throughout this entire journey, I have been saying that I don’t want to do anything for Christ, but I want to do everything with Him and through Him. I know without a doubt that He is with me and has given me a heart to serve Him and the beautiful people down in Mexico.

I am so honored to get to be a part of what God is doing through GEM and pray that He is glorified through everything that is done in my life and through this ministry.

– Sarah Beth Moore, GEM Missionary

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Learning About a Perfect Creator

Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation, for through him God created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth. He made the things we can see and the things we can’t see. (Colossians 1:15-16)

How sweet is to be reminded that God is the creator of all things. Everything that exists finds purpose in Him. These verses are a great inspiration and encouragement, and also a source of peace knowing I can rest in the presence of my Creator, that made me and made all the things.

Life here on Earth can often be really unstable and feel senseless. And in one of these kind of moments the Holy Spirit guided me through the Scriptures to remind me of this powerful and gracious truth: God is the creator of all things. All the things were created by Him and for Him.

As a teacher, sometimes I feel overwhelmed and pressured by the responsabilities of teaching my young students the bases for the subjects they will be using for the rest of their lives. I think over and over, subject after subject: “I should go deeper in this concept, they will need it a lot when [insert a hypothetical situation that can happen but I can’t know for sure now]”.

This fear is more present in my lesson plannings than I’d like to confess to you all. But when I put some thinking into how to weave the gospel in the topics I’m teaching… That’s usually the moment that God reminds me: all the things I have to teach my students were created by Him, and all the things I have to teach my students find purpose in Him, ultimately.

One of my favorite things about weaving the gospel in my classes is the a great oportunity to share this truth with the kids. All the things we study in school, God has created in this world: the nature, the relation between nature and humans, how people communicate and behave, and the variations of these areas. All things were created by God and find purpose in Him.

Whether in the relations among geometric shapes making sense because of each detail of their characteristic sides and angles; or studying the water cycle and how many times water changes its state of matter… In all things we can see God’s great and thoughtful character. What an amazing thing it is to use the learning of school subjects to contemplate how great our Creator is.

God is so gracious for allowing us to enjoy the world He created. And more than that, there’s so much of His grace when we take more steps toward understanding His perfect thoughts as the creator of all things. I’ve been finding so much grace in teaching Science, Math, Social Studies, different languages… And as a consequence learning more of the perfect God that made all things. God is so good and gracious for letting us find the evidences of His greatness as we learn more about this amazing world He created. What a sweet gift is to be a part my students journeys while they learn different subjects, and even more than that: be part of their process of discovering a God who loves them so perfectly and created all things so wonderfully.

– Jady Vaneli, GEM Missionary

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Humble Faith

In a world where circumstances constantly shift and life is fragile, there is an everlasting hope that will never waver. God has been teaching me that in order to experience this hope, we cannot allow pride to gain a foothold in our heart. 

The other day I was reading a devotional based on the story of the bleeding woman and Jairus’ daughter who both were healed by Jesus. At the end of the devotion, it asked the question, “What was it that the bleeding woman and Jairus had that allowed them to be a testimony of the power of God?”… Then it asked, “in what situation do I need to have more patience and wait in faith?” 

These questions hit me like a ton of bricks. I had been walking through a season in which I felt like my prayers were not being answered in the way I wanted. In my pride, I began hesitating to trust in God’s faithfulness and goodness. I began living as though Christ wasn’t enough simply because I wasn’t content with His plans or timing. This kept me from experiencing the transformative work of God in my life. Not only that, but my heart became filled with ungratefulness, selfishness, fear, and lack of joy.

In contrast, the bleeding woman in Matthew 9 displayed genuine humility and faith in Jesus. She waited 12 years without answers for her suffering, and even after enduring for so long, she chose to trust in the capability of Jesus, “for she said to herself, ‘if I only touch his garment, I will be made well’” (Matthew 9:21). Because of her humble faith, the suffering woman was changed forever by God’s miracle-working power, and she was used as a living testimony to show God’s great power to others.

When we humble ourselves before the Lord, He promises to pour out His grace: “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble” (James 4:8). As we submit ourselves to Him, He can use us in powerful ways to demonstrate His glory to those around us. It all comes down to remembering who God is: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD” (Isaiah 55:8). “The LORD is faithful in all his words and kind in all his works” (Psalm 145:13). Whether we want to believe it or not, God is trustworthy and He promises us that He works for our good. He isn’t just in control, he also loves us more than anyone else can.

Even through painful circumstances or seasons when we don’t see our prayers answered the way we expect, we must lay aside our pride and trust in God’s all-sufficient, loving goodness. Abiding in Jesus produces gratitude in us, thankfulness, and contentment because His way is truly better. “But I say, walk by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh” (Galatians 5:16).

Unlike humility, pride leads us away from Jesus and puts us at odds with our Heavenly Father. It distances us from the source of life and only fills our lives with destruction.

Although pride is something that we will inevitably wrestle with, we have the ability to reject it. Be encouraged that even in the worst of circumstances, making the decision to humbly trust in Jesus like the bleeding woman will always lead to experiencing His blessing. Instead of running from Him in doubt, draw near and reach for His robe. Remember that He promises us life in abundance, He will never let you down. “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep” John 10:10-11.

– Natalia Saint Clair, GEM Missionary

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But God Meant it For Good

It has almost been a year since the global pandemic closed everything down. What a year it has been. Every part of our world has been impacted in some way to this and it has continued to this day.There have been many challenges, difficulties, and struggles all over the world. Many families have lost loved ones and have experienced loss. It can be easy to look at 2020 as a waste and be ready to move on to normality as we know it. Yet, as Christians we must remember that God uses all things to grow us in character. He was not, has not, and will never be surprised by what is going on in our world.

During this time, God has been teaching me about difficulty, struggle, and challenges through the story of Joseph in Genesis. You know this story well, but just let me recap a couple of significant challenges that occurred in his life. Joseph was loved by his father deeply and his brothers hated him because of that (Genesis 37:3-4). His brothers plotted to kill Joseph, but instead threw him into a pit and later sold him to a group of people that took him into Egypt (37:20,28). Joseph was falsely accused of attempted rape of an officer’s wife (39:11-19) and he was placed in prison (37:20). He helped the chief cupbearer be restored to the king, yet the cupbearer did not remember Joseph and he was left in prison for two more years (40:23-41:1). Joseph was 17 when he was sold to Egypt and had only 17 more years with his father once he was in Egypt.

Now Joseph was also blessed abundantly by God throughout these difficulties and challenges. He was put in charge of the household of Potiphar before he was accused of attempted rape (39:4). After he was put in prison, The Lord gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison and he was put in charge of all the prisoners who were in prison (39:21-22). Joseph interpreted the Pharaoh’s dreams and was put in charge of everything right under Pharaoh. Now what we don’t see in this story is in between. What was Joseph’s character during the challenges when he was a slave in Potiphar’s house? What about when He was sent to prison? He was in prison for 12 years. What is most significant in this story is not all that Joseph did that we can see, but what day to day life was like.

Over and over we can see that the Lord was with him (Genesis 39:2, 21, 23; 41:38). During all of his difficulties, he didn’t try to get out of where he was at. The Lord was with him and he was with the Lord. Potiphar, the prison keeper, and Pharaoh all noticed that the Lord was with Joseph. God used all of these challenges and difficulties in the life of Joseph to show how great and magnificent God is. Joseph had come to know God in a deeper way and God used all these things in his life to be a blessing to Egypt and all the nations around them (Genesis 12:1-3).

In the midst of the many difficulties and challenges that all of us are facing right now, I want to share three takeaways from the story of Joseph for us. First, be where you are. Joseph was enslaved and imprisoned. Instead of doing whatever it took to get out, he served the Lord faithfully and many saw that God was with him. Where you are right now may be difficult, however, it is exactly where God has you. Be there and serve faithfully. You are exactly where God has placed you.

Secondly, Be with Jesus.  In every challenge and difficulty, the scripture says that God was with Joseph and was teaching him (39:21). In this story, it never talked about how great Joseph was; rather, the scriptures show that God was with Joseph. It was because of the Lord that Joseph was able to do all that he did. God reveals his greatness through our challenges as we depend and trust in Him completely. This is very difficult for us and the American culture. Everything that we seek is to be faster or better. God’s way for Joseph and for us is to trust Him completely. He is our source of life. He is the way, the truth and the life and He alone is where our soul belongs.

Lastly, His plans are perfect and bring about His Glory. In Genesis 12, God made a covenant with Abraham and promised that through him and his descendants, all the nations would be blessed. In a situation that seemed like a tragedy, God used all of this for his glory and the blessing of many nations. As the end of Genesis says, “As for you, you meant evil against me, God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive as they are today (Genesis 50:20).” Joseph was part of that promise from God’s covenant to Abraham and we are too. We have been blessed with the richness of the grace of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection in order that we can bless others.

In light of all that is happening in our world and in our lives, embrace the difficulties and challenges and cling to Jesus, our only hope and true joy in this life!

-Daniel McDonald, GEM Director of Global Engagement

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Make Us Worshippers

Why is our enjoyment of something beautiful magnified when the experience of that beauty is shared? Why do we gasp at stunning views, point out rainbows, and hold our breath as the sun slips below the horizon?

I believe we respond to beauty in these ways because we are made to wonder and to worship, and made to do so collectively. When we wonder at something, we are exalting it as beyond our comprehension, acknowledging that we cannot fully grasp it. Looking more closely at the word ‘wonder’, the definition according to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary is as follows: “rapt attention or astonishment at something awesomely mysterious or new to one’s experience.” Sharing the experience of wonder in the company of others magnifies our delight and enjoyment of beheld glory because it is confirmed in a joint response. Wonder leads to worship. 

Throughout the Psalms, we see David, a man after God’s own heart, beckoning the people, beckoning the reader, to join with him in wonder and worship of the Most High God. “Oh magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt His name together.” -Psalm 34:3  and “Let all the earth fear the Lord;

Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him. For He spoke, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast.”- Psalm 33:8-9 

When Jesus spoke to the woman at the well in Samaria he said, “But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” -John 4:23-24.

God seeks worshipers, He desires for us to wonder, to marvel at who He is. This is His grand design! In worship, we take our eyes off of the world of our experience and center our souls around the truest reality, around the One who is worthy of all praise. In worship, we, for once, take the focus off ourselves and we remember: “…For God is in heaven, and you on earth; Therefore let your words be few.” -Ecclesiastes 5:2

Wonder and worship go hand in hand. “In short, wonder is captured in one word—worship. When we have learned what worship is, we have experienced what wonder is. Worship is a personal thing before it goes public. It is an individual thing before it is part of a community. It is a disciplined thing before it is natural.” -Ravi Zacharias

We are made to wonder, made to worship. The prayer that has been weighing on me is that God would make me ‘one who worships’. That He would craft in me such a posture of worship that if all else in life fell away, worship would remain; worship would be my occupation and saturate my identity. May God open our eyes to see Him as He is, that our hearts may be captivated by His glory and we would ever and always worship Him alone. 

Like Moses returning from Mount Sinai, may our faces be radiant, markedly different to sight because of the time spent gazing fixedly at the glory of God. May we bask in and reflect the light of His countenance to the world. Like David, may we call out for fellow-worshipers and may our petition be “Come, wonder with me.”

– Mallory Knight, GEM Sponsorship Coordinator

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A New Way to Look Back

Having the opportunity to serve with GEM has been an amazing experience of faith in my personal walk with God. I saw God moving and acting supernaturally in every area that I needed support before moving. As I started working in the school, His Spirit kept giving the help and encouragement I needed to best serve my students.

But as the weeks passed by, I started to focus more on the to-do’s and eventually I found myself frustrated and tired. I felt this way because I was not meeting my personal expectations as a teacher. When we finished the first quarter, I was tired and disappointed at myself for not achieving the professional goals I set. And disappointment is an exhausting feeling.

One day, the Spirit guided me through the scriptures and spoke to my heart through this piece of Solomon’s prayer once they had finished the Temple:

“Praise be to the Lord, who has given rest to his people Israel just as he promised. Not one word has failed of all the good promises he gave through his servant Moses. May the Lord our God be with us as he was with our ancestors; may he never leave us nor forsake us. May he turn our hearts to him, to walk in obedience to him and keep the commands, decrees and laws he gave our ancestors. And may these words of mine, which I have prayed before the Lord, be near to the Lord our God day and night, that he may uphold the cause of his servant and the cause of his people Israel according to each day’s need” (1 Kings 8:56-59).

We know that the path in the desert to the promised land was filled with challenges, idolatry, murmuring, and even doubting God’s provision. The thing that the Spirit made me realize is that even with all these hard events, Solomon looked at the path of the Israelites in the desert and prayed to God, thanking his faithfulness. Even with all the difficulties and the sinful nature of his people, God kept his promise. He sustained them even in their rebellion. Solomon looked to God and remembered how good He is. I realized that I have an unconscious tendency to look at the challenges, the failures, and the wrongs. The Spirit showed me that I needed to change my perspective from the fallen human and imperfect nature to the unchanging, all-powerful, and faithful God we have. God sustained me even in my failures.

It’s important to look back and see how we can improve and make things better. But the real improvement does not come from our independent desire and effort to fix mistakes. As Christians, the only way to improve ourselves is to walk the path of dependence on the Lord – through prayer, listening to His voice in the scriptures, and taking the leaps of faith that He guides us to. Leaving Brazil to come to Mexico was a huge leap of faith for me, depending completely on His grace and support. Now He’s asking me to trust Him in a way that’s not as visual or tactile as it was in the beginning. He didn’t stop sustaining me when I arrived in Puerto Escondido; He is still interested in sustaining me in all areas of my life. 

My goal for this next semester is to fully understand and practice Paul’s testimony about depending on God: 

But He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness”. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me (2 Corinthians 12:9-11).

– Jady Vaneli, GEM Missionary Teacher

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An Invitation In

It is a sanctifying and humbling thing to step back and recognize the love that we have received so freely. How often do we think of the depth of the Father’s love for us and the ripple effect that it has on our lives? How often do I overlook it in my day to day walk- the answer is far too often.

Andrew Murray writes in his book The True Vine about the parable that Jesus shares in John 15. He explains that the picture that Jesus was trying to paint was one in which God is the Husbandman or Caretaker of the Vine, Jesus is the Vine, and we are the branches. He goes on to share about how Jesus fills us, sustains us, and is our life source as we surrender all to Him and rely on Him for those things. Writing about John 15:13, he says, “ Christ does indeed long to have us know that the secret root and strength of all He is and does for us as the Vine is love.” 

What a powerful truth. 

Jesus’s sole motivation was not to appease God by dying on the cross.

He was not forced to against His will.

He did not do it so that we would owe Him something. 

He died for us because He was motivated by the love of His Father for us, moving Him to a love in which He is our sole advocate. A sacrificial love that leads to action.

I have been studying Exodus recently and reading about the vision in which Moses receives instructions from God about the Tabernacle. While reading about the design, I was struck by a couple of things:

God was separated from His people for the sake of His holiness, but in the same way they were transient and living in tents, so was He. His tabernacle was portable and was built so that the people could visibly see His presence traveling with them as they wandered in the wilderness. He did that out of love.

The tabernacle was built in a way that the majority of activities took place in the courts. That was where fellowship took place between all people who were not priests. This was the body. As David states in Psalm 84:10 “A single day in your courts is better than a thousand anywhere else! I would rather be a gatekeeper in the house of my God than live the good life in the homes of the wicked.”

The Israelites longed to be in the courts because that was where they could meet with God. How much more full of joy and hope should we feel knowing that we are able to be directly in His presence with a love full of deep intimacy! God longs for us & made a way directly into His presence out of love. A sacrificial love. Hebrews 10: 19-20 says, “And so, dear brothers and sisters, we can boldly enter heaven’s Most Holy Place because of the blood of Jesus. By his death, Jesus opened a new and life-giving way through the curtain into the Most Holy Place.”

As I pray for my students and their families to know this deep love, I am also praying over my life that I do not take it lightly. That I will dwell in the House of the Lord forever in the fullness of His love.

– Hannah Shank, GEM Missionary

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He Dwells With Us

Recently, I have been rereading the book of John. As I study it, I continue being drawn back to John 1. Verse 14 says, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth”. This is a well-known verse, but I have found myself here over and over again over the last week or two stuck in this beautiful truth.

“The Word became flesh and dwelt among us…” That is astounding to me. God became flesh in the person of Christ, but He does not stop there. He also dwelt among us. This word “dwelt” is translated from the Greek word skenoo which means to pitch one’s tent or tabernacle. If you look back at the Old Testament, we see the tabernacle where the presence of God used to dwell in the midst of His people. When Jesus came, He dwelt among His people, making God known (John 1:18). But then, after Jesus ascended into heaven, He sent the Holy Spirit to dwell within His people. 

“Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?…”

1 Corinthians 3:16

At one time, God could only dwell with His people in the tabernacle because of the law. Sin separates us from God, and no one could perfectly fulfill this law. Therefore, God gave His people specific instructions for the tabernacle and the camp so that He could dwell amongst them in His holiness (Exodus 26-29 and Numbers 2:3:39). “For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ” (John 1:17). Jesus came to fulfill the law (Matthew 5:17), and He did so perfectly. In this, God is able to dwell with us through His Spirit, not because of anything we could do on our own, but because of who Jesus is and what Jesus has done. 

“…For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, ‘I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.”

2 Corinthians 6:16

As I continue to meditate on this, I am amazed at how God has so perfectly woven His good and perfect plan throughout the fabric of time. “And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.” (Ezekiel 36:26-37). God knew His plan for redemption, and as Jesus came, He made it possible for us to have access to God through Himself. He is not a distant God. He is close to His people. As you go about your day, I hope you remember that even now, in Christ, God dwells with us. 

“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us…”

-Rachel Hill, GEM’s Director of Mission Advancement

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Jesus, Our Example

With all that is happening in the world, all the sin, sickness and chaos ripping through the globe, I’ve actually felt more tempted to shut my brain off and pretend that it all doesn’t exist instead of being called to action… I feel much more comfortable just putting myself on auto-pilot and sticking to my little bubble where I am shielded from all the evil out there.

Maybe I’m not the only one who has been tempted like this. All I want to do is seek my personal comfort and ignore the reality of our broken world. It just so happens that this is exactly what the devil wants. He wants us to coast and shut off, to stop clinging to Christ, stop pursuing him, and to stop feeling urgency for the advancement of the Kingdom. He wants us to become complacent, selfish, and lulled to sleep by the pleasures of this world instead of being set on fire for the things of Jesus.

After talking to a good friend here in Puerto about Jesus’ return, I was woken up to the reality that Jesus’ presence is as real as ever and He is indeed coming back. There is a very real spiritual war going on and the evil one is constantly trying to hinder anyone from coming to Christ. After remembering this I began to ask myself, if I know what happens to those who do not choose Christ, why am I not urgently seeking to share the saving hope of Jesus with them, especially as our world continues to spiral downwards?

We must remind ourselves of the realities of Scripture. Jesus is alive, He wants our whole hearts, and he WILL return to rescue his faithful servants. I think of my own life and how I have been drifting asleep for quite some time. God has just suddenly opened my eyes (in His overwhelming grace) to allow me to realize that my purpose on this Earth is to know Him, to love Him, and to bring others to Him. I don’t want to find myself seeking my own comforts and worldly pleasures, not making disciples and on the path to destruction. Christ has saved us for our eternal good and has entrusted us with a life-changing mission.

I think of Jesus in Philippians 2, “who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Phil 2:6-8). Jesus gave everything for me. He loves me with an unfathomable love. How could I put him second? How can I trade this forgiveness, redemption, and eternal hope for a self-serving, wasted life filled with selfish pleasure? How could I turn a blind eye to the brokenness of this world in order to seek my own comfort?

Of course we are human and fall easily into sin, but Jesus is the one who protects and frees us. The Lord alone is our hope. Jesus calls us to fight the good fight of faith and to help bring this eternal salvation to others. He also lovingly warns us in Matthew 16, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” (Matthew 16:24-25).

All of this has been extremely convicting for me, but oh is it ever good! I am so grateful the Lord chose to reveal these things to be in order to make me more like Him and to be re-motivated to fulfill His will on Earth.

I encourage you as I look in the mirror, my brothers and sisters, do not allow comfort or complacency to cloud your priorities. Do not let the evil one get a foothold. Cling to the Lord and He will keep you safe. You are loved and made by our amazing Father for a grand purpose. Jesus wants you to arrive at the end to receive your crown of glory, and he wants to use you to bring your friends & enemies there too. We must not fall asleep. Keep the faith, keep fighting, look to our great example and friend, Jesus!

– Natalia Saint Clair, GEM Missionary