GEM is 10 years old!!! Last month, we celebrated our 10 year anniversary as a ministry, and I just completed my 7th year serving with GEM. Our staff all around the world had a blast celebrating all that God has done over the past 10 years, and we specifically spent some time here in our office in Wilmington remembering the highs and the lows of ministry over the past decade. I can’t speak much of the first three years of GEM, but since I joined in 2014… you cannot even begin to count all the ways the Lord has worked.
I don’t know how your brain operates, but personally, I am really good at remembering the hard times and the difficult seasons. While it is good to remember these times and recall how God faithfully came through as He always does… What about the good things… the tiny blessings that He gave us time and time again? Even the times when we didn’t even ask for them?!
It is so important to remember and record all the Lord does. Through the storm, when we are asking for Him to deliver us, and also when we aren’t. God shows His steadfast love through countless blessings, even in ways we least expect it. It is good to remember at all times, but it is especially helpful to remember in the midst of uncertainty or when we are lacking faith. When I am doubting, I can remember how God has worked in the past, remembering His promises in scripture and never forgetting the faithfulness of His character.
I think back to 2014 when I was fresh out of college, a brand new Kindergarten teacher. I had so many days when it felt impossible to accomplish everything on my plate. Some days I would feel so nervous and overwhelmed. God was faithful to equip me in the work He had called me to do. By His grace, we had an incredible school year. I learned more and more every day how to be the best teacher I could be, and how to serve and love the families of my students in ways I could never do on my own. I remember after that year in Mexico, I truly felt like I could do anything (with God, of course).
Going back to that mindset, remembering how I felt each day… lost and unsure…then remembering how God came through and led the way– these are moments I should remember regularly when the same feelings of inadequacy and faithlessness come creeping back in. I watched God work in miraculous ways in 2014, but you better believe that in 2021, I still struggle with the same things.
This year, now I live back in the US and serve with GEM in a completely different capacity. I am the Director of Communications, in charge of donor relations, marketing, and a handful of other things as well. Some days, new problems arise and I feel the same way I did as a kid fresh out of college. I wonder how I will make it through a given problem, and I even sometimes wonder if God picked the right person to serve in this capacity.
But then I remember. God is faithful. It is impossible for Him to be anything other than faithful. He has come through again and again – not always how I thought He would. And many times He does let me wrestle with certain situations, but it is always for my good and His glory. I’d like us all to walk into today’s problems and uncertainties and REMEMBER who God is and what He has done for us. Remember He has chosen you for a specific purpose. He is the one who selected you to be at the job you’re at, or to be the friend to a specific person, or the parent of a specific family. By clinging to Him and remembering His faithfulness, we can walk in faith, knowing that God will equip us to the work He has called us to!
2 Timothy 2:13 If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself.
– Rachel Ellezy, Director of Communications