Christmas Evening Thoughts - December 25, 2015

Christmas Day has come and gone for 2015. The day's activities are history now which wasn't the case when I woke up here in Juarez, Mexico this morning, wondering what the day would be like.

Well no need to wonder anymore. I managed to find enjoyment in being here this Christmas, as I have been for the past few Christmas'. But who's counting anymore? 

Juarez, has become home for most of the year, as I have successfully made the transition from being here part of the year, to being here, most of the year.

It's been a long journey of faith for anyone who is wondering what it takes to become a full time missionary,  in case that thought has ever crossed your mind. 

Not many people take up that challenge anymore. I am certain of that. Our numbers are relatively few.  

I come from a fairly good size church back in my hometown of Buffalo, NY - actually a suburb of Buffalo called Orchard Park.

And of the thousand or so members, a relatively handful or so over the years have ever ventured forth into full time missionary work, over the past 20 some years, that I have been connected there.

Most Christian Church goers are content to do their witnessing for Christ and His Gospel in the marketplace where they work and live without a serious thought of "forsaking all for the Call."

I do not wish to judge anyone or overly glamorize the roll of full time missions but to simply draw attention to the fact that the opportunity still, even in our day, exists.  

That fact, is often overlooked by those who feel their mission in their Christian life, is to abide and to prosper, where they have been planted. 

I fully realize everyone has their own life and their own sense of what God is requiring of them. 

I am simply stating from personal experience and the witnessed experience of other full time missionaries, that their still exists opportunities for missions and the need for full time missionaries to take their place among the countless others who have gone before them.

For many, including myself, missions work started short-term. What I mean by that is, taking a short-term missions trip; leaving your home town, your home church and literally, your own home and going wherever in the world you sense God is directing you to go. 

For me, it was Juarez, Mexico. And it all started in 1999 when I responded to the tug in my heart to put together a 10 person team and travel to Juarez to build a home for a needy family here. 

Almost every year since then, I have returned to Juarez for durations of 10 days to 3 months, 8 months and eventually being here 9 months of the year. I am currently in to my 3rd month of this current 9 month mission.

So it has been progressive for me.  Kind of like starting out in the shallow end of the pool and working your way toward the deep end, one step at a time.

Those steps have brought me here, writing of things that have already happened, things that were once dreams and visions, that have come to pass.


to-be-continued