Sharing Is Caring

Do you remember a time in your life where you found yourself with a big goofy grin on your face and butterflies in your stomach? Like everything was just so happy and splendid in a single moment. I think back to a few times in my life where my happiness just could not be contained. When my mom and dad got me and my siblings the cutest little puppy we had ever seen after years of pleading. When that boy said he liked me too, and he wanted to skate with me at the skating rink on the next field trip. When I saw One Direction in concert, and realized I didn't care about boys at skating rinks anymore, but I did care about Harry Styles.

That feeling, the happy mushy gushy, put a spring in your step kind of feeling, that is something that I find myself feeling a lot more as my days go on. I look back on the last few months, and I can't help but smile. Not just at the memories I've made, but the ones that haven't even happened yet! That's not to say that I wake up every day with a smile on my face and say, "Look out world! I'm the happiest person ever and I will never be sad!" There are definitely days where I don't want to get out of bed or go to work or even be a person. The struggle is real, and it is real often.

The thing I do before I do anything else in the morning is this: I put on a pot of coffee, and I sit and read my Bible. I don't even brush my teeth or put on real clothes before I do those two things! Not everyday is it that I am reading something that really just makes me feel that happy feeling we were talking about before. Sometimes I read the Bible and I'm like, "Yeah, that was good word. It's the Bible. I'm glad I got to read that." You know what I mean? Then there are other times when you read stories or verses that get you really pumped like, "Oh yeah, man. I felt that. I felt that in my soul. I don't even need this coffee, I'll throw this coffee on the ground and flip this table. Jesus flipped a table. He's so cool. Wow life is good and everything is good and I am beautiful HALLELUJAH AMEN."

One verse I read over and over again and always feel that same chill up my spine and love in my heart for is Acts 2:42. It says, "They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer." I know, it doesn't seem that deep at first glance. But let me share with you what I picture when I read this verse.

I picture this: me sitting around with friends, some new, some old, and sharing with each other. Talking about the Lord, and telling of all the good he has done in our lives. Sharing our struggles with one another, reaching out and laying hands, and praying together. Laughing and rejoicing in what is to come. Thanking God out loud for the fellowship that he has brought us all into.

There is one memory I look back upon quite often from my time spent in Thailand. It was this one night right before we left at the end of November. The children's home we were staying at has about 40 kids, and the hosts and all the kids put on this huge barbecue for us. There was loads of food to roast over the fires set up around the place, and some of the kids had gotten in group and put on a little show for us. Some of them were dressed in traditional hill tribe clothes, and some had put funny makeup on their faces for part of their dances. It was so amazing, and we all had so much fun. 

What I remember most about that night was just spending time with the community we had been blessed enough to be a part of for two months. We danced, we laughed, and smiled, we cried, we prayed. All night we reminisced on the volleyball games we had played, the nicknames we had gained, and just spent time with the friends we would miss so much.

These are the kind of memories I never want to stop making. I never want to stop making new friends in Jesus Christ and sharing in his endless goodness. This is my heart behind missions. On the mission field, I saw people who did not believe in our God come to love Jesus and want to build a relationship with him. Alongside those, I met people who know Jesus and love the Lord with their whole heart and would give everything they have for him with no questions asked. I joined in relationship with those people and we grew together, sharing in scripture and faith. We taught each other.

This is my heart behind missions. That is why I do what I do. As also mentioned in Acts, I have received POWER when the Holy Spirit came into my life. Tell me, why wouldn't I want to share and rejoice in that power with others? I have the power to reach the un-reached. I have the power to touch and untouched. And if I go somewhere where the people have also tapped into that power they have? Then how much more beautiful and powerful would it be in we lifted each other up and stand together?

In July I hope to go to the Dominican Republic to build more community and do the work of the Lord. I have realized my greatest desire is to go after what God desires. God wants us to join together, teach, follow, and lift him higher so the numbers he reaches are as vast as the stars in the sky. Many look at this journey and my decision to pursue the mission field further as a never ending struggle. That the fundraising will never end, and my stress will never cease. I look at it this way:

My partnering with people to further the Kingdom of God will never end. And my heart to see others come to know and love the Lord will never fade. This I believe to be true. This I believe God to see through. 

I pray I will be supported as I have been in the past, and I pray that I am but a vessel of the Lord so that he may be glorified above them all. I know he will provide, because he would not call me and then not see me through. It is that simple! God is good all the time. And all the time, God is good. Amen.

All the love,

Margo