Sometimes folks have grandiose ideas about putting on a production honoring people in ministry. Bah humbug. In my mind, that is like a funeral. We overlook all the junk in the dead guy’s life, we magnify the handful of good stuff he did, and then we say, “He’s really looking good there in the box.”
The Bible makes it clear about any ceremony honoring anyone. At the end of the day, the most we could say is, That Marcos was really a shirker, he did only the stuff he was told to do, and didn’t lift even a finger to do anything more than that. (Luke 17.10)
Yet, yesterday, Sunday, we were honored… Two of our missionary families were present as the church gathered. One delivered the Sunday message, sharing about life and ministry close to the Guatemala border, the challenges and the dangers in reaching the Mam people with the Gospel.
The other fellow spoke for five minutes, richly sharing an amazing story of how God worked in one man’s life. To see God at work in the lives of these my friends, simply because they dared obey, and went out on shoestring and a prayer, it left me crying there in the front row.
When we closed, and people saw me all red-eyed, they assumed I had caught the virus that has been going around. But crying out of awe trumps the virus any day of the week, and twice on Sunday.
You honored with us. We thank you for helping Donato and Margarita reach out to the Mams, Alfredo and Maria Luisa to the down-and-outers. We thank you for making it possible for Mauricio and Migda to be bold and loud in Mexico’s renown “Circle of Silence,” and supporting Kevin and Emily as they live amongst the Mixtecos. We thank you for enabling Rey and Lidia to live out the Gospel—and declare it—amongst the Huichol people. We thank you for being a part of Jose Luis and Nora’s amazing outreach to families with members with disabilities. We thank you for being part of the church plant with Fabian, in El Roble.
We appreciate your love for the Lord, we rejoice in your love for us.