Pastor’s Word

Thursday afternoon I had the privilege of dropping off John Scudiere (an Elder at Hope) and Shane Colwell (Hope’s former Church Planter) at the airport as they headed out to Rwanda. They will serve as the teachers for the first week of Good Rain ’19. As I sat in traffic on the way back thinking back through the last 10 years of experiences in Rwanda, the memory that brought the most pleasure was when the Rwandan Pastors spoke of teaching other Pastors what they had learned from us. Each year when they go back, the other Pastors from their villages and the surrounding areas come and insist they pass along what they’ve learned. And to me it is amazing, our simple efforts to just make the Bible understandable for a small group of 60 Pastors has a ripple effect spreading out in every direction in the nation of Rwanda. And I thought, man, God is good and it’s a blessing to get to be the pebble God uses to start the ripple.

But remember this, Mark’s Gospel has been showing us that we don’t have to go have way around the world to have a ripple effect. Over and over again in Mark, we have seen friends bringing friends to Jesus. Just ordinary people reaching ordinary people. And when those ordinary people met Jesus, they’re changed. And despite frequently being encouraged to keep it quiet, they couldn’t help themselves and started a ripple effect effecting the whole region. The same can be true of us. In fact, the same should be true of us. Each of us can start a kingdom ripple simply by leading someone to Jesus and then letting Him do the rest. We can know the pleasure of being the pebble that starts a ripple effect simply by asking someone we care about to come meet Jesus. Pretty sweat! So who’s your one? Who is the one friend you have on your heart that you would really love to meet Jesus. Pray for that. Seek an opportunity to introduce them to Jesus. And when God grants your prayer, sit back and enjoy the ripple effect. It really is a pleasure.   

Please pray for the team in Rwanda. Pray for those who will be joining them next week. Pray for the ripple effect to grow bigger and go farther. 
See you Sunday.

Blessings,