How do I do this? This support raising thing is hard! It is my first Sunday of creating a team of partners to reach the world for Christ. Being far from home in northern central Pennsylvania, the reality is that I have no contact to join for Church. Lord help.
Lord, you provided for Elijah during the drought by commanding the ravens to feed him. Not only that, you provided for those raves as well! I googled local churches. Arriving at New Life Church in Butler PA, I doubted why I was bothering to walk through their doors. It was my job to support raise and I knew no one. Shouldn’t I be on the road to my next appointment? I sat in the back row simply praying over 1 Kings 17:4; I met a few people, as the sermon began I coincidentally discovered that one of the people I had met was the head pastor. Pastor Chris and I talked for no longer than 45 seconds. I assumed that pastors don’t care about random one time guests, especially in such a large church. Wrong! At the end of his sermon, Pastor Chris called me up, by name, in front of his entire congregation to pray over me for this mission to the nations! I wept as he prayed. After the service, multiple congregants approached me with encouragement and overjoyed faces. Apparently, this small town church in northern central nowhere Pennsylvania had a huge heart for reaching the world!
Randal, a congregant sitting in front of me. He not only encouraged me, he also asked to grab lunch. His nine-year-old son exclaimed, “Yes, now we can be best friends!” God provided gluten free pizza and an incredible support appointment with Randal and his two children simply because of prayer. He provided for Elijah by his mighty word; he did the same for me today.
Today I realized that I may have never met these people before but they are not strangers. They are part of the body of Christ and delighted to reach the lost!