Wednesday, April 16, 2014

When being a world changer looks different than you ever imagined...


The phone rings and I can tell by the number that it's my husband calling me on his Ghanaian vodafone.  He's forgotten how early it is here, so I'm not yet fully awake.  I try to listen and make sense, which is a struggle before I've had my morning coffee.  I ask about the different team members from our church that are with him there to help work on the orphanage.  Sometime during the conversation he tells me about his morning.

He got up early before the rest of the team in order to have some quiet time.  He got ready, (as best as he could with the power out and no running water), and went outside to sit on the large porch of the retreat center where the team is staying.  As he tells me, I can picture it vividly from my time there two years ago.  I can see what he's seeing, smell the smells of Kumasi, hear the sounds.  

He tells me that he can hear Augustina, who lives across the rutted red clay street.  As she is outside scrubbing her laundry, she is singing and worshiping the Lord.  She looks up and sees him and greets him, "Hello, Daddy!", she calls to him, her greeting one of respect and affection. "I'm just praising the Lord!"  She goes on to tell him about the package sent with my son-in-law and the team to her from my daughter, who was unable to take the trip this time due to her pregnancy.  Then she says something to him that brings him to tears, and me to tears as he relays it to me, "Your daughter, she is like Jesus to me."

She was our strong-willed child from the moment she left my womb.  But, once that girl set her mind to serve the Lord, she did it with relentless determination.  She was going to be a world changer for Jesus, but evidently how she pictured that happening and God's plans were two vastly different things.  She tells a bit about it in this post.  This morning, I pondered this after my phone conversation with my husband.  I thought about how we forget that this is how we become a world changer, by changing one person's world.

I think about Jesus, and wonder what the lasting fruit was from feeding the five thousand.  I wonder how many kept following Him once the loaves and fishes were gone.  Yet, it's different when we read about Jesus encountering the woman at the well. We read about the results of this encounter.

She was a social outcast, because she was a woman, because she was a Samaritan - a half-breed Jew, because she had a "history" with men having been married five times and was now living with a man she wasn't married to.  We read that Jesus "had to" go through Samaria.  He had a divine appointment to keep with this woman.  In the course of their conversation Jesus tells her all about her past and reveals Himself as the Messiah.  This is what we read recorded in John chapter 4 about the results of this encounter, 
39 Many Samaritans from the village believed in Jesus because the woman had said, “He told me everything I ever did!” 40 When they came out to see him, they begged him to stay in their village. So he stayed for two days, 41 long enough for many more to hear his message and believe. 42 Then they said to the woman, “Now we believe, not just because of what you told us, but because we have heard him ourselves. Now we know that he is indeed the Savior of the world.”

Maybe you can relate to my daughter, you want to be a world changer for Jesus but things just aren't going the way you imagined them.  I want to encourage you to ask Him to show you who is your woman at the well, your Augustina, your next divine appointment.  Then go be a world changer, one by one by one. 

still following, 

     




at 3-D Lessons for Life

28 comments:

  1. Being a world changer can be such a process, and one where we don't see immediate results. Sometimes that's discouraging, but God is good to sometimes give us glimpses of his glory. I'm glad I linked up next to you at Holley Gerth's place today.

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    1. You are right! It can be discouraging, but then we see some of the effects of God's love at work through us and it makes it all worth it. I'm going to pop over to your place now!

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  2. That "one person at a time" reminds me of a Mother Teresa statement...
    HIS plans are SO far above our own--as I'm learning all over again currently.

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    1. I know you are in a whole new learning season! It's not an easy season, recuperating while trying to be there for your mother. I pray for God's healing and strength and encouragement for you!

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  3. we change the world with every breath we take in Him!

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    1. I sure appreciate your comments and encouragement!

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  4. Just popped over to see what you are up to today, and what a wonderful post. I needed to hear your message today. A friend, someone that God placed in my life that I would truthfully not have chosen to become a friend, invited me out to lunch. She wanted to treat me for my upcoming birthday. I didn't really want to go - maybe not enough in common, maybe me just being selfish - but I went anyway. I knew 5 minutes into our time together that God wanted me to extend my full heart to this woman - with kindness and support. I don't know if I changed the world, but I feel sure I changed hers today - and mine, too. Your outlook is good for me!

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    1. What a wonderful testimony of God's faithfulness to you and through you! I pray that He gives you His wisdom and love as you help this friend.

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  5. Oh how great we can serve our God by serving even one at a time if that is how He chooses to use us. My heart cries out for God's love, grace, mercy & power to be seen through each of us as we follow Him & live for Him, no matter where that is!! Blessings!

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    1. I agree, Jolene. It's being a channel of the love of Jesus, not self-effort, that I desire.

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  6. Oh. My!! Brought tears to me also! God is so good & greatly to be praised! We been praying for your hubby & team! Blessings & thank you for sharing such wonderful news!!

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    1. Thank you for praying. Please pray for my daughter and her pregnancy as well with her husband in Ghana.

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  7. Stopping by from Tell His Story. I absolutely love this encouragement to seek the Lord in being a world changer! :)

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    1. Thank you so much for popping in from Jennifer Lee's and taking time to leave this encouraging comment!

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  8. I remember your daughter's post, Elizabeth.
    Wow! Thanks for the inspiration and encouragement.

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  9. Such great encouragement, Elizabeth. Asking Jesus to show me who is that 'woman at the well.' I like that a lot.

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  10. Elizabeth~
    You have no idea how much of a world changer you & your blog have been in my life in the recent months! I can't count how many times your words shared here have encouraged & blessed me! It makes perfect sense that your daughter is the way she is after having your example in her life to guide her. Thank you for letting God's light shine through you! :-)

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    1. Krista, what a blessing and encouragement to me for you to leave this comment! God bless you!!!

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  11. One by one, that's how we will do it. Thank you for sharing!

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    1. Thanks, Barbie. We just need to be available for God's divine appointments!

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  12. This one is the kind that made my heart beat faster, I'm sure you know what I mean by this.

    "I thought about how we forget that this is how we become a world changer, by changing one person's world."

    Yes.

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    1. Thank you, sweet friend! I just know you're a world changing kind of gal!

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  13. seems like we like being neighbors in the link ups. there you are again. It's easy as i become older to figure the world changing idea isn't even part of my thought process and then I am reminded that itt isn't about the world. it's where I am and right now it's mostly my dad and being a grandma. and even the grandma part is limited because of being tied to home so much with my dad here. But this is who he has placed before me.

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    1. Carol, I've been in your season before, and now both of my parents are in heaven. God bless you in your service to your dad!

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  14. My dear friend, somehow I missed this post when you first shared it. I am SO moved with your words and with Augustina's words. What a high tribute to your daughter, to you and your hubby for what you instilled in her heart - and to Jesus for the work He has done through her. Life doesn't always take us the way we think it will when we follow His leading - but He never wastes a moment when we obey. For the moment I am being a world-changer in the lives of family - old and young. Thank you for sharing. The challenge is daunting, at times, but so worth everything we give.
    ~Adrienne~

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    1. Adrienne, I pray for God's blessing, peace and strength as you minister to your sweet mama and to your daughter and grandkids.

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