(Continued from yesterday)

My family relationships suffered some after my dad’s family discovered I believed in Jesus. Part of the problem stemmed from their confusion about me "switching religions" and part of the problem was due to my "Bible beating" them with my new beliefs. Now my family and I get along great. The Lord used the biblical stands I took to develop healthy family ties that are based on Him. I have even had the pleasure of leading one of my uncles to the Messiah.

A couple years later by a prompting from God, I joined a ship ministry, called Friend Ships. This ministry travels with their ships to deliver supplies to disaster stricken nations or poor countries. In a balanced way they supply needs that both support the country’s economy while enabling the Christians to reach the people. My skills grew dramatically as I learned to do video production and editing, networking, web sites, computer repairs, and ship maintenance. I also applied my accounting degree to help the ministry.

During my last couple of years at Friend Ships I started helping Dorothy Miller, one of our guest speakers, with The God’s Story Project (TGSP), a video effort that introduces people to Jesus, using the Old Testament as the background. In my limited free time I continued helping TGSP for a couple years after leaving Friend Ships. In late 2001 Dorothy invited me to join the staff full time, and a beautiful God-ordained team was birthed.

 Pray... Thank God for the work of TGSP. (Continued tomorrow)

Romans 1:13b

"...in order that I might have a harvest among you, just as I have had among the other Gentiles."

Paul’s single-minded vision should be an encouragement to Christians today. In this verse he reminds the Romans of his primary ministry-preaching the gospel to the Gentiles. Many Christians set out on the path of bringing the gospel to the nations, but become sidetracked by good, perhaps even urgent tasks, such as other forms of church work or Christian ministry. But who will go to the nations ? We need thousands of new workers who, like Paul, will focus exclusively on the task of reaching the nearly 10,000 people groups which have no church of their own. Jesus, the Lord of the Harvest, wants us to pray that thousands will go as new missionary recruits to the unreached peoples.

 Pray... Ask God to send some from your own church.

GPD