Cover Stories: In The Spotlight:
Refresh, Strengthen, and Renew at Yearly Meeting, 2001 A Friend's Perspective on the Earthquakes in El Salvador
 
 
 
 
  Easter Sunrise Celebration a Huge Success 


I love my job. I love being a missionary. Why?

Because it's easy? No. Because I make lots of money? No. Because I'm crazy? Maybe. Because God placed a call on my life to be a missionary and it fulfills me to the core? Yes. It's true, I love the place in life where God has placed me, being in the middle of Africa as a missionary. Have you heard the song "Please Don't Send ME to Africa" by Scott Wesley Brown? It goes like this, "Please don't send me to Africa, I don't think I have what it takes. I'm just a man, I'm not a Tarzan..." It's a great song, and I think it strikes a cord in all of us. What could be worse than being sent to Africa as a missionary?

When David and I were first married we were both anxious to leave the Untied States and become missionaries to another country. We had our sights set on India and were doing whatever we could to get there. Norval Hadley, director of EFM, called us one day and asked if we could be willing to consider going to Rwanda. Our response was "NO!" "No, we did not want to go to a war-torn country with our little baby girl. "No," we would not consider it. "No," we would not even pray about it because we didn't want to know what God had to say on the subject.

Maybe you can relate to a situation where you didn't want to ask God's input on a certain situation because you really didn't want to hear what He had to say. Are you open to God's input as how He wants you to be involved in missions? Are you willing to be called as a missionary? God's desire is for the world to know Him. Do you know your part in that plan?

God did get through to us; He convicted us in our hearts that we needed His input into everything, even if it was about being sent to Africa. To make a long story short, He did call us to Rwanda, Africa, and now that we have understood and answered that call, there is nothing in the world that we would rather be doing.

I am thrilled when I see other young families like us being called into missions. But frankly, there are few. I don't think that there are few being called; I think there are few listening to the call. The Lord is calling; He is calling prayer warriors, financial supporters and missionaries. Are you open and willing to be any of the above? Take some time to listen to the Caller. He is calling. Nothing is more important than knowing God, and in coming to know Him we come to know His heart to love and bless other people through us. Don't limit God's work in your life by refusing to listen to Him because you might be scared, or not want to do what He says. I know from experience that there is not greater joy than to answer His call, no matter how scary it seemed to be at first. Listen to the Caller. He is calling.

Written by Debbie Thomas. Debbie and Dave, live in Kigali, Rwanda, Africa, with Breanna, Aren and Gwen.

Stress and Spirituality

What's the connection? We may have stress related to the many uncertainties or problems in our lives, relationships, finances, health, or even in the spiritual well-being of loved ones. God's Word reminds us, "You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you." (Isaiah 6:3)

Stress refers to physical, psychological, and spiritual responses to demands. It's not necessarily the demands as much as believing one way and living another. One writer said that stress isn't the distance we pedal as much as the distance between what we value and what we do. When the people and activities, i.e., Bible Study, that are important to us receive little of our time and energy, we feel STRESSED! Our faith can help us to creatively live with our values, rather than in opposition to them.

The following are some suggestions for how we can live our lives based on more peace and wholeness and less STRESS.
  • Renew yourself and feed your spirit. This is our most effective stress buster. Psalms 103:5
  •  Embrace the present. Avoid obsessing on what needs to be done next or what went wrong yesterday... so we can fully appreciate God's presence right beside you. (That's why it is called the present!) Luke 10:38-42.
  • Live with hope and joy. See God active in our lives... not just surviving from one crisis to the next. Romans 12
  •  Live a grateful life. Thankfulness breeds contentment. Col. 3:15
  • Stand like a mountain... flow like a river. Use God's perspective in judging which situations require strength and which call us to ride the waves and flow with change. In parish nursing, we are taught to always be "rigidly flexible." Exodus 14:13.

Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body, you were called to peace. Col. 3:15

Written by Donna Kinder, RN, Parish Nurse for the Hanover Friends Church in Mechanicsville, Virginia.