In a few short hours we will open the doors of Sojourn Ministries for the first time and welcome our neighbors to the first church service. This has been a long slow road but one filled with so many stones of remembrance along the way. I don't want to glorify our "past lives" before we were drawn blissfully to Christ but in each of us there is a story of redemption. Almost 13 years ago Daniel and I met and got married a few years later. We were young, selfish, living totally for our flesh and pretending that we loved God. We spent the first two years of marriage fighting for control of eachother and nearly gave up. A few years later God called us to himself and gave us new hearts and new desires. The last 5 years have been hard and the growth in Christ has often been painful. But looking back now and seeing what we were and WHO loved us and redeemed us and brought us to this place and this moment causes me to feel such gratitude. When the Bible says "with God nothing is impossible" I know it's talking partly about Dan and me. God has always chosen to use the "chief of sinners" and the "foolish things of the world" to shame the wise. I know Dan and I qualify as both of those things.
Standing on the streets of Wabigalo, a world away from where I'm from and watching my husband straighten the chairs and dust the pulpit and finally open the door...I have no words to express my love for a God who would use us in this way. This is NOT our building, our ministry, our people...it is all God's. None of this is achieved by our own power. I cannot know what plans God has for this church other than to draw more of his people to Himself and to glorify Himself. I don't know if we'll have more than the original 9 members (five of those being our family). But I look forward to the next few years. I look forward to seeing how God will delight us, surprise us, use us and challenge us.
Of this I'm sure: "So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth." 1 Cor. 4:5. Join us in celebrating lives given purpose. Thank God with us for His plans that we rarely understand at first glance but get to watch unfold in delightful ways. And please continue to stand with us in prayer. This is only the beginning of Sojourn...
"My savior, he can move the mountains. My God is mighty to save...."
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