Power In Weakness

I was asked to write a short devotional for our Go Missions Teams that are being sent out this year, so I thought I would share it with you:

It was another hot day in Mexico, and I could feel that dull ache behind my eyes that comes from being on a mountain at a 7,000 foot elevation in the sky, and from traveling for 14 hours in order to get there. I was still feeling a little traumatized and homesick after giving up my full-time job and leaving all of my friends and family to spend ten weeks in Mexico doing heaven knows what.

We had made our way to the church first thing in the morning, and I still had that queasy feeling you get in your stomach from being up way too late and getting up way too early. All I wanted to do was to go somewhere and hide for a little while, until I could get my bearings so to speak, and to get my feet under me. But before I could get lost in the woodwork, the pastor of the church came up to me and said “Kellie, I would like you to come and pray for a young lady who is battling with depression and suicide.” My first thought was “Oh God, I am not ready to deal with this. I don’t have what it takes to help this woman right now.” As Pastor Ted would say, I felt about as spiritual as a peanut!

Have you ever felt this way? Have you ever felt physically or emotionally worn out, and totally inadequate for the challenge that God has placed before you? Chances are if you are involved in a mission trip, and are reading this devotion right now, then you will know exactly what I am talking about. But let me tell you that you are in one of the most powerful positions you could ever be in. Bill Johnson says: “Everyone needs to know what it is like to minister out of weakness. Everyone needs to know what it is like to write a spiritual cheque that you don’t think you have the reserve of strength to back it up. It’s a big deal to step beyond what you don’t think you have the grace for, and see how God shows up and does a miracle.”

You know what, I put my hands on that young lady and I began to pray, and after a while I stopped, and the pastor said “She doesn’t really feel anything is happening, we need to pray again.” So I did, and I felt the power of God begin to flow through me. Finally, she began to smile and she said “I feel as if something has been pulled up through me and right out of the top of my head. It’s gone! I can feel it, it’s gone!” I watched the transformation come over her face as God set her free from the oppression that the devil had her under, and I watched her come to church every Sunday for the ten weeks that I was in Mexico. Not bad for someone who was suffering from jet lag and homesickness, and believe me, God can do the same with you, no matter how you are feeling. Just trust Him, get out your spiritual pen, and get ready to write that cheque from God’s million dollar bank account!

God's Provision

It is May 22nd, my job is finished and I‘m home visiting with my family for a few days because in less than two weeks I am leaving for Mexico! I can hardly believe it. I can hardly believe what has happened in my life over the last few months.

I can remember saying to my sister, Brenda, after one of my trips to Mexico that sometimes I felt like I could just give it all up and totally go for this missions thing. Wow! Be careful what you let come out of your mouth! Or sometimes have a real good listen to what is coming out of your mouth because you could be prophesying your own future—good or bad.

I have to say that since I made the decision at the first of the year to jump off the cliff and chase the lion, I have experienced the most miraculous confirmations to this decision that I have ever seen in my life. God has spoken to me over and over again through dreams, prophetic words and prayers, scriptures, and most of all, miraculous provision, beyond anything I could have imagined.

To those of you who have helped me, I am tempted to say that you will never know how much it means to me, but I hope that you will know, and that God will bless you beyond your wildest imagination. You have made a Kingdom investment that will pay dividends for many, many years to come.

There is a verse in Matthew 19:29, that talks about anyone who leaves their home or family for His name’s sake will receive a hundred times more. I can honestly say that I have experienced this verse and I haven’t even left the country yet! There is no one who can pay you back any better than God!

A Taste Of Mexico- Missions Festival

Our church, Rock Church, recently held a Missions Festival, it's featured theme was "Tastes From Around The World." I had the fun of creating a booth representing Mexico. I had a great team, and it didn't take long for the food to disapear!

My team mates, starting from the left, Gwen McNeil, Me, Wendy Lee & Ashley Abbott

Mexican Journey

“What makes you come alive?” was a life-changing question that was asked of me by a very wise and dear friend about three years ago when I was in the midst of a job search and looking at a possible career change.

I had been sharing with her that I wasn’t really sure what direction to go in, and just didn’t know what I wanted to do. The question provoked me somehow, and when she asked it I thought “you know, I really have no idea what it is that I love to do, and what makes me feel alive when I do it.”

Later on that year I had the opportunity to return to Mexico on a short-term missions trip with a team from my church. I say return because 20 years earlier I had a somewhat disastrous experience as a short-term missionary in Mexico, and I have to say that as I returned this time I was absolutely paralyzed with fear that my experience was going to be a repeat of my first journey to Mexico. Nothing could be further from the truth.

I remember the moment exactly, and it is still as clear and vivid in my mind today as it was then – it was our third day in Mexico, and we had gone into a neighborhood to go door to door inviting people to come to the church for some groceries and a meal. We were walking down dirt roads, with dogs barking at us from everywhere (including the rooftops!) There were little boys driving cars down the roads, and we were struggling to communicate with people who were wondering who these foreigners were that were knocking on their door.

As I was walking down one of those roads, suddenly it hit me – this is it! I am in the middle of a dirt road in Mexico and I have never felt so alive in all my life! I was amazed, and continued to be throughout the rest of the week at how different my experience was from the first time, and how I fell in love all over again with these beautiful, resilient people of Mexico.

I have returned to Mexico three times since that first trip three years ago, and am now getting ready to leave my job and go to Mexico for a ten week mission term this summer. You may ask how I arrived at this point in my life; well, that story is too long to tell in one sitting. You will have to come back again and I will share a bit more of my journey. Hasta luego!