SOM Week 4: Eternity in Mind

Every week here at school has been great, but this past week was a confirming week for me. For so long I’ve said, “I want to be a missionary”, but with that desire came so many doubts, worries, and fears. And so since I’ve graduated college, I’ve really been dancing around the idea of being a missionary. But these doubts, worries, and fears are not of God, and I know I cannot settle for anything other than what God is calling me to do because eternity has been planted too deep in my mind and heart.

So this week God confirmed that the next step for me after the school of missions is to go back to my church and be faithful to build up the missions ministry there, stir up the church body to be involved in missions, learn the Bible more, and make disciples in the ways I can where I am. It’s such a simple call, I’m the one who complicates things. What am I going to do about the teaching credential I was pursuing? I don’t know. Will the church get excited more about missions? I don’t know. How do I build a successful missions program? I don’t know. There are so many things I don’t know, but thank you, Jesus, the more I don’t know the more room I have to step out in faith.

Class time this week was very heavy and eye-opening. We were learning about the state of the gospel in the world and the fact that there are still 3 billion people in the world who do not have access to it. What does that mean? They cannot even make the decision to accept or reject Jesus because they don’t even have access to that message. It’s not, “They don’t want to be Christian”, it’s “They don’t even have the ability to be Christian.” Does that rock you? It rocks me. It troubles me. It hurts me. I pray God sends me one day, but for now I know what He’s asking me to do.

Outside of class, one of the highlights of the week was an outreach among the Kumeyaay tribe deep in the hills of Baja. I was asked to share a message from the Bible at the outreach, and it went very well. I taught on Matthew 6:19-21 with the message: “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” I encouraged and challenged everyone there, even myself, with this simple message, and I encourage and challenge you as well: Will you choose to treasure the things of this world? Or will you choose to treasure God above all else?

After we got back home, I was encouraged to hear this story from the outreach: One of our leaders at the school, Aaron, was talking to a man after the Bible message. This man, named Lino, almost didn’t come to the outreach. He was really debating in himself whether he should attend or not, but in the end, decided he should. During the worship songs and the message he knew God was speaking to him because God had previously been part of his life but unfortunately, he had started drinking again and was caught up in that lifestyle. He said he had been letting his life go to waste. After talking with Aaron, Lino decided to recommit his life to Jesus. Praise God!

Thank you for being faithful to read my updates. Every week I send these out I don’t know who reads them and who doesn’t, but I just pray that each update would encourage you and stir you up, even just a little, for the things of God and for eternity. Please continue to pray for the Holy Spirit’s unity among our group, for more lives to be impacted by our outreaches, for an end to the evil COVID virus, and that the last two weeks of the school be saturated in good things that the Lord has planned. 

With much love,
Spencer

Just a little taste of heaven.