|| the ripple effect ||
as i sit in my humble abode i can't
help but be so thankful. the lord has provided so much for me.. finally after almost a
year of living in my home my roommate and I BOTH have beds off of the floor :)
my friends are all back from the nations, having returned with WILD testimony of what jesus has done. i am daily reminded that i have some of the best leaders i could ever hope for, who never
cease to be the example i need that challenges me to be more humble, purposeful and to
love jesus and the lost more and more each day. not to mention ALL the other
things i am so thankful for, this is not an all-inclusive list...
there has been so much that has
happened in my life since i have last written (you can see some of it here) and i struggled to even know what
to share but there has been one story that has continuously come to my mind
since i heard it and hope you will be inspired in to action through it.
while with our returning dts outreach
teams these past two weeks, we heard testimony of how the lord used them to
AWAKEN a generation to know and love him more. my friend matt was in town teaching our students on
principles to use as they head home. he was talking about old joe – barnabas –
and how he saw something in paul..the apostle..before he was one..and what his
encouragement did in paul’s life, resulting in billions of other lives being
effected.
he called on our friend chris to
share his story. hearing chris share i was so encouraged and inspired by the
truth that it just takes ONE person to have belief and encourage another to see
a ripple effect of the lord’s movement. we will never know what the lord will
do when we take a step and do something out of the ordinary for us – god might
just move in an extraordinary way – and the ripple just might go to the nations.
chris (first ripple) had been attending a well known
christian university for a few years before he met matt. matt had been between
university and ywam for a few years and went back to college to finish his
degree. he met chris and asked him to have dinner one night..chris
thought..just the two of us? that’s weird..dudes don’t do that :) little did he
know that that one dinner would change the course of his life forever.
they became fast friends and
continued to meet. matt brought chris to an AWAKEN gathering – (a gathering of people who have a desire to
see the reality that the god of the bible is the god of today awakened in our
generation) chris left feeling more challenged in those few short days then
he had in his two years in university.
chris went back to university and shared
with his friends all that he had learnt.
he had had an encounter with god that
he wanted everyone to have, so he and his friends began "dude church". in
addition to dude church, he and his friends began to go away yearly to seek the
lord together and grow deeper with jesus as a community (this still continues
to this day). after another summer at another AWAKEN gathering chris flew matt
to taiwan, during his short stay in taiwan, a few of matt’s friends prayed for
chris, they shared with him that they felt prayer would be a significant part of
his upcoming year. he took this to heart and on his flight back home he felt the lord highlight the tent
of meeting passage to him.
once back at university, he shared with his
roommate (jay). he knew the lord meant it was more than the already created space in their
home they had set aside for a prayer closet but that this was a word to see the campus effected.
soooo, they rented a tent and set it up in the middle of their campus, creating
a 40 day, 24 hour prayer movement on their campus. the testimonies from that
time are countless. as chris continued to share and bring his friends in to
what the lord was doing in his life, the ripple moved amongst his friend
group.
jay (second ripple), eventually ended up moving to
south africa to work with a church planting movement there. after being there
for some time jay was walking through a township one day when a group of young
men mugged him, all of his money was stolen. this didn’t offend or
stop jay but instead he went back to these same young men the next day, boldly he walked up to them and begin to build a friendship with them. through this encounter jay started a
small discipleship bible school with these young men, resulting in many if not
all of them encountering the lord and coming to know him (third ripple)!!
this is just a SMALL picture of what
happens when we believe in a person and take a step of faith to pursue them and
point them to jesus. jesus chose twelve, those twelve young men changed history as we know it.
so often i think that what i am doing is so insignificant, how can i, one mere person change anything in the world let alone THE world? but then i hear a story like this and i am once again pointed to hope. because one life can make a difference, jesus' life changed the world. old joe, his life changed the world. matt, his life..changing the world. i can do it too!
there have been many joe's in my life, so many to bring me to this point. i am so
thankful for them..for YOU..thank you to you my cherished friend for reading this, for
believing in me, hoping in and with me, praying for me, financially supporting
me unto seeing the ripple carry on.
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Great update, Lor, on the ripple factor. :)
ReplyDeletethe Ripple continues... ride the wave to Seattle! See you next week :D Love, Mo <><
ReplyDeletethanks Lori for sharing God's ripples!!! It's amazing how He works!
ReplyDelete