Fish Fry Conversations...

Sometimes your best conversations take place waiting in line for the local fish fry on a Friday night.  Usually the best conversations start with a bold question.  One like, "How do you want your community in Lesotho to be different because you are there?".  In short, our friend was asking, "What spiritual goals do you have in place that will shape your day to day decisions to have an impact for Christ?  In what specific ways will you be waiting with expectancy to see the Holy Spirit work in your community because of your daily witness?".

We believe this starts with the spiritual goal of waiting with expectancy to see how God will change us through his redemptive and sanctifying work.  For me as a mom, it may be that I am surrendering myself to the Lord on a daily basis because I need grace that comes only from Him, or for Sam it may be that he daily surrenders himself to the work of the Holy Spirit to be diligent in leading this family as a joyful sacrifice of praise back to God.  But if we fail to see our own weaknesses and to make utterances of our need for His redeeming work in our lives, we fail to see His mighty hand at work.  We fail to delight in His cleansing work.  We forget to say thank you.  So, this is our first goal...to identify those ways in which we wait expectantly for God to change us.

Second, we believe people have holes in their hearts that they set about busily stuffing with anything to heal the pain and that the only way it can be truly healed is by God's salvation through Jesus Christ.  The symptoms of how people deal with their pain and sin will vary across cultures and generations.  Our job is to live in grace and love both with those who know and love God as well as those who know nothing of Him.  Our sub-job is to identify the symptoms that reveal their pain and sin and to point them to a Great God who knows them by name and who longs to see them reconciled to Him and to walk through those symptoms, addictions, and habits along with them as so many have done with us, so that we may walk in the freedom offered by Christ.  We wait with expectacy for God to continue to sanctify us  and to deliver life and freedom to the friends we have yet to make in Lesotho who may not know how great He is.