I have never been on a formal mission trip. While I know that this is a standard checkbox in modern Christian life, I’m not claiming to have totally missed it because I’ve been on my own constant mission trip of raising my three godly-men-in-training and learning how to be a helpmate to my husband. While I would enjoy traveling at some point, my mission has remained local so far. Yet this morning, without leaving my house, God showed me His love in the most personal way — from a small village in Zambia, Africa.
He Knows the Plans for Us
After my son was born, I began to organize his baby clothes by size in different boxes with the thought that I would be able to lovingly pass them onto the additional children that my heart believed would come. These boxes have remained sealed for the past nine years, and it was within that time that God brought me the additional children my heart anticipated through my husband. Although these already-growing boys were much too big for the cherished baby clothes I had retained, I had still hoped for a special way for the clothes to be used.
Not long ago, God introduced me to the ministry of Every Orphan’s Hope. When I learned how this ministry specifically embodies James 1:27 in Africa, including the care of orphaned babies, I asked if I could send the clothes to these precious children. This morning, my friend and founder of the ministry, Gary Schneider, brought me in on a video conference to show me my son’s baby clothes being given to the babies in their care across the world. My son and I cried together as we watched these clothes being unpacked for needy children in Africa, understanding that this was part of God’s plan all along.
The Detail of the Decal
But what really blew me away was the detail that God arranged to let me know of His purposeful plan with this, down to the smallest decal. While Gary scanned the room of the Bethel House over video, my eye caught the decorations on the painted walls of the nursery. The animal decals on their walls were almost identical to the Noah’s Ark-themed animal decals I had chosen to decorate my son’s nursery 10 years ago. Although I have moved several times since he was a baby, I have never once seen these wall decals anywhere else.
The babies I viewed on the video (some only a month old) had been clothed with plans God had made 10 years ago when these clothes were originally purchased for my son. And as God watched me pick out and order these wall decals online during that same time, He set the plan in motion to ensure that the next chapter of my life would reveal His continued presence in a way I would notice. He was there when the volunteer in Zambia, Africa, was lovingly adhering them to decorate the wall of The Bethel House. And I believe my Savior smiled knowing that this plan would allow me to catch a personal glimpse of Him during a 7-minute video conference as He passed by several years later.
The Smallest of Mission Trips
What I had held onto, God sent across the world to ensure that I would be able to see, perceive, and tell of His great love for us all, in the smallest of mission trips.
