"So, Roll up Your Sleeves...
…put your mind in gear, be totally ready to receive the gift that's coming when Jesus arrives” 1 Peter 1:13Today, in Texas it is a warm, sunny day with a high of 63, my sleeves are definitely rolled up, as the sweat is dripping down my forehead! December is just one week away, and I am just one week from “leaving on jet plane” to China. I was encouraged reading 1 Peter 1, especially by verse 13. I have been trying to get my mind to the necessary gear to prepare for my eighth trip to the People’s Republic of China. Over the past eight years over 10,000 University students have experienced Sunshine After Rain! We have visited the Taian Orphanage seven consecutive years, the orphanage in Jinan for the last five years, and the orphanage in Beijing the past four years, consistently ministering to the children, orphanage workers and directors. Our visit is something they look forward to each year.
Through a variety of media opportunities (televised public performances, cover stories in magazines, radio interviews and last year even a documentary) close to 3,000,000 Chinese have heard the story of the ministry, our visits and care for the orphans in their country, as well as the reason we come, to practice pure religion undefiled according to the Word of the Living God. God used the simple (a clown) to confound the wise. His message of love and hope travels beyond our days and into eternity.
We may look at the future as uncertain, but there is no uncertainty with God. His Word does NOT return to Him void. It produces a harvest, some ten fold, some hundred, some thousand fold. We have seen it in the testimony of our work in China. Pray for the BILLION fold!! Nothing is too hard for Him.
Sleeves rolled up, coat packed and smiling in His service.
