I am thankful for the messages our church has been able to
hear the past couple of weeks as we think about the work God HAS done and IS
DOING across the globe. If you missed either of these messages on October 12 or
19, I would encourage you to go back and listen on our church Youtube page!
Last Sunday was one of our special
Joint Service Sundays where our church gathers English and Spanish families
together and we have a translated message, sing in two languages and share pews
with our brothers and sisters of differing heart languages.
Pastor Darwin Blandon spoke in Spanish
with a translator and shared his personal testimony. He shared about how a
graduate of Tennessee Temple heard the call of the Lord, studied Spanish in
Costa Rica and then traveled to Nicaragua to where Pastor Darwin was born. Long
story short this man set up tents and shared the gospel. Through this, the
Blandon family came to know the Lord, and from the age of 3, Pastor Darwin was
a part of a Christian home.
As things became more and more hostile
and dangerous in his home country, Darwin’s parents sent him with this
missionary to try and escape the wars and go to America. Through an amazing
story of how God moved, Darwin was sent through.
God led him to begin a Spanish
ministry in Chattanooga with just 3 starting members. He was faithful to the
Lord and remained in that ministry for decades as he continues today and has
impacted hundreds and had a growing church.
His point was in looking back at the
trail of faithfulness in that Temple missionary. He was obedient to the Lord,
went to the country of Nicaragua and step by step, families and individuals
were impacted. Now hundreds are hearing the gospel and growing in faith in the
Spanish community here in our home city.
He also shared a train of missionaries,
Sunday school teachers, coaches and individuals who started back hundreds of
years ago. Some stories were not flashy or
very notable and involved reaching out to a single young man in a shoe
store and spending time building a specific relationship. That train followed
down person to person, generation to generation and landed in the life of Billy
Graham. A man who impacted MILLIONS of people for the gospel and glory of
Christ.
Those individuals hundreds of years
ago had no idea. Nor did they get to witness. But God used their faithfulness
to Him step by step, year by year and look at what the Lord has done.
I look at our own Grace Kids and
wonder, “which ones will be the next fiery blaze for the Lord to their own
generation?” “Who of these will step in obedience to the Lord and follow His
command to spread the gospel to those around them?”
You and I may never know. Are we okay
with that? Do we trust God with that? Can we step back and let our name become
smaller while God’s becomes greater? And what a call! How important is the
faithfulness of our Sunday school teachers, our coaches, our teachers, our
mentors, our choir leaders, our friends! What God can do with the faithfulness
of His people is humbling.
So we marvel at what God has done, the
stories He has marked in a chain of events that no one knew from moment to
moment until we get to look from the outside and proclaim God’s power and
glory. And we hope for the future, that God will continue to use His church and
His children to bring honor to His name and generations of followers to
Himself.
--Sandy Gromacki
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