Tuesday, December 15, 2020

Breaking Bread Together….

 

Finally, the Pure Joy International Staff was able to break bread together in person in an exclusive location of a dear friend.  It is the first time our ministry staff has been able to meet since January of this year.  Wow!  We have met through Zoom meetings, but it is not the same as being with each other and hearing each other’s hearts.  Time was spent in prayer for each other and for the future of the ministry.  God was so good to guide our hearts into focus and direction for the year ahead.  Having said that let me share a couple of things we are looking at going forward. 

We hope to be able to honor our trip scheduled for Portugal last year in the Spring by projecting a possibility of the Fall of 2021.  Counseling with missionaries overseas and stateside continue via all means possible.  In the meantime, the staff came up with a few good possibilities to keep ministering to our people group (missionary women) in some interesting ways.  First, however, it will require some leg work on our end.  We have set the end of January to get that accomplished.  So, please pray that God will make a way for us to get the information we need to move forward.  Also, pray for the staff, board, and advisors of Pure Joy International and their families.

To those of you that have asked us recently to investigate more ways to minister to you in the middle of all this craziness, keep us in your prayers and look forward to February.  If God allows this to come together it will be awesome!

 

In the meantime, be encouraged from these words of Jesus and the following thoughts.

John 14:27 (ESV) Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.

When is the last time you have been stuck somewhere?  For many of you it was a traffic jam on the way to work today.  For others, it could be having to be quarantined for 5, 10, or 14 days, a job that you cannot afford to leave right now but there is no room to grow, a line at the grocery store, a delayed flight, etc.  The list of things that position us to be stuck at times is endless.  But the one word that accompanies being stuck is always the same “waiting”.

Talk about a word that stirs up a basket full of emotions.  Whew!  Waiting can trigger excitement, anticipation, frustration, anger, anxiety, fear, hopelessness, discouragement, etc.  The list is so long.

As believers we are “waiting” between time (this world) and eternity (timelessness).  Scripture tells us we are sojourners here, aliens, just passing through, this is not our home.  I suspect most believers have really have not thought about that much until this year. But with all the chaos of this world we may be reminding ourselves of that truth as a reminder during the “waiting”.  Now days being a sojourner passing through reminds us of His Sovereignty and this is not our home.

Again, take heart believer in these words from Jesus Himself...

John 14:27 (ESV)
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.

And let us not forget we have a mission while we are sojourning through this world.  Seek first His kingdom and righteousness, serve others, share the gospel, baptize, and make disciples.  So, do not be deceived into living in the horizontal of this world.  Live vertically and keep walking!

His,

Vickie