It was Jan. 24, 1994. I was uneasy with my place of employment as I knew there was more that God wanted me to do and experience than what I was actually doing. I thought perhaps of starting my own contracting business.
I was at a funeral of a preacher from my home church in London, Ontario, when I confided in another preacher friend (I’ll call him Steve for future reference) of a desire to do something different with my life. He asked me if I considered going to Zambia or Russia. At some time previous to this, I heard some missionary reports on both of these places. He revived an interest I had of going to Zambia. I got the chance to talk with a missionary from Zambia (I’ll call him Paul because that’s his name) who was also at the funeral, as well as friends of mine, a trusted couple, who’s ministry was to help young people. All were quite encouraging to pursue a missions trip.
I’d like to say that I was making plans right away for a Missions trip, but…. time goes by, life gets busy and the things we aught to do get put on the back burner to simmer and then cool. God sometimes has to get our attention several times before we finally obey. I think of Jonah, who avoided the whole issue of going to Nineveh at all by running away. God can turn circumstances which ever way that will get us to obey. We know how that story ends. It was good for Nineveh, but Jonah went whether he felt like it or not. Howbeit it took him be thrown out of a ship in the middle of the sea, being swallowed by a great fish, and then vomited out on the beach. God got him there.
Coming up in the next post in this series: Coincidence or …God?
