Faithfulness in the Unimpressive
Katie Davis fell in love with Uganda when she visited at the age of 16. She moved there at age 18 as a kindergarten teacher, and later started a non-profit and adopted 14 girls from there. She says this about her work in Uganda,
“God was showing me His heart and His Word in new ways right there in the life I was living through the children I was serving. Armed with this new sense of who He is and who I was as His servant, I continued trying to give myself away in every circumstance. I wanted to do God’s work, let Him display Himself through my life, and change my world as much as possible every single day. Most days, that didn’t include anything other people would find impressive. It simply meant being faithful to the people and the responsibilities God had given me” – Kisses From Katie (Katie Davis).
Although her life in Uganda was difficult at times, she experienced so much fulfillment, joy, and peace as she decided to intentionally seek to live out God’s purpose for her life, one day at a time. Many of Katie’s days were spent playing with kids, helping with medical needs, and cooking enough beans to feed over 100 students each day so they could have a meal after school before she taught them about Jesus. There is nothing glamorous about testing kids for AIDS or spending hours making beans, but all the while she was faithfully serving as she was telling all those kids about Jesus’ love for them.
I pray this this perspective would become all of our perspectives’. I pray that we would be so content in who we are in Christ and so fulfilled in our role as His ambassadors, that we find joy in whatever he would have us accomplish. My pastor once said that full time ministry is 10% “mountain-top experiences” like seeing people come to know Jesus, and 90% is more mundane, daily things. For Katie, that was making beans for hours before the children got there. For Luke and I, that will be the years of learning culture and language and developing relationships before we get to translate and teach the Word of God. No matter how mundane or unimpressively simple the things God may have us do, we can glorify him and worship Him as we serve him faithfully each day.
Our time of official youth ministry here in PNG is coming to a close. Tomorrow, we are leaving to visit a tribe called Hewa with another missionary family. Hewa now has a local church with established elders, a school, and one missionary family that still lives there and is working with the people to finish the Bible translation, which is about 85% finished. They also have missionaries among their people that have been reaching out to the surrounding villages. Our friend we are going with visited this church when she was on a summer trip for college students to Papua New Guinea. The time she spent with this body of believers had a huge impact on her and God used this experience to help solidify her decision to come back as a missionary. She has been wanting to visit Hewa to see the people again and encourage them by telling them the part they played in God bringing her back here to be a part of bringing God’s Word to another language group. The missionary family who works there thought this would be a huge encouragement to the believers. We were invited us to go with them, and we jumped at the invite! The guys will be helping mill lumber for a school building and the gals and kids will be hanging with the ladies in the village. We are so excited to get to know the Hewa people, hear their stories, and learn from them and the missionaries who have worked there for many years. If you are interested in reading the story of the Hewa church, you can buy the book called Canopy of Darkness written by one of the missionaries, Jonathan Kopf here.
Shortly after we come back from Hewa, we leave for Madang where our 4 month orientation will be. There are 3 other families and 2 singles planning on being in this group. Please pray for them in their preparations, goodbyes, travels, and that all their paperwork would be approved ASAP! One lady’s passport has been lost in the mail for weeks now! Pray that God would work out all these details and get them all here on time.
PRAISES
For our time here in Goroka serving in youth ministry and getting to know many other missionaries.
For our relationships with our friends at Upegu. Please pray that God would give us the opportunity to come back some day and be able to share about Jesus with them more effectively.
REQUESTS
For safe travels. The time we will be coming out of Hewa and flying to Madang is right after they announce the results of the recent election, so it is a time when some rioting can occur.
For our fellow orientees coming – for their preparations, goodbyes, travels, and PAPERWORK.
For our continued culture and language study of the national language, Tok Pisin.
For God’s wisdom and guidance in team formation and what tribe he will send us to.
For the strengthening of our relationship with the Lord and with one another.
Thank you so much for partnering with us in ministry! We couldn’t do this without you. Please reach out to us with ways we can be praying for you as well!
- The Theks