A Mommy in Brazil

God is taking me to amazing places and He is giving me so much more than I could ever ask for. I am so glad to be a woman saved by grace, but I am sad it took me such a long time to become one. Some days I wish it had happened earlier. That I would have had parents who talked to me about Jesus and what it means to live according to the Word.

God has a plan for us and He knows where we are to serve Him. It will not be where we think we should be , but where He wants us to be. God gives us spiritual gifts to use when we serve him and we have to find out what He wants for us. At my church we have a special “course” (I don’t know a better word for it) where you find out how you can best serve and to deepen your faith. I had a very high score on almost all gifts, but there were three that stood out and had the highest score, they were: Mercy, wisdom and encouragement.

“But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ” Efésios 4:7

“For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ” Efésios 4:12

I have always been a helper and I love helping whenever I can so I decided to start visiting those in need. I didn’t get very far though and didn’t visit one single person except one lady who has a wonderful testimony to give. I was asking God to show me where I should serve Him as I felt as if I wasn’t doing anything to serve Him.

Our church has been going under some changes lately which is changing the church in various ways. Last year our missionaries M & M left us which had a big impact of the church. M & M we miss you so much!! Our former pastor heard God calling him to serve in a different town and went to serve there. Our new pastor (or pastora as they say here, it’s a female pastor) was given some challenges, and one of them were our Children’s Ministry.

I noticed there were times no one was available to take care of the children, other times they were in the care of a younger adolescent and I wasn’t completely happy about that. When my son one day came out of there all smeared with paint I decided to raise my concern and I started to pray even more for the children’s ministry. As I was talking to a friend from church about it I suggested we started to involve the mothers as well because as it was it wasn’t satisfactory. We talked about me being in charge of organizing a list with the mothers who would help. We raised the idea to our pastor who thought it was a great idea and we had a meeting with the mothers. Without me saying a word about the idea coming from me the mothers appointed me as the organizer.

As the ministry was without a leader God put in my heart that I should accept the ´full leadership if so only temporary. And let me tell you how I know this is all God’s work; I’m not a children’s type of person. I don’t really know how to play with kids; I’ve never had the vocation to surround myself with children. I never thought I would be where I am today. But God worked my heart slowly but surely to make me pray for the ministry, to encourage me to involve myself and to change the way it was being taken care of.

I don’t really think this is my final destination, I am more seeing myself as a temporary solution until God raises the right people to take care of this precious ministry, but until then I will do the best I can and trust that He will lead me. And if he wants me to stay I’ll stay and serve Him with a glad heart!

“And now, Israel, what doth the Lord thy God require of thee, but to fear the Lord thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul” De 10:12

When God says Go you just follow!

What has God been telling you lately? I am grateful God is working in my life, what are you grateful for today?  Read more about Gratefulness at Gratituesday!