It is a blessing to walk. Almost normally. Almost without any pain. Aches and pains have increased as the years have increased; now, added aches and pains and I do not know if they will diminish with the years, or not. But in the overall picture of things, one must be grateful for the good and nod, without grumbling, to the unpleasant. In everything give thanks. There really is much for which to give thanks.

When we inform ourselves of the greater world in which we live, we have to realize at some point that we in this country, at this time in history, are some of the most resourced, healthiest, wealthiest, most educated and most comfortable people on the face of the earth. Given that reality, we followers of Jesus should be humbled and challenged to also realize that what we have been given was not intended for ourselves, but was given in trust for us to steward for our King; to treat as his property to accomplish his purposes.

Just as I might entrust funds to an investor to do with as I direct, not as he chooses, so God has entrusted us with his resources to do with as he directs, not as we decide. These resources include our very lives as well as financial and all other resources which come into our hands. They are “to further the Kingdom, not feather our nest.”

When I look at the world we live in, look outside my referent group, those people who are pretty much like me socially, economically, ethnically, etc., in other words, to look beyond my “comfort zone”, to real people in other parts of the world who look and live different from me, who, for most of them, have known a world neither informed nor influenced by the word of God and have not enjoyed the advantages that world brings…as we have in our country and culture (we take so much for granted), I am confronted with the stark reality that I am one who must respond as a true and faithful steward of God’s resources to serve the needs of God’s world. The world he so loved that Jesus died.

When I was in California, away from my home, in pain day after day from 2 recent surgeries on my bones and feeling very literally “broken”, with weeping and a new depth of commitment, I yielded myself, my broken body, anew as a “living sacrifice”, to the God of my salvation. Is there any other reason to be alive? I have not found it. All my emotional struggles bubbling up through my pain and suffering in the body flowed back down into the center, my renewed center in Jesus Christ, in the God who redeemed me for his purposes, and called me to fulfill those purposes through my broken body.

Peace.

God called me to serve him before I met Randy. He brought us together in Bible college as we both sought to go in the direction of his leading. Our paths converged and we have been serving God together since that time.

Each of us must attend to the most important relationship of our lives, our relationship with God through his son Jesus Christ. Each of us will work out our specific calling in a little different way. But we must all be moving in response to the leading of God’s spirit, encouraging and upholding one another in our pursuits for the kingdom of God. We must keep looking to Jesus and focus where he points us in his world.

As I gained strength in my muscles which had been misused for almost a year, I knew the next step was to get back to walking on my treadmill every day, building up to my former 30 minute routine.

Enter a motivator I couldn’t ignore, Run to Rescue! I’ve already indicated my belief that based on God’s love for the world, and his subsequent all time greatest sacrifice to save it, we his followers are blood-bound to act on God’s passion to reach that world…in whatever ways we can.

I can walk. I can use that God given ability at this point in my life to also do something to reach girls and women who live in a very different world, culturally and spiritually speaking, from the one I live in, bringing them the good news about Jesus Christ in many different tangible ways. And I will never have to venture out my door. Not in body anyway. But hopefully I will join in spirit with those other believers who are the ones “on the ground” extending a physical hand and help to these girls and women.

I have a specific calling and work here in this my home country of the United States of America, but you and I have a responsibility to the world for which Jesus died and in this day and age we have almost unlimited ways of carrying out that responsibility to be the “hands and feet” of Jesus in his world. This is one way of many I have chosen to steward some of my resources; my time and effort, for the Kingdom.

I still need more sponsors to turn my first 30 miles of walking, dedicated to Jesus, into tangible resources to be his “hands and feet”. Would you prayerfully consider sponsoring me to do this by donating a dollar amount per mile for each mile I walk, to SIS once I complete my 30 miles? I’ve worked up to my 30 minutes a day (1 mile) since starting August 11 and have logged about 13 miles so far. I do not intend to quit.

She Is Safe (SIS), the mission organization through which Run to Rescue is offered, has a new web site. Please check it out at www.SheIsSafe.org

Let my heart be broken by the things that break the heart of God.
Bob Pierce, founder of World Vision

Jacque