Connecting

You know, I don't like to travel and a day ago I was just wishing this trip to Global Connect would just be over.

But that was a day ago...today I'm safely here and having an amazing time with God's people.  Last night we had a blessed session with so many of our international OCC friends--praising God together in different languages was just the start of this little taste of heaven.

We considered together how many unreached people groups there are in the world and how God is calling us to reach ANY and ALL and EVERY one of them.  I was astounded to learn of the unreached groups among the deaf with 70 million persons who are deaf and sign in 400 different sign languages.  Oh, Lord, bring them to Yourself.  The harvest is so plentiful. God, help us be faithful to pray for laborers.

I've already reconnected with so many good friends I only get to see once or perhaps twice a year.  As we share tales of God's goodness the encouragement seeps deep into the hard corners of my soul.

Diane tells me my prayers for her mission trip to Greece were answered.  Ginny shares how God reconnected her here in Orlando with a high school friend she hasn't seen in decades and blessed her so abundantly in that meeting. Lynnette reports of God's goodness in her relationships.  This morning I saw Christy and we swapped stories of God's provision for our packing parties.  So many answers to prayers I've prayed throughout this year.  Seeing faith become sight never gets old.

And I'm connecting with some of our international partners, too. What a joy it was to pray with brothers and sisters from East Asia in the prayer room this morning.  On the way to breakfast I chatted with Steven, the National Coordinator for Kenya, whose team is responsible for distributing over 107,000 boxes this year.

At breakfast I met Kristina, a field representative from Albania and spent some time talking with Perry from the Philippines.  Did you know in the Philippines they even used zip lines to deliver some of their boxes? Crazy.

I was overjoyed to meet Vitaly, an international field representative from Ukraine.  He was glad to hear our team had been praying specifically this year for Ukraine and asked us to pray for the local ministry partners to stay faithful to their calling in discipling the children who receive boxes.  They distribute 500,000 - 600,000 boxes there each year!

So...I've only been here 17 hours and God is answering so many prayers.  My only regret is that more of my team members couldn't be here to connect with me.