06302018 People Who Influence

Dear Missionary Lady,

I am so looking forward to this ministry to you, and that stems from knowing that it is what God wants me to do. In fact, my temptation is to write you frequently - probably more than would be manageable for some of you to keep up with! So I'll try to limit myself to once a week. I don't know what difference these letters will make in your lives; for some of you, it may be very minimal, while for others I hope it will become something special. I am confident that there will be some blessing along the way, because God always blesses obedience to the plans that He directs.

For the first several letters, I want to mix my encouragement with letting you get to know me better, so that you have some idea of the person who is writing to you. For those who already know me, that means some review, but I trust that I can still be a blessing to you.

There are a handful of people that have played significant roles in my life, particularly in regards to directing my heart to follow God and remain faithful to Him. There are many others who also impacted me in lesser ways, but these few reached out to me and invested in me in special ways, and often at just the right time.

The first of those was a teacher when I was a senior in high school. I was a bit of a loner and an introvert, not active in all the sports and activities of the school, and not having any close friends. So it was meaningful to me when this teacher reached out to me, having Bible studies and praying with me, expressing love, and spending a little bit of time with me. I was not fully dedicated to God at that time, but her influence made a difference.

The second person was just two years later, when I was in college. At a time when my dedication to God was awakening and I began rapidly growing in God, she was there to be a help and encouragement. What was special about this lady was the way our relationship started. She was the dorm counselor for my dorm. Since I had worked on campus during the summer, I was able to move into my new dorm early, and she was already moved in as well. She made her rounds each evening, coming to the few of us who were in the dorm already, checking in to say hi and chat for a few minutes. When God began working in my heart and drawing me to full surrender, I already knew someone I could go to for help. By her friendliness and care, she had laid a foundation, and she followed that up with many hours of investment over the course of the year.

Those are the only two stories I will share for now. The point is that reaching out to people makes a difference. People everywhere want to be loved and cared for. Some of those people are not very lovely. But they are still needy and they still want love. In many countries around the world, the suicide rate is increasing significantly. These are people who are basically without hope, often without God, and usually believing that no one cares about them.

This is one of the beauties of missionary work. You do not always get people to come to church, and you do not always get a chance to share the gospel. But you get many opportunities to interact with people, to show kindness and to show interest. Those interactions make a difference. Maybe not for every person and maybe not every time, but when you show love and concern for others, they will know where to come when they want help. You can show the love and beauty of God. You can let people know there is hope and there is help. When they really want those things, the door will be open for you to minister to them.

I am reminded of I Corinthians 13:1-3: "If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing." Without love, our service is empty and profitless, but with love, our influence for God can be widespread and effective. So keep loving, keep reaching out, keep caring, keep making contacts, and God will do His work through you. What you do today matters for eternity.

I know there is a lot available on the Internet now, but if you are looking for more spiritual input, you might be interested in my blog. I call it "Higher Ground." It often shares Bible studies or devotional thoughts. I just completed a series from the Psalms dealing with troubling emotions and God's help for them. My blog is based on the premise that the Christian life is a never-ending upward journey, and I hope to encourage others who share the passion to pursue that upward course. The blog is found at www.pressingontohigherground.blogspot.com.

Archives of these missionary letters can be found at www.dearmissionarylady.blogspot.com, and you can feel free to share if you think something would help a friend or co-worker.

If I still don't have the best email address for you (or you prefer to opt out of the emails), just let me know. Otherwise, please don't feel obligated to respond unless you want to, in which case I would welcome hearing from you.

May God bless your labor for Him this week, and may His love shine effectively through you.

Love in Christ,

Peggy Holt
Open Door Baptist Church
Lebanon, PA

06252018 Introduction

Dear Missionary Lady,

Before you ignore this message as generic or "junk mail," let me assure you that it is intended especially for you. I'll explain more in a minute, but the bottom line is that I want to connect with the missionary ladies that my church supports, (and I'm throwing in a few personal friends as well). I want to do more than just an occasional "I'm praying for you" email, but more involved and personal communication would require time and oversight on my part that I'm not sure I could manage. I don't want to choose just one or two of you; I want to include you all, so from a practical standpoint, a group email seems the best way to do that. I hope you don't mind.

A few of you I know very well; others I know more casually. Some of you I have met for only a brief time, and some of you I have never met. Regardless of the level of past contact, my heart is inclined toward you. I love you for what you are doing in God's work. I love you for your heart to serve God. I love you because of the challenges I know you face and the burdens I know you carry. I realize you are in different situations. Some of you serve more or less at home, while most of you are far from home and far from family and friends. While I do not minimize the difficulty of any ministry, my heart is especially burdened for those of you who are further removed from "normal" life.

For those of you who don't really know me, I'll share some of my story along the way, but the nutshell version is that I've been to college, worked, served one term in Mexico, went back to college, taught Christian school for many years, and now work in a secular job. And, yes, I've had enough time to do all that, because I am approaching the half-century mark.

Before I went to Mexico, lots of friends and people at my church assured me they would write to me. I think my mom is the only person who ever did. It's easier to communicate now than it used to be, but the saying is still mostly true: "Out of sight, out of mind." I'm sure that you must get some communication, but I also get the feeling that most of it is fairly shallow and much of probably goes to the men. My heart is especially interested in you as ladies. We are different from men. You knew that, right? Our needs are different, and there is a craving for connection. We can be especially prone to loneliness, and I know that ministry is often a lonely place, regardless of geographic location or number of people around.

You may be wondering if my communication goal is some grand idea or new project that I am going to start and then quickly abandon. I don't think so. Let me tell you why. God has been gradually leading me toward this for a long time, and the pieces just finally fell into place. I'm not sure I can explain all of it. Having spent time on the mission field, I have a heart for missions. Various aspects of my life, in particular living alone and years of health struggles, have helped me to learn compassion for others. Although I'm no longer in full-time service, that was my life for many years, and I am comfortable with those kinds of friends. I am a writer to some extent. (I've written a devotional book for people with chronic illness and I also do a blog.) I believe that God has gifted me with the ability to study His Word and share it with others, and He has given me time to spend in His Word that many people do not have.

Those are kind of the factual reasons, but additionally there are the stirrings in my heart. I have wanted to become more involved with our missionaries and have considered how I might do that. I have felt the lack of being in full-time ministry and have often wished I could do more. Because of my health issues, I have had to discontinue some service that I have previously done in my church and community, and I have wondered what I can replace that with. God has gradually helped me to see and accept that perhaps my ministry will be more from the confines of my recliner and my laptop and coming from inside my house rather than something public. And I often find myself lonely and disconnected. Other than attending church, Facebook tends to be my best connection with people, and that isn't very satisfying. So here I am, wanting to connect and wanting to share with people, and there you are, wishing someone would connect and share with you. Through a few missionary speakers lately, God has helped to put all these pieces together and direct me, I believe, into this kind of ministry.

It's new, and I haven't figured it all out yet, but at this point my goal is to send at least one or two emails a month with the particular goal of showing my love and support for you and of encouraging you in the Lord. I understand if for whatever reason you are not interested in that. I don't want to give you something else to read if you already feel overwhelmed. Or maybe you feel like you are in a well-nourished situation where you don't need such an outreach. I don't want to push myself on anyone, but I do want to offer this as my ministry to you and to God.

Let me wrap this up with a few practical things. If you prefer not to receive these emails, just reply and let me know. It's okay. If you have an email address that is better than the one I've used, let me know that, and I'll gladly update. Please don't feel like you have to write back or respond. I don't want to create a burden or obligation for you. But if you want to respond, I welcome the opportunity to hear from you and be able to initiate some more personal communication. Be aware that this is a group email, so if you reply, reply just to me and not to everyone. Finally, when I shared this idea with our missionary speaker last evening, he suggested I create an archive in case you want an easy way to go back and see previous emails. This is found at www.dearmissionarylady.blogspot.com. While my primary goal is to minister to you ladies with whom I have a special connection, I don't mind if you want to share with others.

While the purpose of this first letter was primarily to introduce myself and the concept of what I want to do, I do want to share something from God's Word. Let me relate it to the little bit of my story that I have shared, which is that I am not doing what I trained for vocationally, nor am I involved in ministry to the extent that I have been in the past. Sometimes life takes unexpected turns and leaves us far from where we thought we would ever be or what we thought we would ever do. Proverbs 16:9 says, "The mind of man plans his way, but the LORD directs his steps." And aren't we glad He does? Regardless of how things might seem in the moment, we know when we stop to consider that there is no way we would ever change the path that God has chosen for us. Even with unexpected twists and turns, with difficult climbs, and sometimes painful falls, the path that God has chosen is the very best.

Remember, what you do today matters for eternity.

In Christ's love,

Peggy Holt
Open Door Baptist Church
Lebanon, PA