GCF Walk: Week 5 Reflections

Today is Saturday, my day to catch up on all things domestic. Besides cleaning the kitchen, mopping, re-arranging cabinets and changing sheets, I pulled out a stack of ALife magazines. I tend to hang on to them and over six years I've collected quite a few. It was time to purge. So, with the sounds of the Olympics and men's gymnastics coming from the TV as background noise, I started the project.

This week is a reflection less on a GCF walk than a pondering of those feet who've gone before me as well as those with whom I'm walking now.

At first I was just going to toss them all, but couldn't do so without perusing them and even clipping a few. As I leafed through the pages I paused on one story after another. Soon what started out as a quick project became a quiet-time of sorts: reading again the stories, challenges and prayers of so many and marvelling at the testimony and rich history represented therein. As I read on, pondering, praying, there were moments of tears and many smiles. Most often, though, my heart beat faster with a sense of passion, of call, of determination, of renewed desire to press on and to keep walking. Only half-way through the stack and I'm completely humbled by such a great cloud of witnesses, to be even a small part in this legacy of faith.

Now here's a confession: "I'm just a bookkeeper" is something I've often said... sometimes I say it just as a statement of actual job, but other times I've said it with meaning, having let in the lie that somehow what I'm doing is not real ministry... that somehow it doesn't stand up to the real work of my colleagues. Now don't get me wrong, there's no doubt in my heart that I'm exactly where Father wants me and doing what he's gifted and called me to do... it's just that working in the four walls of the office day after day I sometimes lose track of the bigger picture....

As I prepare for my next home assignment, I do struggle a bit with what I should share. What stories do I even have to tell? I sure don't want to bore people to tears with refried beans. Then today, as I read the stories shared by my colleagues and the lives that have been touched because of their ministry, the Lord chastened me... He reminded me again that I'm here doing what He's called me to do so that they can do what they've been called to do... and together we are His team... it's His story and that's a story worth sharing!

Can you hear it? It's the sound of the "four walls of the office" crashing down and my again seeing the bigger picture.

Rather than simply tossing the ALife's, I had the idea to clip all the articles, life-stories and snippets of info or prayers related to our field and to put them into a scrapbook. I think I'll also add some quotes or short stories from my colleagues email letters. Then, to finish things off, I think I'll add several of my photos (if you haven't already guessed, photography is one of my hobbies). The end product will be a coffee-table book that I can go back to on those days when I may be discouraged, or feeling like the four walls are closing in, to remind myself of the bigger picture. It's also something I can take back with me on HA to share with you, to share His story.

Thank you for so patiently and prayerfully walking with me.

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GCF Walk: Week 5 Tally
July Total: $46.51
Aug So-Far: 8 miles, $8.45 and counting (it was a really hot week)