Here I am at CROSS Conference in Indianapolis, taking a youth group to hear about God’s plan for missions. It is here that I am struck with thoughts of my friend, Danielle.
Why do I miss her so much more when I’m at a missions conference? Maybe it’s because she spent a year of her life as a teacher-missionary in South Sudan. Maybe it’s because I can picture her being here with me, and the thought makes me cry right in the middle of the crowd of conference-goers. But most of all, it is because she loved missions so much. She would be so excited to see all the different opportunities and ways God has been working around the globe; exuberant about taking the name of Christ to the nations. She would be beaming from ear to ear, green eyes glittering with excitement, bouncing up and down as she pulled me from booth to booth, talking a million miles a minute.
Her passion to make Christ known to unreached people groups puts me to shame. My husband tells me that she would have been thrilled that I am taking a group of young people to learn about missions and how they can “go.” I know she would; she was always encouraging me. But still I pray, at this conference, that God will stir my lukewarm heart to be as concerned as she was about the state of souls; souls that are lost in darkness all over the world.
May Christ be brought to those dark corners of the world, where no one has ever heard his name, so that the nations will be glad and God would be glorified. She wanted that more than anything.
Parker Christian Editing 