January 2nd God invites our family to participate with Him

I was sitting in church and John Lynch was preaching on I John 3. I began to read the passage and as I read the words, “If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Our love must not only be with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.” At the end of the worship time they announced that if anyone wanted to help out with the Tsunami relief they could give to Food for the Hungry, which had connections with our church. At lunch, at home and all through the day I kept hearing the words if anyone has material possessions and sees someone in need and has no pity how can the love of God be in him?

That night I was thinking about the fact that my wife, Noleen and I had money in the bank we were saving money for this summer, most summers we are overseas involved in various mission works and we were hoping it would be no different this year. Jesus began to speak to my heart about our “material possessions” that they were entrusted to us for such a time as this.

I shared this with my wife and we spent time in prayer and we felt great peace that the Lord wanted us to use our money to help our distant “neighbors”. That night we called our friend Mark Klink from Food for the Hungry and told him we wanted to give some money and if possible I actually would want to give money but also myself and serve in any way possible. He told me that FFH would not be sending teams over until later, a little disappointed I told him, “okay I guess we will just drop a check by tomorrow”.

This same evening across Phoenix unknown to me, Dan Kane was discussing the probable upcoming trip to India with George Miley. During their planning, George said to Dan I have a sense you should invite Ryan (that’s me) with you. On Dan’s arrival home his wife Kim asked him how the meeting went and that she thought that He should invite me to go along. God was on the move.