Dear family and friends,
The time has come, again, for Paul and I to answer a call for help. Honduras is calling our name. Pastor Helio Robleto, from Tocoa, Honduras, has been trying to get us to work fulltime by his side since 1995, when he briefly worked as a laborer in our construction business (he was in the states attending Bible College). He just expected us to pack up our 5 children and move south to Central America, right then and there. Well, as most of you know, I certainly would have, but the vision had to not only be mine, but Paul’s as well.
Most of you, that know me, know I have felt called to missionary work since I walked that long isle in the Baptist Church, at the age of nine, which confirmed that call on my life. But it wasn’t until 1978, when I spent 3 ½ months in Israel, on a kibbutz, that I knew for certain my life was forever changed. My heart had “missions” engraved upon it. While raising a family of 5 kids, I went on several mission trips to foreign lands, where my heart lies. Paul, on the other hand, having been a self-employed contractor and stone mason throughout our marriage of nearly 34 years, has far out-weighed me in “ministry” (as most people recognize it), by discipling and being a “father” to so many young men in his line of work, most had no father, and by teaching God’s word, weekly, in the Adult Sunday School class for 28 years. He truly loves to teach the Word and lives his life by doing just that.
God spoke to him several years ago and gave him the scripture in Isaiah 61:1-3, which says, “For the Spirit of the Sovereign God is upon me, for He has anointed me to preach the good news to the poor, He has sent me to bind up the broken hearted, and to proclaim liberty to the captives and freedom to those held in bondage by satan.” As for myself, I have always just simply said, “Lord, send me. I will go anywhere for you, Lord.” One Sunday, my sister Rhonda, who is the pastor’s wife to my brother in law at GCC, handed out pieces of a puzzle to each person in the service that morning. She had written a scripture reference on each piece. We had come in late that service and she was standing in the back of the auditorium with the basket of pieces, and she asked me if I’d gotten my puzzle piece. I answered, “no.” So she reached into the basket of pieces, drew out and handed it to me. It read, “Isaiah 6:8.” I knew instantly what it said, having claimed that scripture many years before. So when she asked, “What does it say?” I told her the reference and then quoted the scripture which says, “[W]hom shall I send and who will go for us? And I said, ‘here am I, Lord, send me.’” She simply answered, “ Well, there you go.” Of course, I didn’t need confirmation, but it is always wonderful when God gives it to you, even in obscure ways, like a little puzzle piece. Of all the pieces left in her basket to hand me, it couldn’t have spoken to me more perfectly.
Since that time, and even years before and now, people are rallying for us to go. I remember 13 years ago, at an Aquire the Fire youth rally, I heard a song for the first time, and I quickly claimed it right then as my own mission statement and song. I even sang the chorus of this song at a mission banquet before I left for a 34 day mission trip to Zimbabwe, where I ministered and shared 39 times. The words to the song are as follows.
“There is a people, there is a land, that doesn’t know You as the Great I Am, we love Your Spirit, we preach Your Word, to those around us who may not have heard.
The world is dying without a clue, as to the knowledge of what you can do, we hold the answer, Your hand is near, and we can touch it, if we just draw near.
Chorus: Give me the heart of a World Changer, make me a servant to your divine call, help me to love, help me not to be a stranger, your people need you today, Lord, and I . . . want to reach them all.”
A little over 5 years ago, less than a year after my Daddy passed away, I was praying and fasting for several days, and God dropped our ministry name and logo into my spirit. “From His Seed Ministries.” My first thought was, perfect, because the loss of my father was still so prevalent in my mind; I thought, so true Lord, I am from his (Leon Vernon’s) seed. But the Lord quickly reminded me and clarified His purpose by saying, “From My SEED, Jesus, My Word, I will send you forth to share that Seed to the nations, but, yes, daughter, You are from your father’s seed, too, and that is a ‘good’ thing.”
Little did I know that over the next 5 years, we would be hit with such adversity that would delay that fulltime call, yet, when I prayed just two months ago, “Lord, when will we be fulltime?” The Lord responded, “What do you think you’ve been doing the last 18 months?” Most of you know the move we made to Kansas City this last year for our daughter Molly, who was in the hospital and unable to care for her children. We made that move strictly to help out, to take her newborn baby home from the hospital at two days old, to raise and care for him and to help her husband out with the other two children. It was truly, the most difficult, nightmarish trial or mission, as God called it, we have endured. All the while, it prepared us for this over 4 ½ month trip to Honduras, from November 26 to April 15, where we will teach and disciple new pastors and converts, from the mountain areas, to take the gospel back to their own people. We are going with an open heart and mind, willing to do whatever the Lord says and willing to go wherever he sends us from there.
Please hold us up in prayer and believe with us for the finances we need for this extended trip. No gift is too small when you give it to the work of the Lord. Zechariah 4:10 says to “not despise small beginnings.” We can never judge God’s work by human standards.
Consumed by His Call,
Paul and dawne. Erickson
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