Yesterday a handful of us went to a church that was planted by the mother church here in Almaty. I was asked to preach at their service. I was stressing out trying to figure out what the people needed to hear. As we were driving to the church, it dawn upon me that the was going to be in the rural area (you know me… I am a city boy). I was re-thinking about the message that I was prepared to preach. I felt maybe I needed to preach another message.
When we FINALLY got there, they told us that they did not want me to preach. My first thought was – what is this?! We drove all this way to just “observe?!” But by the end of our time there, the Lord spoke something to me. After hearing the pastor’s testimony (it was powerful btw)… and just observing what the Lord was doing even in a rural place like this, I realized (once again) that God does not NEED ME. The thing that topped it off was that the pastor ended up praying for us. He first shared how the seeds of the Gospel was planted in their hearts through various missionaries in the early 90’s and how they were forever grateful. The passage in Jn 12:24 came to fruition.
As we were driving back, it hit me again – I came with an attitude to bless the people with my preaching but it was the people of God in Kazakhstan that ended up blessing us. Oh the ironies of life…