| Even though I had given my heart and committed my life to serving God at 16 I didn't have the foggiest idea how to do it or what God even wanted me to do. Talk about fustrating. I lacked vision. Things didn't get any better either after I'd given my life to God. My last year at high school was a nightmare for me and for my parents. The nightmare didn't end at graduation either. I didn't have a job lined up when I got out of school and I wasn't going on to university. I didn't know who I was or where I belonged. Each day I became more and more frustrated and miserable. I don't know how my mother put up with me! Thank God she did though because time and prayer can change everything. I kept on going to church and recieving all God had in store for me. I was growing but slowly. Then one day my mother and her Christian friend decided to travel to the provincial capital to visit another church (Christian Resource Center). I came along and over the next four weeks we made weekend trips to the capital to be a part of the church services. The pastors, Ray and Darleen McGraw, saw something in me that I didn't see - a vessel. They needed vessels for God and I needed to be a vessel. So they approached me and asked me to come and live on the church grounds and work in the church. It took me two months to decide whether I would or not. I tossed and turned over the decision. It was exciting but frightening all at the same time. However, once I made up my mind to go a peace settled over me and I knew it was the right decision. I didn't know what was in store for me there but for the first time in my life I knew where I needed to be - where God wanted me. That church and those people changed my life. I spent two years with them and in those two years God blessed me and strengthend me in a thousand different ways. Ray and Darleen saw that I was like a sponge - just absorbing the word and their instruction as fast as they could dish it out. They first put me to good use helping out around the grounds. Then they put me on the ministry team. A few months later they had me teaching some Wednesday night services. A year later they made me an elder in the church. It wasn't long after that when they let me speak in the Saturaday night services. In my last year with them Ray took me with him to Calgary on one of his four day training schools. He gave me the oppertunity to minister the word of God to 200 people on the last night. When we returned home he and Darleen gave me the honour of preaching some Sunday morning services. What a transformation! When they first met me I was a lost soul. I had no vision and no direction. I was discouraged and frustrated. And I was going no where fast. By the end of my second year with them, through prayer and Godly instruction, they (Darleen, Ray and the congregation) had transformed me into a believer with purpose. Someone who heard the word of God and obeyed it. Someone God could use. A vessel. I pray that if you are lost and discouraged, if you don't know what God's vision is for you that you too will find Christian role models and/or a Christian church who will bring you up in the word and give you the courage to listen to God and to obey his word. God we give you all the glory. For ever and ever. Amen! |
| God's Vision |