Do you see this?

What do you see when you see this picture?

 I see children that I long to run to wrap in my arms, kiss them, clothe and provide for them. 

I wonder about what all these tiny, precious, innocent eyes have had to see in their short lives.

I wonder if these children have parents, or anyone to provide for them.

I wonder if they're being fed, nutured, taught, cared for, loved...

All of this pain we're looking at is in other countries.  I send the resources I can and pray, "Lord, if You send me...I Will Go!"

I will Go!

Show me what You want me to do from here, but if You send me, I Will GO!......

As I prayed that prayer many years ago, and continue to daily, this is what He has shown me...

This is where He's planted me for right now....America.

A Missionary doesn't become a  missionary because God sends them over seas...a Missionary is someone who accepts the call and is Planted. Anywhere, and freely gives to those who are equipped and sent to go over seas!

This is where I'm planted.

This is America.  Do you see them?

The girl who's lost both her parents to abuse and drugs.  The child who should know unconditional love but instead is on her own at 4 years old..?

The child who doesn't have support, or love at home.  Isn't sure if she'll even get to eat tonight..?

The child down your street who listens to her parents fighting every night, and watches as her father beats her mother, and tries to get away before he turns on her?

The teenager struggling with depression. Without any friends. Without parents to care about where she is or who she is with.  She is questioning life, questioning her existence, questioning her value and worth....

Do you see them?

This is America.

We so often get sidetracked by these heart breaking images, that we miss the pictures all around us. Worst of all we miss the Big Picture.


All of it.... It's SIN! All of it. Our entire world:  China, Africa, Japan, Indonesia, America... is filled with brokenness, Hopelessness and Sin!

All of the people in the images are in Desperate need of a Savior...

 

These happy girls in the hall of your school

 These teens sitting on the sidewalk in your neighborhood park.

Will we Go there...?

That child whose eyes are filled with preciousness and is filthy from head to toe. :)

She needs a Savior.

Whether it's a precious stranger you meet at the park...

The Next Door Neighbor you've never met...

The receptionist or traveler you run into....

The Employees you run into at the grocery store...

Your child's teacher...

Or Just an insanely busy mom...

We're All the Same!  We're All Sinners in desperate need of a Savior...

Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.- John 15:13 (NIV)

You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die.  But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

 Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! - Romans 5:6-9 (NIV)

Do you see them? Will you go?  Are we being missionaries where we're planted? Are we going where we've been called?

....

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These Five of Mine Plus Two