Well, we finally made it. After 8 hours of travel filled with packed vehicles and a few wrong turns, we are here. The ride was long and tiresome, but well worth it. Not only did I become closer with my fellow Christians, I began to understand a little bit more about myself; more about where I fit into the big picture-my portion of the story that God is writing.
As we traveled up the steep mountains and back down into the deep valleys, I was reminded of a similar trip I took almost 10 years ago with my youth group. We traveled to Bluefield, West Virginia. Another coal mine town similar to Lynch. In fact, it was almost a replica of the same thing I had experienced so long ago.
The roads up the mountains were lined with medium sized houses that had not been kept up in some time. The yards were unkept and many of the houses and buildings looked abandoned. My heart immediately stung with hurt for these people.
I couldn't help but notice how ironic it was that God was bringing me back to a similar place that I had once visited in my story and that I would be ministering to alot of the same demographics of people. It seems, I had become so worried about the starving children in Africa as of late, that I had forgotten about my own countrymen who had not experienced the love that comes from Christ.
Tonight after dinner, Lonnie, the owner of the place that we are staying, spoke to us about his story and how fully relying on God and realizing that nothing he had done or accomplished was his to boast about anyway-that everything came from God. The words he spoke hit home with what my own heart had been telling me. It had been crying out to express the same things- that nothing else matters except fully relying on Christ for your every need and that He wants to pour out His gifts and blessings onto each of us, if we will just trust Him.
David Pike
Community Life Church
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