I’ll never forget it. I was piled up on my Shelby’s bed a couple of years ago and we had just finished our bed time devo when she looked at me and asked when she could go on a mission trip. I told her I just didn’t know the answer to that… it was in God’s timing and plan. She next, with all the sincerity her then just barely 11 year old eyes could muster said, “But Momma, I know God has called me to go?”
Now here beith the dilemma. This is the child that just loves “to go”. It doesn’t ever matter where… if someone is going somewhere… she wants to go. She is our “can I go” child and our Bekah is our “can I have” child.
So when she looked at me then, those couple of years ago, I had to wonder if she was really called… or if she just wanted to go.
So I did what mother’s do… I pondered these things in my heart.
Now here we are two years later and in July she leaves with my husband and her daddy to serve in Guatemala at an orphanage with MANNA Worldwide.
When this mission opportunity came available my husband and I both new it was time. It was not just time for her to go as a missionary, but it was time for her to learn how to be a missionary.
A missionary is to be dependent upon God (Romans 8:32, Ephesians 3:20).
A missionary has to know how to trust God to raise funds from and through the saints while giving all praise to God (2 Corinthians 9:1-15, Philippians 4:15-19).
A missionary must be willing to work (2 Thessalonians 3:6-10)
Here is Shelby serving last year in local missions as she served with her youth group.
We don’t know if God is preparing our Shelby for a life of overseas missions, or just using this as an opportunity to teach her how important it is to support missionaries, or just to use her to serve others in this day and in this way, for such a time as this… but either which way, as her parents, and as followers of Christ, we knew we could not miss this teaching and training opportunity.
Shelby would write her own letter telling her story and what mission she would be attending and what she was asking. She would be the one who would walk our neighborhood going door to door sharing this mission and asking for support. She would be the one who filled out and stuffed and mailed the letter she had written.
Her main fundraiser has been selling these shoes for the orphans in Guatemala.
She asks $21.00 for the shoes. $7.00 of that goes toward the purchase of the shoes and $14.00 goes toward the cost of her to personally get these shoes to the orphans. Her and her Dad’s goal is 200 pair of shoes. So far they have sold 102 pairs!
They are 98 pair away from their goal. If you are interested in purchasing a pair… let us know. I will get you to Shelby and she will hook you up! 😉
She would also look for every opportunity she could to make her own money to go towards the mission. She would also willingly and cheerfully sacrifice other money spending ventures in order to make sure that she was spending and saving with this mission in mind.
She would also be the one to type out and mail the thank you letters to those who had given.
Several months ago she tearfully asked what she could do to get people to hire her to babysit or tutor younger kids… She knew she was only twelve and she didn’t know how to let others know she was willing.
I shared with her that God had a way of opening up doors in His will, in His way, and in His time.
A couple of nights ago I received a message from someone who needed a sitter for her daughter. All of her regular sitters were not available and she began to pray. As she prayed the Lord directed her to our Shelby and she asked if Shelby would be able to babysit and as payment they would make weekly donations to her trip.
It brought tears to my eyes to once again be reminded of God’s faithfulness to provide and to be able to share that with my Shelby… I love God-proved moments! Thus the name of this ministry, Proven Path.
He always proves His Word… we just have to trust Him.
Shelby is pretty crafty too (she does not get this from me), and her Grandmother discovered some necklaces on Pinterest, so she and Shelby spent the night making them so that Shelby could sell them to raise money to go towards this mission.
She is selling them for $5.00 if you are interested 🙂
Yes, we have helped her. We stick to the rules of Facebook and so she doesn’t have one. She has a Twitter but the privacy settings are on high, so no one can share her tweets. Therefore, her Dad and I have been the social media outreach for her… and well her Dad is going as well, so he is just as invested in this mission.
They leave in July… Her first plane ride and her first out of the country experience won’t be for a vacation or a business trip… but for a mission. May she be used by her God to love others from Him, through Him, for Him, and to Him.
And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
Matthew 28:18-20