**This is part 1 of Dave's letter that he wrote in June in celebration of his 40 years in ministry. I thought I would share it with you our Blog Readers.
This month marks the celebration of 40 years of serving with Power to Change
(Campus Crusade for Christ)!
I remember it well, the struggle regarding the call to
ministry. I was challenged by one of the
leaders of the Campus ministry at the University of Minnesota to consider
joining the staff of Campus Crusade for Christ.
I loved sharing my faith with fellow university students and felt the
Lord’s call to ministry but did not like the thought of raising my own support.
I remember saying to the Lord, “If only they just paid me, and it could even be
just a little bit!” So in June of 1973 I went off for 6 weeks of training with
Campus Crusade for Christ and then joined their staff, along with 600 other new
staff members.
I was willing to forgo my career but the Lord asked more of me. I was to go to the University of Alberta in
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada! I had no idea where that was! I was
being asked to leave career, mother, father, sister, friends and country for
the sake of the gospel. I had no
clue as to what the country was like, would I need to speak French as well as
English, etc. Looking back now that seems
like a very simple decision but at the time it wasn’t. I made the decision to move forward, saw my
support raised and I reported to the ministry in Edmonton that fall.
In Mark 10:29-30, Jesus said, “I tell you the truth… no
one who has left mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel
will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age (homes,
brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields-and with them persecutions) and
in the age to come eternal life.” How
true that is. What I left behind is but
a shadow of all I have been blessed with since joining Campus Crusade for
Christ.
Let me count but a few of these blessings.
First came you,
our support team: men and women who love the Lord, have committed to pray
for this ministry and have given of your finances to help make this ministry
possible. Believe it or not there are several people who joined this team 40
years ago who are still on our team.
What an adventure we have had! We
have mentioned time and time again how incredibly blessed we are with having so
many people we now call friends that we never knew before we started raising
support.
Second (only
because of timeline but first in terms of ranking!), comes the blessing of meeting
and marrying Doris. Without taking
the faith steps of leaving all that I knew behind I never would have met her. After committing my life to Christ, marrying
her was the best decision of my life. We just celebrated our 38th
Anniversary!(in May)
And of course out of that decision came a family of
three great kids, three great in-law kids and 7 grandchildren (with the 8th
on the way, due next month).
Third is the
amazing blessing of being able to serve others, from the Campus ministry (9
years), the finance department (8 years), the HR department to now serving all the field ministries
through the role of Associate Director of Field Ministries.
Fifth would be the great experience of being able to work with many godly Spirit-filled leaders in the ministry, here in Canada and around the world. Because of this ministry we have had the exceptional ability to rub shoulders with some of the best leaders in the world. What a privilege to learn from these gifted men and woman. Once again something that never would have happened had I not responded to the call of God in my life.
The list could go on and on as far as blessings that the Lord has given to us.
1 comment:
So rewarding to be in the center of God's Will for one's life! Blessings for many more years!
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