December 4, 2013

You get a break from my ramblings today as I share bits of the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering challenge our youngest daughter posted last Sunday on Facebook. Jessie never used the 2013 Lottie Moon Christmas Offering theme, but her challenge is all about being "Totally His … heart, hands, voice,” based on Matthew 22:36-39… being “Totally committed to God, first to love Him, then love others. No less than all of our heart, soul and mind… All believers, all of the church, all Southern Baptists — totally His.”  BERT

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Photos this week are of things that brought
us joy this past week, such as God's artwork
on our car window on a cold morning, and...

A LOTTIE MOON SUCCESS STORY
Jessie Yates

…I can’t recall the first time that I heard the name Lottie Moon, or the first time that I realized how it impacted me and my family. Instead, it somehow seems that as a missionary kid, I was programmed with the knowledge of who Lottie Moon was, how the offering came to be, and just how important the offering is to the work of IMB missionaries…

... having our granddaughter
around to help sort and...

In the most cliché way possible, I am a Lottie success story. I was born on the mission field, in the middle of a sprawling, but crowded African city. That was only made possible because Lottie Moon paid for my parents and my family to live in Kenya… It is Lottie Moon that paid for the malaria medication when I was sick and the x-rays when I hurt my wrist. It is Lottie Moon that made possible for me to go to a school where over 40 nations were represented… It is Lottie Moon that then paid for my books in college when my scholarships and grants didn’t

...play with our Christmas
tree ornaments before...

cover that exorbitant fee... It is Lottie Moon that gave me the ability to say that I’ve pet a rhino and a cheetah, ridden a camel, watched a zebra give birth, and kept hedgehogs as pets… It is Lottie Moon that gave me an extended family within my mission; a family that is so wide spread now that on my birthday, I receive well wishes and birthday blessings for a global day, starting in the morning in Australia, and ending at night in Hawaii. It is Lottie Moon that made it imperative that if a boy ever wants to marry me, he has to ask not only my father, but my Luo uncle and his brothers first. It is Lottie Moon that blessed me with a family - by blood and by faith - so strong in the spirit that I have no doubt what Jesus and Paul intended when they called for the Body of Christ to be one. I am a Lottie success story…

...helping her Mommy, Jennifer (left) and
Aunt 'Jesky' decorate the tree. Uncle John
had his first free day from work in weeks
and was told to stay home and rest!

But none of that comes close to comparing with the real Lottie Moon story. Because there is nothing else that I have experienced in this world that is similar to the feeling that you get when a woman’s face completely changes and the invisible weight is lifted off of her shoulders when she accepts Christ. There is nothing like holding an orphaned toddler, who until two weeks ago was testing as HIV positive, but is now healthy because of proper nutrition, medication, and the undying love of his new family.

Babu truly loved having help
decorating our tree this year!

There is nothing like giving a New Testament to an illiterate elderly woman whose children have all died from AIDS, and watching as her granddaughter - one of many that she is having to raise in her old age - opens the silken pages to read John 3:16 to her family. There is nothing like watching the tears of pain change to tears of joy because the young high school girl believes whole heartedly that your prayer for her just reached the ears of God. There’s nothing like sitting under the shade of a Baobab… and listening to a trifecta of local languages praising God for the new church plant. There’s nothing like sharing a warm coke with a young man and realizing he was discipled by a missionary who you fondly remember as a grandfather figure.

Jennifer's husband and Jack did a great
job also decorating the porch of the
mission home provided by Temple Baptist.

There is absolutely nothing like the feeling of a small child, suffering from malaria, ring worm and malnutrition, holding your hand as he falls asleep in your lap because he’s finally comfortable and feels safe. There is nothing like watching a group of fourteen year old Muslim girls ask your best friend to pray for their examinations. And there is nothing like seeing a young girl run around the church like she owns it and realize that she was born in the midst of a bloody and violent post-election period. Because all of that, just in case you were wondering, all those people, they are Lottie Moon. Their hope, their tears, their laughter - all of it is the real Lottie success story.

Don't miss today's SSAPeoples
Nudge to Action - a special LMCO
Nudge that is very special to us!
https://www.facebook.com/LMCO.SSAPeoples

So I challenge you, if you give to Lottie Moon or, if you have no idea what Lottie Moon is and instead individually sponsor missions, remember this: God does not deal in numbers and statistics – he deals in people. The Lottie Moon offering isn’t about money…it is about the people. It is not about the missionary that you remember speaking at your church when you were little, it is about the work that they did and their dedication to the Great Commission. That’s my challenge; to realize that you are touching and impacting the lives of real people; real women, men, and children, who deserve every opportunity that they can to feel hope. (Link shared below for the unedited version of Jessie’s story.)
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A LOTTIE MOON SUCCESS STORY can be read even by non-Facebook members at https://www.facebook.com/notes/bert-yates/a-lottie-moon-success-story/10153550112250223.

View this past week’s special Lottie Moon Christmas Offering/ SSAP Nudges to Action at https://www.facebook.com/LMCO.SSAPeoples.

Lottie Moon Christmas Offering Promotional Resources which offers lots of videos and photos which you can enjoy and use in your church and groups at http://www.imb.org/main/lottie-moon/lmcoresources.asp?PageNavID=120.

Special LMCO info share by the IMB: Will you be doing any of your Christmas shopping online this year? If you shop on Amazon you can donate .5% of your purchase to the LMCO. Just click on the link provided before you start shopping and shop away: http://smile.amazon.com/ch/54-0213930. By doing so you will be directly supporting our family and many others around the world. Thank you so much for your continued support.