Incredibly encouraged

I just wanted to share with you some things a general superintendent from the Church of the Nazarene shared with us today in church.

He was talking about his visits to foreign countries. He was speaking of outbreaks of faith in Ethiopia, and how he had feuding tribes hearing him preach under the same roof with great rejoicing in the Lord. He spoke about how people were rising to leadership quickly and how everyone there was memorizing the whole bible since few are literate. He spoke about God's movement in Bangledesh, where about 20 or so years ago there were 10 Nazarene churches and about 400 Nazarene believers, and now there are over 1000 Nazarene churches and 65,000 members, along with 900 non-officially organized bodies with a preacher and common meeting time each week. He spoke about how Cuba's 2nd in command, the lady under Raul Castro (though I cannot find out who she is), asked a Nazarene leader to send more Nazarenes to Cuba because they were making Cuba a better place, though she didn't understand how they did it. He also spoke about 100,000 missionaries from an unnamed, non-Christian country rising up to head through many countries, preaching the gospel, to eventually arrive at and preach in Jerusalem.

It was incredible to hear how God is working in other places around the world. He then posed the question, "Why is it happening there and not here?" The jist of his answer was, I think, was at least part of the correct answer: we live too safely here in America.

This fired me up to continue working towards planting a church in Philly. I've lived too safe in the Lord, and I'm looking forward to serving the Lord there and ministering to the community. And I know that if anything is going to happen, it's not going to be because of me, but because Jesus changes hearts. I pray that we would effectively lift up the name of Jesus.