FROM OUR PRESIDENT

Where’s your focus?

As women we have many responsibilities that take up our time, cause distractions, bog us down, and wear us out! BUT we must spend time focusing on Jesus in order to get our priorities straight.


When Jesus visited Martha and Mary, Martha was distracted with many “things” to do.


Luke 10:40-42 tells us: “But Martha was distracted with all her preparations; and she came up to Him and said, ‘Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to do all the serving alone? Then tell her to help me.’ But the Lord answered and said to her, ‘Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about so many things; but only one thing is necessary, for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her.’"


Have you ever been in a situation where it seems like you were doing everything and everyone else was just sitting around? What was your attitude about that? I have been there and I know my attitude has been anything but “Christ-like” toward those people! “What do they think they are doing? Don’t they know I have better things to do with my time than to do this all by myself? Who do they think they are - too good to help – too good for me – too good to stoop down and do something to help out!”


Martha was really “stewing” about this! Jesus cut her short, however, when he said, “Only one thing is necessary, for Mary has chosen the good part which shall not be taken away from her.” Can you imagine?!? How could Jesus possibly talk to her that way? She was cooking and cleaning and working hard all day long – but He told her she was not choosing the good part. But Mary did and she was doing nothing but sitting and talking to Jesus!


Ladies, we need to choose that good part every day! Have you been there? Have you started right in on your day without giving a thought to the One who can get your day off to a good start with a good focus? When I don’t do that, I end up with disorganization, sometimes even getting “stuck” in my tracks! Why? Because I’m out of focus! My eyes are not focused on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. My energy is zapped from the word “go” because I have not spent time with the One who is my source of strength for everything!


Hebrews 12: 1 & 2 – “Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”


How is your “race” going? Are you focused? Are you keeping your eyes on Jesus?

Message from Short-Term Assistant to Uganda

A PLACE IN THIS WORLD

FROM KALIKA PESKE, SHORT-TERM MISSION WORKER, WHO WORKED WITH NATE AND RHODA JORE, OUR AFLC MISSIONARIES IN UGANDA

It’s amazing where God leads. Before the age of 12, my family had lived in 11 different houses in locations spread across four states, three countries, and two continents. Finally we settled for good in northern Minnesota and there I expected to stay for a long time. But, upon graduating from college I somehow found myself applying to—and then attending—a small Christian college in Nebraska. After four years of undergrad work and two years as a teacher (in an Iowa farm-town), God led me to my farthest location yet: Uganda, Africa.

From November 2008 to May 2009 I served with the Nate and Rhoda Jore family—helping with childcare and schooling for their three children, as well as volunteering in a local orphanage, helping organize and set up a community library, and tutoring a Ugandan woman in the basics of using a computer. Because I had long been interested in overseas mission work, I was excited for the opportunity that this short-term experience would give me to test the waters of life in another country.

In Jinja, Uganda, I had opportunities to meet and mingle with all sorts of missionaries—and learn first-hand about the ups and downs of overseas work. I adjusted to the ubiquitous stares of people on the street as I, the muzungu (white person), passed by. I tasted new foods like matooke and rolex—both of which I discovered were extremely tasty! I got used to shopping for produce in the open-air market, sleeping under mosquito nets, and taking it in stride when the power went out. I killed rats, mice, and cockroaches in the house, and didn’t bat an eye when cows or goats ambled along next to me on the street. Sure, there were things I missed back in America, but overall life was pleasant and the thought of doing such a form of missionary work long-term would not have been disagreeable.

But, it’s amazing where God leads. From my first month in Jinja, I felt clearly that the next place God wanted me to go was back to America, for what I didn’t know. I felt God calling me to be a “missionary” in America. At that time I didn’t exactly know how that would look or what my “mission field” would be. I prayed both the prayer of Jabez, “expand my territory [my sphere of influence]” and the prayer of George Mueller, ‘Lord, where do you want me to be your missionary?” And God answered.


In the fall, I’m enrolling to go back to school full-time for my master’s degree, and a job opened up on campus to be a resident director in the dorms. God is going to use me, it appears, on the mission field of an American college campus—talk about a place that needs God’s light!


In Jesus’ parting words to his disciples, “…and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth,” the only reason he began with Jerusalem, and spoke of concentric circles moving outward (Judea, then Samaria, then the ends of the earth) was because Jerusalem was the place where the believers were! It was—at that time—the epicenter of the church, and that logically meant the work would move outward from there.

But today? Where do you find the believers? In Uganda, Kenya, Morocco, and South Africa. In Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Peru, and Guatemala. In China. Thailand. New Guinea. The Netherlands. Slovakia. Albania. Iraq. The United States. Wherever you have a Christian, you have an epicenter for mission activity!


It took going to Africa for me to realize the need for dedicated, mission-minded people that are willing to stay right here in America. I’m a missionary. God has led me to be a witness among college students in a mid-size Midwestern town. Where has God led you?