Miracles

God is a God of miracles. I know this to be true. If you have any doubts as to the truth of this statement, read on. Lemme break it down for ya.

So this past week I was transferred from The Hub (Santa Rosa. Center of the Mission. Mission Headquarters located here. You get the idea) to a place up north called Ukiah (Gateway to Marijuana Country. Small town lifestyle. As far north as Spanish Missionaries in our mission get sent. NEVER BEEN THERE BEFORE). I have no knowledge of the area. No knowledge of the people. I arrived with another missionary as my companion, who has also never been there before and is just as listless as I am when it comes to missionary work in the area. All we have heard is that the people are nice, but the work is hard. Finding people is hard. Teaching people and helping them overcome addictions and vices is nigh impossible.

We arrive and we walk into our new apartment. We are fully expecting notes and suggestions, tips and advice, an organized apartment, and some solace in what the previous missionaries have left behind.

WRONG. The place is trashed. There is very little tips, advice, help, what have you, left behind. Nearly none, really. We have ZERO things set up for us to do throughout the rest of the week. Great. Awesome. Spectacular.

Would rather have shards of glass in my eyes.

And then I remember why I'm there. Why I have volunteered to go through this kind of thing. Why I am willing to put up with this kind of stuff and move forward and trust in the Lord to make things right as I trust in Him and exercise my faith.

Because I love my brothers and sisters I have been called to serve (that includes YOU), and they need what I have. They need to know that the message I carry in the name of Jesus Christ is true. They need it more than anything else. This message will change their lives.

So me and my companion go to work. We cleanse the inner vessel first (cleaning the apartment and organizing ourselves) and then we plan our first day. All we have to go off of is a list of names.We really don't know much else. So all we had planned to do was visit people, tell them we were the new missionaries in town, that we were here to serve them and help them grow closer to Jesus Christ, and see what happened. More than anything, we resolved to go forth and trust in the Lord the whole way. Otherwise nothing was gonna happen.

So we did just that. Nothing more. We trusted in God and His power to open doors and paths for us, and then we went out and worked. And you know what?

Miracles flowed from Heaven. Every single door every single day was opened to us. Everyone either invited us inside then and there or they said to come back within one or two days, and the appointments held. No one ditched. No one cancelled. Everyone wanted us to come back. The Spirit of God led and guided us to find people who are readily accepting and receptive to the message. People's lives are being changed on a daily basis. People are coming closer to Christ. They are changing for the better. They have felt the Spirit and the love of God for them. They are happier than ever before in their lives.

And we didn't really do a whole lot. The Lord did it all. I mean, COME ON! We're two twenty-ish young men with no prior knowledge of nothing and no one in the area and we definitely have no direction as to how we should be going about doing our work, and it comes. The Lord opens doors. He changes hearts. He drops people practically into our laps! Nothing else but the power of God and the miracles He blessed us with could have done that.We of ourselves were practically powerless to change the face of the area by ourselves. We're in the middle of Marijuana Madness for Pete's sake! Nobody should be willing to listen to us; even less let us in and then act on the message that we share! But they did. It happened, and it keeps on happening.

Like I said, God is a God of miracles.