MISSIONARIES
| A missionary is a person(s) who is sent on a mission, especially one sent to do religious or charitable work in a territory or foreign country. We believe that all faithful Christians are in real sense missionaries. Those that convey the Good News of God's love and forgiveness to others near and far carry the missionary spirit within them.
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| 08 de enero de 2012 - Estimadas y Estimados…buen dia en El Nombre de Jesus!
Epithany (meaning vision of God) brings with it new hope and a balance in our lives, the Son of God as a human being in Christ. Yesterday my dog Buster and I took our regular morning walk, but this time I had a craving for fresh bread. So, at the top of the hill, we crossed the busy street to the local bakery, only we were not permitted to enter. At least that is what the sign said…”no dogs allowed inside”. That was a very reasonable request which I was willing to obey, but was there fairness in that request? A young boy whose dog had followed him from home entered with the pup close to his heels. I looked up at the bakery worker as if to ask, really? You don’t say anything to him? It didn’t feel fair in my mind for me to stand at the door and wait while he walked up to the counter to be waited on with his pup at his side. After being served at the door Buster and I began the walk home and my thoughts turned to how I reacted, not verbally but in my heart. Isn’t that what Christ has done for us? He came in human form and died and was resurrected so that all who came, no matter our condition or status in life, could leave it all at the counter and be served eternal life in Him! Grace is for us all. There are many in life who will try to lead us in various directions. I have seen a crowd asked to take their cell phones, raise them in the air and pray for more minutes…I have heard a shepherd of God’s people share that the Word was not inspired by God. Our “hope is built on nothing less than Jesus blood and righteousness”. In Thomas Merton’s The Ascent to Truth he states “Faith does not destroy reason, but fulfills it. Nevertheless, there must always remain a delicate balance between the two. Two extremes are to be avoided: credulity and skepticism; superstition and rationalism. If this balance is upset, if man relies too much on his five senses and on his reason when faith should be his teacher, then he enters into illusion. Or when, in defiance of reason, he gives the assent of his faith to a fallible authority, then too he falls into illusion. Reason is in fact the path to faith, and faith takes over when reason can say no more.” Balance. Don’t rush to one extreme or the other. Christ is our authority and the balance in our daily faith walk. |
Becky Harrell A member of the Southwest Texas Annual Conference, Becky Harrell is serving as a missionary in San Jose, Costa Rica, with the Board of Global Ministries of The United Methodist Church as Coordinator of Work/Study Teams and Editor of Informational Bulletins at the Latin America Biblical University (UBL). Becky came to mission service after a circuitous exploration of individual service through the United Methodist Volunteers-In-Mission program, which led her to an opportunity in Iquique, Chile in 2002. Before her assignment to Costa Rica in 2009, Becky served in Chile for 7 1/2 years with the EMANA Project. Prior to mission service Becky worked as a public library director. As a breast cancer survivor Becky is a former Reach-to-Recovery trainer for the American Cancer Society and has served as a Rotarian (now an Honorary Rotarian). A member of Ingleside United Methodist Church, Texas, Becky was commissioned as a GBGM missionary in October 2006. She has one adult son who lives in Texas. Becky especially enjoys reading, music, hosting friends, fishing, and the outdoors.
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