I Just Want to Do Things for Jesus

Our church enjoyed an exciting start to the Trinity Outreach Celebration on Wednesday night, and we're eagerly anticipating the workday Saturday & worship on Sunday. Soon our emphasis on mission will give way to many more opportunities for service. Enjoy this devotion and consider how you will serve in mission during the next year.

Read Isaiah 55: 8-9

Since 1827 the mission of the Mississippi United Methodist Choctaw Mission has been to provide a caring ministry devoted to serving Christ and improving the conditions of life for all persons, especially the "least among us."

Children make up more than half of the over 9,600 people in the Mississippi Choctaw communities. Alcoholism, domestic violence, addictions, a 50% high school dropout rate and teen pregnancy are constant threats to the everyday life of many Choctaw families. For 183 years the people called Methodist have been in ministry with the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians. See Choctaw Methodists to learn more about our larger Methodist family. Trinity on the Hill and the ASU Wesley Foundation will have a team in the Philadelphia MS area April 2-9 if you wish to learn about the need, opportunity, and witness first hand.

Many mission teams volunteer for projects and become instruments of God loving people closer to Christ. Teams have great experiences and lots of folks are helped but sometimes God shares more than we expect.

Willie Mae is a Choctaw Indian living in Mississippi on a modest income. Her family home was considered too dilapidated for repair by tribal housing. Her crisis was no extra money for renting a space for herself and the grandchildren she is rearing.

Willie Mae started praying to God. In a few days she was contacted about a team of out of town mission volunteers working on her home. In a few weeks, a Volunteer in Mission team of energetic teenagers and experienced builders swarmed the house and revived the home. As the repairs progressed, Willie Mae trusted the team with facts of her housing situation and that the team was truly rescuing her family from a dire situation. A later VIM team finished painting the home a bright “John Deere” yellow. Willie Mae chose the color because she wanted a happy home.

"I had no idea that this might happen when I started praying. I was so devastated, but now I just want to do things for Jesus. I tell my kids to do the same. God does the unexpected, Praise God.”

We serve a God who does the unexpected. We don't know all that's going on, but when we allow the Holy Spirit to direct our lives, we become God's holy instrument for expressing unexpected grace and love.

Prayer Request
Pray for the upcoming mission team, for Methodist mission with Choctaw and other Native Americans, and for our needs to be useful to Jesus.

Prayer
Lord, help me yield to the callings of your Holy Spirit, that I might become your means of unexpected grace and love for all your children.