September 19 – “Missionary Day”

 

 

We had two missionaries speak at our worship time yesterday at Seaside.  Well, actually we were assigned the wives of the missionaries. One has served in China and the other in Wyoming.  The association of Baptist churches we cooperate with around Galveston County arranged for a group of missionaries to be flown in to speak in churches.  The whole service had been crafted around the missions theme, so I was kind of excited about it.  I started it out by reading a poem I found about standing at the door to God's kingdom and helping people find their way in rather than just heading inside and enjoying the benefits.    Then they were supposed to talk about ten minutes each. 

 

The lady from Wyoming went first.  She seemed quite tentative with her presentation.  She used a lot of churchy words and assumed the people would know a lot of what she referred to.  Not really a good idea at Seaside.  Too many diverse backgrounds.  She had a power point presentation that went pretty well except when she just read the slides to us.  The pictures of sites in Wyoming and especially wildlife were particularly well-received.  The problem was she went about 35 minutes. 

 

The lady from China was next.  No slides from her.  She did have a table of artifacts from China that were very interesting.  One was a pair of shoes that used to be worn by a woman with bound feet.  They couldn't have been more than four inches long.  Ouch.  Her presentation was quite engaging.  She was much more animated than the first lady.  She had obviously done this sort of thing many times.  She used some of the churchy words, too, but not as much.  Her effectiveness was in the way she engaged the audience and the way she came across as excited about her topic.  And she went for another 30 minutes or so. 

 

In spite of the length, it was a good day.  We had dinner on the grounds after church, so no one had to go home and cook or wait for an order at a restaurant.  And probably the best part of the day?  It rained.  Hard.  Didn't last long enough to solve our drought problems, but it was a start. 

 

Proverbs 26:11 says, "As a dog returns to its vomit, so a fool repeats his folly."

 

Father, thanks for the missionaries who adjust their entire lifestyle to serving you in unique ways.  They get what it means to be a pastor.  Amen.