As I have posted about sermonsindex.com, I found sermon one to be very rich in biblical and practical truth. I felt very challenged just by how sometimes I view God. We serve HIM! We are His workmanship.

One thing Zac mentions in his sermon as well  is: what is our motivation for what we do? Is it to please Jesus or do we have other motivations driving us? He mentions the quality of what we do as well. It was very encouraging  to me as a missionary. We can't get caught with the numbers and how well we think we are doing. We are called to simple obedience to please God. It refreshing to hear someone remind me of that truth. Jesus lived 33 years on earth. Only 10% of his life was public ministry. (These are my own thoughts now.) What about the other 90%? What did that look like? If you met Jesus when he was 25 what would have you thought? He lived his life doing the Father's will. May you find peace in what Jesus has called you to do today!

So this past weekend I took out money from the ATM which is how we get our money from the mission down here. The money usually comes out in 500 pesos bills. This is the largest bill that is used on a normal basis. If you have them it is difficult to use them at corner stores and small shops. It is worth about $39 US. So I take out the money, and then go into the bank to get change. This particular day, I had all four kids with me. It is always an attraction to see four little blond hair, blue eyed kids in a city that is mostly brown or black hair with brown eyed people. So as always the tellers we making comments like how pretty are your children are. After getting the money changed, we headed out to do some errands as Jessie was in Guadalajara for the day. We got home around 4 or 5 PM that afternoon. I decided to count the money out just see how much, I had spent that day. Much to my surprise, I found that the money was double the amount that I had taken out of the bank. The cashier had given me $6000 pesos extra. To understand just how much money this is, for an average worker here, to make $6000 pesos is about 2 months of work. If you do the math, this is roughly $500 US. So realizing the mistake and knowing the bank was now closed, we tried to go first thing Saturday morning which was not open. We even tried to call their toll free number. They said that we would have to wait until Monday to contact someone. So after Jessie went to her exercise class on Monday morning, we all headed to the bank. When Jessie came home, she had a "sense or feeling" we needed to go right then, which was about 10:30 AM. We went into the bank and asked if there had been a teller that was short on Friday? Immediately the lady we spoke with said yes. She then proceeded to walk down the hallway to a different cubical. It was there the teller was sitting in a meeting currently talking to a supervisor about the situation. She was now on vacation but had to come in do so. We then described the circumstances that we had tried to come on Saturday but were unable to do anything until now. The teller and supervisor were in shock. All the young lady said was thank you. The supervisor we first talk to, had said that she was crying on Friday and that no one really knew what was happening. This young lady had to think about this the whole weekend. She was going to have to pay this money back. Now we handed her back the money she though was lost forever. We came to the bank at the right time. God had planned it.  As we look back on it now, realizing how much that could have effected her life. $6000 pesos is a lot of money for someone to be given and have no one know where it went. But I believe this was moment for God to use for His glory. What a testimony to these people. What would this do to change their view on what a Christian is? We are known in Autlan, because there are only a handful of Americans that live in this city most of which are Tecate missionaries. We can't hide here. I am the only white bald guy in town. So for something like this to happen, I believe will have a lasting impact. Our hope is that God would use this situation to bring these women to Himself. We may never see what may come of this. But as we serve Jesus, we are His representatives or ambassadors as Paul wrote to church of Corinth. May He receive the glory in what we do for Him!

Here is the link to the website I mention yesterday. Check it out.

http://www.sermonindexpodcast.com/