A Great Cloud of Witnesses

 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.  Hebrews 12:1

A couple of weeks ago I went on a retreat with all of the Latin America Missionaries from Mexico.  We stayed at a lovely hotel in Cuernavaca, enjoyed the  pools and ate way too much good food.  But what really impacted me about that weekend was the feeling that I truly was surrounded by a "great cloud of witnesses."  Over the course of those few days, I was able to hear testimonies of men and women who had devoted their whole lives to God's work.  

One woman, technically my current host "grandmother," moved from the States to work in Latin America, married a Mexican man and raised her children here.  Now her daughter has welcomed me into her home to live with them.  Her granddaughter is my friend and we have supported one another in life as well as our respective ministries.  I'm sure that this seasoned saint would never have envisioned what her life would look like when she began this journey over 60 years ago.  She simply followed Christ step by step, decision by decision; "a long obedience in the same direction."

I ate breakfast with an elderly couple who had poured their whole lives into the ministry and was awed by their humility as they looked over what they had accomplished and just saw the hand of God guiding them through each step.  Far beyond retirement age, they are simply continuing to pour their lives out in ministry, just as they had since their youth.

I shared a room with a woman whose ministry always seems to take her to dangerous places, usually involving drug conflicts.  She just related matter-of-factly the peril that surrounded her every day.  Towards the end of our time she shared the story of how she spent 3 days enclosed in her house, crying-- "whining" as she put it--praying and in deep fear for her life.  At the end of that time, God gave her a peace and sense of His love and she left her house willing to die for Christ, or to live for Him if He gave her life.  Her story reminds me of the disciples between Christ's death and Pentecost!  They saw very vividly the price of discipleship, but they were also filled with power from God to strengthen them in their call!    

I have determined that I want my life to follow in the footsteps of these missionaries, maybe not in the sense of serving in a foreign country all my life (maybe so!) but rather in the sense of trusting God each day in the direction He calls me, so that I may look back at the end of my life able to say "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith!" (2 Tim. 4:7)