Incredibly Rewarding!

“For whoever gives you a cup of water to drink in My name, because you belong to Christ, assuredly I say to you, he will not lose his reward.” Mark 9:41

The joy of giving is most often experienced around the Christmas holiday season, a 2000 year mimicking of the actions of the Magi from the East coming to worship the “King of the Jews.” Though Jesus promises us that even "a cup of water to drink given in His name" will not lose its reward, it's impossible to explain how “rewarding” this whole experience was for us this month.

We have a local Spanish church (Iglesia Berea) that has recently opened up their doors as a location for us to provide our English and Life Skills classes to the community. We thought a perfect way to start would be to feed the very poor from this location, allowing them to build a connection with a Spanish church. Pastor Antonio is a great leader and wonderful pastor. We also incorporated our expat church in the purchase and delivery of the food boxes. The joy of giving and watching several of our expat members do this ministry for the poor was also quite “rewarding.”

One of our members brought a visiting relative that is not a believer to help deliver the food. This visitor was so touched by this event that tears began to flow and they were heard exclaiming, "This is the best Christmas ever!" Imagine if this person was doing this because they "belonged to Christ," as Mark 9:41 explains. We planted seeds of the Gospel and are now watering, praying, and waiting (and tossing in some fertilizer!).

We gave these precious poor families food, prayed for them that Christ would make Himself known to them and that He would provide for their most desperate need - to know Him. We were able to see the countenance of these people change as they saw that we were simply wanting to help them in the name of Jesus, that Name that is above all names. From this simple event they were rewarded, those of us that gave to them were rewarded, and we want YOU to be rewarded as well for having prayed and given to our ministry. We pray for the Lord to pour His rewards upon you all for how you have provided for us this past year. Blessings to you this Christmas!