Go Beyond

   As I write these words, I am seated in a small church building in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. I am here with Kurt Dillinger, President of Life International, and a small team of teachers and documentary filmmakers. Those in attendance have come here from throughout Cambodia to learn about what the Bible has to say about the sanctity of human life and related topics. For the past three days, over two-hundred pastors and church leaders have listened patiently under the hum of ceiling fans. Yesterday they struggled to listen under the noisy and chaotic cadence of raindrops beating against the building’s tin roof. Every chair in the building has been occupied by men and women listening while scribbling notes on pads balanced on their laps.

   I am especially pleased that over half of those in attendance are women. Yesterday, one woman approached me and told me how much she was enjoying our teaching sessions. “I will take this message of life to the people of my village,” she said. Then she smiled and added, “And if God will allow me, I will take this message to everyone in the world because everyone needs to hear it.” She is right. Everyone needs to hear what God has to say about the sanctity of human life. And, if this message is going to reach into every home and village in Cambodia, then it will only happen with the help of women like these. Women will make the difference! As much as I respect the men in the crowd, I believe that the women will do a much better job of taking this particular message to other women and to the children in their homes.

   I return home from Cambodia early on Tuesday morning, September 29. I get to enjoy a few days of rest before heading for the airport again on Saturday, October 3. I am leading a team from Kingsland to Kampala, Uganda to teach, work, and assist The Comforter’s Center – the pregnancy resource center we helped birth in cooperation with Life International. The unusual thing about this particular team is that it is made up entirely of women. A couple of the women are empty nesters, four of them have young kids at home, and two are single. However, each of these women shares a common concern for babies in the womb. For many pre-born babies, the womb is not a safe and nurturing place. Our Kingsland women will speak to women in Uganda about choosing life and about teaching their children to value life. These women will make a difference.

   As I look back over the past four years that I have served as Missions Pastor at Kingsland, I am especially blessed by the numbers of women who have joined God on mission from Katy to the ends of the earth. The very first local missions initiative I led at Kingsland was a team of almost fifty Moms and kids who served the least of these in Houston’s Fourth Ward. Over the past four years, Kingsland Moms have also ventured and served in mega-cities in South Asia, deep in the African bush in Tanzania, in the mountains of northern Morocco, in Mexico’s Copper Canyons, across the steppes of Mongolia, in the shadows of the Himalayas, among refugees in Kurdistan, and other places. God is using the women of Kingsland to make a difference in their own homes. And, He is also using them to make a difference in our world.

   I am thankful to God for the women of Cambodia and for the women of Kingsland. Their determination to advance God’s interests is making a difference in the lives of many people in our world. Thank you for your service, ladies. You are indeed an inspiration.