When I was 13, at church summer camp, I felt His great love for me and I gave my life to serve Him forever. Over the next couple of years I studied the Word all the time. I would write sermons. Some I gave to the Pastor of our church. Most were in notebooks that would get thrown away without anyone thinking about what was in there.
I wrote these and studied so hard because I had a dream of becoming an evangelist. What would be better than telling people about Jesus? To bring people to Jesus and know they were saved for eternity?
What I really wanted to do was start new churches for the church I was a member of. I had dreams of going to cities we did not have a church in and starting one. Getting people to come to the church, teaching them God’s word, getting the new people to run things, and then I’d be off - off to the next city, to plant another church, and get people trained in the word. To me this seemed like the best job in the world.
I kept this dream until I was about 22. As some may be able to guess, the rest of the story is not unique. I got married and had kids. The church we were in was consolidating, not expanding at that time. Getting a career and supporting my family seemed to be the wisest step. I didn't have a 'give up on my dream' moment. It was lots of little choices and focuses.
Focus on my family (very important); focus on a career to support my family (important), give myself to my church and its goals (important). None of the things I was doing were bad. Besides, the dream was only mine. I had only shared it with my parents and wife. It is comical to me how it just disappeared and I never even really cared. Life with my wife is great, my kids are great, my profession is great.
So what changed? How did I remember a dream that was buried?
After some very hard times and challenges, I had a very deep personal experience with God. I had dug deep, and found myself face to face with Jesus. That is not when I discovered the old dream. This was when I rededicated my life. I was on fire for Jesus again, and wanted to tell people about Him and His amazing gift. We left the church I had grown up in to join one that did more evangelistic outreach.
Still, this was not rediscovering the dreams of my youth. This was just an extension of what I had been doing. I still had my job, wonderful property, great kids. The only thing that changed was now I was in a church that would go out Fridays and talk to the college students about Jesus.
Then we moved.
We had prayed about it and felt it was where God wanted us. To be honest though, it was mostly about my career. With the move, I was able to support my wife and place myself for future career development. There was no thought that God might have bigger plans. We only knew that we would find another church because God would not lead us somewhere where He wasn’t.
Then it happened - we went to a new church. The, we went to Guatemala. Suddenly I had remembered what I had wanted to do in my youth. Buried deeply, I had not even remember it was down there.
Though it is not my original dream, doing mission work is still time that's been redeemed. I am getting the privilege to go Guatemala and share the gospel. I will be helping at a college where the bible is taught and ministers are sent out from there to teach the gospel. I get to throw aside all the concerns of a normal life and focus completely on him.
And that is a dream come true.
- Mark
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