connecting-the-dots to a blessing...

Have you ever had the experience of saying, “Yes!” to something our Lord Jesus Christ has placed on your heart, and then having the veil lifted just a little to see how God used your willingness to say, “Yes!” to connect-the-dots to a blessing?

The missionary from Burkina Faso, West Africa, Jay Shafto, had a table display set up at a small mission fair in my hometown. After speaking with him for a few minutes about his family’s need for a teacher for their three young children, I agreed to leave my name and contact information and take their photo prayer card and lift them up in prayer every day. Beginning in November, 1999, I faithfully began to pray for them daily. One day in January, 2000, I received a phone call from Jay’s wife, Kathy Shafto. The minute she identified herself, I shrieked, “I prayed for you and your family this morning!” She thanked me for praying for their family, and she asked if I would be willing to make copies and distribute a flyer that she had created with a job description for the teacher they needed and their contact information. I was more than willing to do such a small thing. I made 50 copies of the flyer and distributed them at my local church and continued to pray for them every day.

A few months later, I received another phone call from Kathy Shafto, in which she excitedly told me that God had used me as “His willing vessel” to connect them with Elsie McCall, a dear 64 year-old single woman who attended my church. Elsie had picked up one of the flyers I had copied and distributed at our church. She generously responded to the call to Burkina Faso, West Africa, as one of the first people to serve with the International Mission Board’s Masters Program which gives people who are 50 years and above the opportunity to work alongside career missionaries for a two-to-three year term.

During her time over eight years on the field, Elsie generously homeschooled the Shafto’s three children, Madelyn, Robby, and James. Through her teaching, Elsie was able to free up Kathy Shafto to minister along with her husband, Jay, through women’s and literacy ministries among the Bissa people of Burkina Faso. The Shaftos refer to Elsie as an answer to prayer, and so do I. “The neat thing is that it was a whole God thing,” Kathy Shafto said. “I felt God was calling me to be involved in full-time ministry. So, the only way I was going to do that was if I had a teacher. Without Elsie, I would not be able to do that."

I am still in awe at how God answered my prayers for a teacher for the Shafto family.

It gives me hope in my prayer life today, even when something seems impossible or very unlikely, I’ll say to myself, Nothing is impossible for our God—remember how He used your prayers and willingness to copy and distribute the flyers, to connect a sweet missionary family to the teacher for whom they were praying. The generosity of these missionaries and memory of the effective power of prayer has strengthened my faith and my belief that trusting God means looking beyond what I can see to what God sees. God already saw Elsie as the answer to the Shafto’s prayer, and He used my prayers and willingness to copy and distribute the flyers as His way to connect-the-dots to get Elsie to Burkina Faso. What an awesome God we serve!

There is no greater gift than God's Son! Watch this music video, and get a glimpse of His work through willing vessels with the International Mission Board on the mission field, while the Sherwood Baptist Church choir sings, Jesus, hope of the world...



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Linking up with 31 days to share one of my very encouraging connect-the-dots experiences...