Make a simple purpose in this day.

More than a century ago, in South Africa, a missionary named Show and his family were supposed to teach the gospel. When they arrived in Cape Town they were discouraged. The doors had been closed to them. Finally, Show and his wife decided to take a cart pulled by oxen and go wherever they were taken. They had already traveled more than five hundred kilometers, driven by a strange providence, when they saw a group of Hottentots (small nomadic ethnic group in southwest Africa, namely Botswana and Namibia) that were travelling to Cape Town in search of a missionary. God began mighty work among these African tribes through Show's family.

I wanted to start with this story because one night I was looking at a map of the world that showed all the countries restricted to the gospel. To my surprise, Colombia, where I am from, is one of them. Despite the fact that more than 95% of the population adheres to Christianity, the vast majority of which - between 81% and 90% - are Roman Catholic. Since some parts of my country are under guerilla influence, preaching the gospel is almost impossible.

However, missionaries (like the family mentioned at the begining of this story) are filled with the power of God and the love for their fellow men, so they have ventured to places that not even the law enforcement enforcements dare to go. The only thing they carry in their luggage is the "word of life", the Bible. Honestly, I felt a little bit of regret because I was sitting in a comfortable chair, watching the snow fall through my window, while those men and women are sacrificing everything for the sake of God.  Thinking about it I realized that all us, who accept Christ as Lord and Savior, are missionaries.

Not everyone has the call to travel to remote locations to share the good news. We can be the instruments of Christ with our neighbors, helping the needy, giving a smile to those who one who are sad and a word of encouragement to those who are discouraged.

I encorauge you, my dear friends, to make a purpose to give a smile, a kind word or a good handshake to someone. This would be what would the Lord Jesus would do.

1 Wikipedia: Khoikhoi
2 The voice of the martyrs: http://www.thevoiceofthemartyrs.com/
3 Wikipedia: Colombia



" I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland". Isaiah 43:19