Think missionaries don't matter?

Today I spent my day with people who were won to the gospel and have a chance at salvation because of people who decided to spend time on the mission field.

They are my family and my friends.

I realized today that without someone letterboxing my father-in-law's house all those years ago...my husband might not have had the chance to go to Heaven.

Missionaries matter.

We had planned for a few weeks that Brennan and I would go and visit our dear family friends Wally and Maureen. I have been wanting to learn how to knit and Maureen is an avid knitter and someone that I love to spend time around. They live on the coast in Foxton, which is about a forty minute drive for us.

My mother-in-law Gaye went with us. Her and Maureen have been best friends for ages. They met at the church in Wellington. As we drove to and from Foxton, Gaye recounted the events of their friendship. She said she remembered the joy when Maureen decided to obey the gospel and the fervent prayers that Wally would follow her example. He eventually did and they haven't looked back since. They raised their family in the church and their example is widespread.

As a matter of fact, our preacher is their son.

And he and and his wife are the ones who introduced me to New Zealand all those years ago.

One of their other sons is a missionary here and spends time fulfilling a Good Samaritan Outreach program in America every year.

Missionaries matter.

After teaching me some basic knitting skills and playing with Brennan, we sat down to a lovely lunch. You can always guarantee two things about a meal at Maureen's...it will be healthy...and it will be good.

As we sat there laughing at stories from Wally, I looked around and felt the greatest wave of thankfulness.

Thankfulness to God for allowing me to have people like this in my life.

These people were won by missionary efforts and now are missionaries in their own life by the example they provide.

I was thankful that we can all be missionaries.

That each role we play is vital to the cause of Christ.

It was a good day.

On a side note, we spent the rest of the afternoon playing with his PAFT (Parents As First Teachers) sponsor and she could not believe how much he has grown. Since this time last month, he has learned to crawl on all fours, pull up on the couch and walk along it.

When you see it everyday, you forget how quickly they are changing!