You Never Know

I think one of the things that makes ministry challenging is that we rarely see the impact we have here. We don’t see the gradual growth of the people we work with each week. We don’t realize the commitment to Christ being instilled in the hearts of young people who watch our lives and work. We preach a meeting and move on. We go on a mission trip and return back perhaps to never return again. 

We have spent this week in Belize. Our mom and dad, Jerry and Mamie Jenkins, made a trip here (it was British Honduras then) over a half century ago. Then dad made nearly 100 more trips to the country here, He and the hundreds over those trips knocked probably over ten thousand doors, conducted thousands of home Bible studies. Dad preached nearly 500 meeting sermons here, and have both a TV and nationwide radio program. This week we talked with, among others, a quiet humble servant who teaches Bible classes in the church in Belize City. Dad baptized him on one of those trips years ago. Of the teachers and preacher we met with he probably said the least. As we were leaving we prayed together. He quietly walked over to a small table and picked up two copies each of the papers. They are Gospel tracts he has written for the church there. He said: “My only regret is that I didn’t get to share these with your dad.” 

This quiet servant has made and is making an impact. Dad never knew. And, you will never know, at least this side of eternity what impact that thing you did today made on another. It can be easy to second guess our own impact, but I assure you it’s probably greater than you realize and will go further than you imagine. I don’t know what kind of Monday, or Sunday this is, but I do know you’re doing more than you know. Don’t quit. God knows.