Send-off!

7:10 p.m. Today's project was to join a large gathering from our church, Calvary Chapel of Moreno Valley, to bless and send Marc and Bonnie Ortega off to their 50-state cross country missions journey. According to his dad, they expect to be gone for a year. Active in young adult and young married ministries, helping in children's church and wherever needed, good friends to all they meet, they will be sorely missed by all of us. Bonnie is also one of my daughter Heidi's dearest friends.

This will not be Marc's first mission trip. He and his younger brother Robert took a witnessing walk up the coast of California a few years back, depending upon help they received along the way. They ended up in San Jose, working at a church, and were given the above-pictured van by that church. Romans 10:15 begins with this question:

And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written [Nahum 1:15 is quoted here]:
  How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things?

Pastor Mark opened the fellowship (koinonia) meal with prayer, and we all enjoyed a delicious barbecue and side dishes. I had started preparing my bean and corn dish last night, knowing I'd be out at a breakfast this morning. Everything was delicious, and I was able to enjoy many conversations with both young adults and those with more life experience--I think that's a tactful way to describe my peers!

I remember when Steve and I were first married, he talked about going on a missions trip to help people in primitive places with his mechanical skills.We prayed about it, but that wasn't God's call for us. We had mission fields in our home, community, and workplaces. I was able to go on two short-term mission trips to Wales in 2004 and 2005. Later on, ministry opportunities presented themselves right here in Riverside County which God specifically called us to.

Bonnie's girlfriends had a very unique idea for all of us to participate in--to write a letter, unsigned, with a blessing, advice, or scriptures we might have in mind. Most everyone sat down to prayerfully and meticulously write their message.What a joyful experience, and an honor, to know that your letter will be opened at the exact time that the Lord ordains it to be read, precisely for the circumstances at hand, and the specific people Marc and Bonnie will be meeting that day!

One way we can be part of Marc and Bonnie's missions trip is to pray for them, as their magnetic card asks. I think that Paul's request for prayer in Ephesians 6:18-25 is applicable here, that believers need to be

...praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints--and for me, that utterance may be given to me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel.

We await a glorious praise report next year!