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Pastor Gary Skinner reminds us that as the body of Christ, we carry His heart, hope, and healing touch. Through our actions and the preaching of the Gospel, we can bring hope and healing to those in need, embodying the transformative love of Jesus wherever we go.
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Pastor Gary Skinner reminds us that as the body of Christ, we carry His heart, hope, and healing touch. Through our actions and the preaching of the Gospel, we can bring hope and healing to those in need, embodying the transformative love of Jesus wherever we go.
Listen to The Touch of Jesus' Hand by CCI Fellowship MP3 song. The Touch of Jesus' Hand song from CCI Fellowship is available on Audio.com. The duration of song is 42:06. This high-quality MP3 track has 192 kbps bitrate and was uploaded on 26 Mar 2024. Stream and download The Touch of Jesus' Hand by CCI Fellowship for free on Audio.com – your ultimate destination for MP3 music.
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CCI Fellowship is a church that focuses on reaching God, each other, and the community. They had a missions retreat and are excited to have two speakers, Pastor Gary and Marilyn Skinner, who have been missionaries in Uganda for 41 years. They share their experiences of facing dangerous situations and how Jesus has turned the unfortunate into the fortunate. They talk about starting a church in Uganda, despite the civil war and challenges they faced. They also share a story about praying for a building and how God answered their prayers, even in the midst of difficult circumstances. They encourage the audience to believe that Jesus can transform their lives, cities, and nations, including Honduras. Welcome to CCI Fellowships podcast. Thank you for joining us. At CCI Fellowship, we are reaching God, reaching each other, and reaching our community. We pray that this week's message challenges you in your walk with the Lord, causes you to grow in your faith, and encourages you in your love for the Word of God. Hey, welcome to church. We had a wonderful weekend with our missions retreat and it is a blessing just to continue to flow from that right into church and be here with all of you. And as Adriana said, we have the privilege of having two speakers with us that are phenomenal. They have been missionaries for 41 years in Uganda. However, their hearts really are for the local church. And so I believe that within this mixed group of people who are our short-term teams, people who are missionaries here in the country, and people who are from Honduras, I believe that each one of us is going to receive something from the Lord through this couple tonight. So it is my privilege to introduce, and we will have a short introduction video as well before they come up, Pastor Gary and Marilyn Skinner. Sorry. It just went. And it's right there. Look at that. Just look at the paper that my wife takes the time to put together. Pastors, it's great to have you with us. And just open your hearts and be ready to receive what the Holy Spirit would tell you. Thank you so much. It is such a joy and privilege for us to be with you tonight. I want to thank Pastors John and Adriana for inviting us. But I've got to tell you, I feel like I'm home. Do you want to know why I feel like I'm home? Because my son is married to a Honduran. The most beautiful daughter-in-law anybody could ever wish or hope or long or... Come on Steph, stand up. And my grandsons are trying very hard to teach me Spanish. They're not succeeding very well. But we are so excited tonight because Steph's mom and dad have come all the way from Choluteca just to spend less than 24 hours with us. Thank you so much Don Jose and Ada for coming. Do you love Jesus tonight? I mean, you're not convincing me. Do you love Jesus tonight? You know, one of my favorite verses in all the Bible is found in 1 Peter 1 verse 9 and it says this, What a God we have and how fortunate we are to have Him. I don't know about you, but I would be very unfortunate if it wasn't for Jesus Christ. But I've come all the way from Uganda with good news. I'm not a bad news girl. I'm a good news girl and the good news is this, Jesus is famous for turning the unfortunate into the fortunate. Wow. I don't know what kind of unfortunate circumstance you might have come here tonight with on your mind, on your heart, but I've got good news. Jesus wants to turn that situation around. You see, I'm just a simple Canadian pastor's daughter who's been married to this most wonderful man for 50 years. It's a long time, isn't it? Longer than most of you were born. But it was 41 years ago that God called Gary and I to Uganda. Aren't you glad that God still speaks today? He didn't just speak to Noah and say, hey boy, it's going to rain. There'll be a boat. He didn't just speak to Moses and say, I've got a job for you to do. I want you to lead 2 million people out of slavery. He still speaks today. And 41 years ago, he spoke to Gary. He said, Gary, I want you to move to Kampala, Uganda. I want you to start an English speaking church downtown in the heart of the city. And through that church, I will touch the city and I will touch the nation. Now, I've got to tell you, Uganda was not a country people were running to back then. It was a country everybody was running away from. It was so dangerous. There was a civil war going on. We used to hear gunfire every single night. Sometimes across the city, sometimes across the street and sometimes right in our front yard. And there were many times when Gary and I and our family could have been very unfortunate. But Jesus, but Jesus, don't you love those two words? We'd only been there a few months and Gary was away in Kenya picking up our missions vehicle. And I was all alone with our kids. They were four, six and eight at the time. And in the middle of the night, a gang of 25 men came to our house. They tried to break down a simple wooden door that I could have broke down myself. There were no bars on the doors, no bars on the windows. For three hours, they were pounding on that door. Open. We're going to kill you. We're going to rape you. I could hear them going against the wall and running, trying to push that door down. I'm not going to tell you I wasn't scared. I was terrified. I had only one thing on my mind. I cannot wait for that man of God to get home because when he gets home, I'm going to give him a piece of my mind. I got my children. I hid them underneath the bed. I don't know where I got the strength from, but I can tell you adrenaline is a drug and it works. And for three hours, I was just saying, Oh God, I want to get out of here. I want to get out of here. I want to get out of here. The bullets were whizzing over our roof. But then I heard a voice. And it said, Come on, girl, get up. Get up. I didn't bring you to Uganda to be paralyzed by fear. I brought you here for a purpose. And I had to make what I think is probably one of the most important choices I've ever made in my entire life. Next to following Jesus and marrying this guy. You know, you rarely know the significance of a choice you make. But a choice well-made can make all the difference. And I had to choose, was my fear going to be stronger than my faith? Or was my faith going to be stronger than my fear? And I chose to believe that if Jesus could keep those 25 men out of a simple door that I could have broken down myself, there is nothing in this world that he cannot do. Are you encouraged by that? Because impossible is not his name. All things are possible. We started our church, it will be 40 years ago, this Easter Sunday, in the Imperial Hotel, the Crystal Suite. Doesn't that sound beautiful? You can just imagine it, right? But it wasn't Imperial, it wasn't Crystal, and it wasn't Suite. There were no lightbulbs in the building. There was one single 100 watt bulb hanging down, but there were no lightbulbs to put into it. There were no chairs. We hired a hotel, the best hotel in the country. We had to air freight 400 chairs from London into Uganda. Chained them to the water pipes during the week so people didn't steal them. When we left Canada, Gary said, now Mayor, you know what we're doing, we're on mission, right? Yes, sir. On mission. We're on mission. Therefore, in the suitcases, the clothes are going to be very small, but the sound system is going to be very big for our new church. We get there, there's no electrical sockets to plug the sound system in. So he showed me how to hotwire things together. 75 people showed up for that very first service. The most important person of all showed up. We've been worshipping him tonight. His name is Jesus. And when Jesus walks into the room, everything changes. Never underestimate the power of the presence of Jesus. Because Jesus' presence transforms people. Jesus' presence transforms cities. Jesus' presence transforms nations. And I'm believing, as I've been in Honduras this weekend, that Jesus' presence through you is going to transform the nation of Honduras. I'm believing for that. I'm praying for that. After two years, we had outgrown the Imperial Hotel. Hallelujah. God led us to what was the largest public auditorium in the whole country. An old movie theatre that would seat about 1,800 people. And I'll never forget walking in for the first time through the side doors. The roof leaked so badly that when it rained, you needed an umbrella inside to stay dry. All the theatre seats were ripped and torn. The stage was ruined. And as we walked through those doors, Gary cried out, Oh God, what a waste of a beautiful building. And he had a vision. He didn't see it the way it was. He saw it the way it could be. Isn't that just like Jesus? But He looks at you. He doesn't see you the way you are. He sees you the way you could be. And I'm here to tell you that when Jesus looks at Honduras, He doesn't see it the way it is today. He sees it the way it can be. Do you believe that? So we knew that was the building we were supposed to have. But we had a little problem. Because Civil War was going on. The Army was occupying that building. And when they would catch the rebels, they would bring them to that building. They would torture them and even kill them in that building. There was no way we were going to get that building. So we did the only thing we knew what to do. When you call on Jesus. When you call on Jesus. We prayed. We prayed. You know what? God didn't answer right away. We prayed for one month. Nothing happened. We prayed for six months. Nothing happened. We prayed for one year and the situation in the country actually got worse. One day the American ambassador came to our house and he said, Mr. Skinner, I cannot tell you that you need to leave Uganda. But you need to seriously ask yourself, why are you here? He said, I've sent my wife out. I've sent my kids out. I've sent my staff out. I'm remaining only with Marines to guard me. Mr. Skinner, do you have Marines to guard you? I was standing behind Gary saying, thank you, Jesus. You have sent a prophet to our house today. We didn't have a martyr complex. I didn't want to die. I have three little kids. But I did have a desire in my heart to do the will of God. To please Jesus. So we got down on our knees and we prayed and we said, Oh God, if you want us to leave, we'll leave. But if you want us to stay, we will stay. And I did not like God's answer. He said, don't go. I'm like, really? Are you sure? Don't go. Stay. Go and ask to use that building for two weeks. When you go in, you won't go out. So we went to the army and we asked if we could use the building for two weeks. We told them we'd clean it. We'd paint it. And I think the idea of free paint appealed to them. To make a long story short, we went in. We're holding special meetings. Hundreds of people were coming to find new life and freedom through the presence of Jesus. During the middle of those special meetings, a military coup took place. The government was overthrown. All of the soldiers that had threatened our lives ran for their lives, leaving us in the building and we have never left. God miraculously gave us that building January 1986. Yeah, we can thank him for that. In Gary's vision, he saw the place renovated, full of light, jam-packed full of people with their hands raised, praising and worshiping Jesus. And today, every Sunday, we see with our eyes what we saw by faith. Renovated, full of light, not once, not twice, over 35,000 people gathering every single Sunday to celebrate the awesomeness, the goodness and the greatness of Jesus. And the last 41 years, I have literally witnessed the transformation of tens of thousands of people. But I've also witnessed the transformation of an entire nation, as not Western culture, as Jesus culture. Kingdom culture has literally infiltrated every sphere of influence. And the Uganda that Brad and Rebecca come to today is not the Uganda that I moved to 41 years ago. Why? The presence of Jesus makes all the difference. You know, it was several years later, all we thought we would ever do is pastor that great church, when AIDS hit Africa like a bomb. Uganda was the epicenter of AIDS. Out of 25 million people, 2 million little boys and girls have been robbed of their parents, robbed of their childhood, and robbed of their futures. And God spoke again. He said, Gary, I want you to look after my children. We knew what he meant. Gary said, God, I don't want to look after kids. I want to preach. God said, Gary, I didn't send you to Uganda to do what you want. I sent you to Uganda to do what I want. And he showed us how much he loved those orphaned children, how much he loved those vulnerable widows. So we began to rescue children one at a time. One at a time. You know, that verse came alive to us in Psalm 68. The father of the fatherless is he in his holy dwelling place. He sets the lonely in families. And we really felt God say to us, I don't want you to rescue these children and put them in an institution where they're a number, but I want you to put them in a family where they're a name with a face and a future, and I want you to raise for me the next generation of Ugandan leaders. So we began to build little homes. Today we have over 500 homes that we've built, primary schools, secondary schools, a college, a technical college. We've been able to rescue over 5,000 little boys and girls who maybe would be dead today. But here's the good news. Here's the good news. We have over 1,000 kids in university. In the Watoto alumni today, we have doctors, lawyers, teachers, politicians, businessmen, electricians, farmers, plumbers, mothers, fathers, and God is literally transforming a nation through the least of these. Through the least of these. Because the presence of Jesus has entered into their hearts. Today I think I am probably one of the most blessed women in the entire planet. I have three biological children. I have seven biological grandchildren. But I have over 5,000 children who call me mom. Can you imagine how many grandchildren I'm going to have one day? What a God we have. And how fortunate we are to have him. Thank you so much for having us. And now I'm going to turn the microphone over to the real preacher in the family. A couple years ago, one of the little boys in our church was invited to participate in the Special Olympics. Of course, the Special Olympics are for boys and girls, teenagers, adults who have disability. This little guy had Down syndrome. One of the events that took place there that year was the 100-meter sprint for boys and girls aged 11. Eight little disabled 11-year-olds got down into the starting blocks. Starter's pistol was ready. The massive crowd went silent. And when the pistol went off, little boys and girls burst out of the blocks. Then they ran down that track just as hard as their little legs could carry them. You could see the strain on their faces as they were running, trying to reach that finish line first. And as they were running, one of the boys near the front tripped and he fell and he went down on the rough track. And he cut his knee and he cried in pain. One by one, each of the boys and girls who were running with him, seeing him fall, slowed down and stopped and turned around and they went back to their fallen friend. They got down beside him. One of the little girls wiped the blood from his knee, kissed it and said, There, it's all better now. And then they all got up. They joined their arms. And they all walked across the finish line together. Spontaneously, that massive crowd leapt to his feet and gave them the longest standing ovation of the Special Olympics that year. For 15 minutes, they clapped and they cheered and they howled and they hooted and they whistled as eight little disabled 11-year-olds showed the whole world that winning in life is not crossing the finish line first, but loving and caring for those that have fallen on the way, picking them up and making winners out of them too. Isn't that just the heart of Jesus? Every one of us in the race of life has stumbled and fallen and cut our knee, but Jesus, the great winner, has stopped, turned around, he's got down beside us, kissed us, and he's in the process of making winners out of us too. That's Jesus. That's who he is. When Jesus was here 2,000 years ago, wherever he saw a wounded, bruised, battered, a broken heart, do you know what Jesus did? He stopped. He reached out his hand and he touched them. And with one touch of Jesus' hand, he changed their lives forever. That's Jesus. That's what he did. Wherever he found a hurting heart. Like little old blind Bartimaeus. Do you remember him? Sitting on the side of the road begging for a few scraps just to survive, and then one day in the monotony of his life, he heard the commotion of the crowd as the Christ passed by. Who is it? What's the noise? He asked. Someone said, it's Jesus of Nazareth. They say he's a miracle worker, heals the sick. Some say he's the Messiah. And little old blind Bartimaeus knew this was his hope. So he stood up on his tired old legs and he cried out, Son of David, have mercy on me. Everybody around him said, sit down old man, he doesn't care about you. But they were wrong. The Bible tells us he cried out even louder, Son of David, Son of David, have mercy on me. And I believe that a cry for mercy from a hurting heart is like sweet music to the ear of Jesus. I don't think he can hear that cry and just walk by and ignore it. He didn't bend. He stopped. He isolated the little old man's cry and called him. I can see those around Bartimaeus saying, he's calling you, he's calling you. I can see him stumbling across the road, finding Jesus, and kneeling down at the most wonderful place in the whole universe, at the feet of Jesus. And he looked up with blind eyes that could see nothing. And Jesus still asked him, what can I do for you? That I might see, Lord. And then Jesus did it. He reached out his hand and he touched him. And with one touch from Jesus, his eyes opened up and his life was changed forever, because that's what Jesus does. What about the woman caught in adultery? Remember her? Judged. Rejected. Her life was over except for one thing. Jesus. And Jesus touched her with a touch of love like she'd never been touched before. Changed her life, changed her destiny forever, because that's what Jesus does. What about the little children who came to see Jesus? And the disciples chased them away and Jesus said, no, no, no, bring the children, bring the children. I can see Jesus sitting down on a rock, gathering the children around him, scooping a little girl up on his knee, telling them a Bible story, Daniel in the lion's den, maybe. And then the Bible says he put his hands on them, he touched them, and he blessed them and he sent them home. I like to think he changed their lives forever. Or the little boy whose lunch he took and fed 5,000, he touched and changed their lives forever. What about the little widow from the village of Nain, on the way to the cemetery to bury her only son? Her husband is already in the grave in that cemetery, and now all her hope is gone, and she's crying, and Jesus, when he saw her tears, he went over to the funeral procession, he stopped it, and then he did it again, he reached out and he touched the dead boy, and the dead boy sat up, and he gave him back to his mama and changed their lives forever, because that's what Jesus does. He never stopped. Even on the way to be nailed to the cross on Golgotha, an African man was given his cross so that his hands could be free as he walked down the Via Dolorosa on the way to be crucified, so he could bless the women of Jerusalem. Even on the cross, hanging on the cross, he reached over and he touched the thief that was beside him and changed his eternity. He never stopped where there were hurting people reaching out and touching and changing their lives forever. The greatest way Jesus reached out his hand and touched was not when he reached out like this to touch one, but when he reached out his hand like this, and they nailed those beautiful hands to a rough Roman cross, and even on that cross he touched, because that's what Jesus does. How did Jesus touch a hurting world in his day when he was here? Through his body. How does Jesus still touch a hurting world today? Through his body. We are the body of Christ. Wherever we see a hurting, wounded, bruised, battered heart, we're not just to pass by, but we are to have the heart and the hand and the hope and the healing touch of Jesus, if we will just stop. All I wanted to do was build a great church. Just build a church, I didn't know how great it would be. But as that church grew, you heard Marilyn say, God said, Gary, I want you to look after the children. Now I really argued, I said, I don't want to look after kids, I want to preach. God said, I didn't send you to Uganda to do what you want, I sent you to Uganda to do what I want, I want you to look after my children. Shortly after the war, when things had settled down a little bit, I was invited by a friend to go up to his village, about 50 kilometers north of the city. As I drove, we passed by the vegetable stands that didn't have vegetables on, they had collected the skulls from the half a million people that had been killed in the previous years and they were lined up in a gruesome thing. Then I was taken out to the village, after the service I was taken out by the pastor to see a widow, an old lady of 72 who had 26 grandchildren. She had seven graves behind her house. She had seven children, one grave was her husband, six were other children, and her last child was dying of HIV AIDS. And she cried, she said, who's going to look after my 26 grandchildren? And God broke my heart as I realized that whenever an old lady cries out, Oh God, how can I manage? He hears from heaven. And he reaches out and touches us. Little boys and girls by their hundreds of thousands, millions, lying on some mud hut floor without any hope, crying in the middle of the night, and every time a child cries, our God hears. I could keep you here all night telling you stories of how God has spoken so clearly to me and said it's not just about what you do in the church building on a Sunday that matters, it's what everybody does out in the community every day that matters. How God began to impress upon me that I was not just a pastor at church, but pastor of community. And as I shared at the retreat and I feel so strongly it wasn't just about building a big church, I don't mind building a big church. The more people that come to my church, the more I can inspire and challenge to get out of their pew and go into the streets. And that's what we're doing, we're mobilizing them. Small groups, God led us to start small groups. I thought it was to pastor a big congregation, every cell leader was to be a pastor, but then I began to realize that every cell was to be a point of light in the community because around that cell there are hurting people, children and women, and hurting HIV people, Muslim families that are poor, and what they need is not another sermon or even another service, they need somebody to show up and demonstrate that Jesus cares. When we went to Uganda, God put on my heart very clearly Isaiah chapter 58, talking about the people of Israel who were grumbling and complaining to God because they had fasted and God hadn't heard them and provided what they need. And then God responds to him, is this what you call fasting, only not eating and humbling yourself for a little while? Isn't this the kind of fast that I've chosen to break the yoke of oppression and to set the oppressed free and to feed the hungry and to clothe those that are naked? And I know that it's not popular evangelical theology to begin to talk about doing social work or caring about the social community. We need to be preaching the gospel and getting people saved. And I believe all of that. But let me tell you friends, in the world that we live in right now, as we get more and more unpopular as the church and the secular world crowds down upon us, there will never be a greater sermon that is preached than the sermon of love that is demonstrated by an ordinary Christian that has no theology but he has the power of Jesus' love living on the inside. You can't argue with that. And I'm passionate. I'm passionate about the fact that wherever God gives me the chance to stand up, I am going to raise my voice like a trumpet to shout it aloud, do not be silent. Isaiah chapter 58 verse 1, the fasting chapter, declare to my people their rebellion. We can sit in church and ask for a comfortable pew and we can ask that the building be beautiful and we worry about all the things, the screens and none of those things are wrong, but it's wrong if we just come and enjoy all of this and enjoy our salvation while around us. People are hurting and we are to be the hand of Jesus. Every one of us. It's not a program of the church. It's the life of Christ. I'm not going to apologize for getting worked up. So that's what we have been doing as a church. It's our culture, celebrating Christ, caring for community. Whatever problems the community has are our problems. I'm going to tell you something. Government will never solve them. There isn't a new TV show or a new movie or some economic program that is going to solve the problems of the world. The problems of the world are going to be solved by the power of Christ living through his church, being his body, present and active, touching, hurting people wherever we go, preaching the gospel and when necessary using words. We had a war in northern Uganda. 35,000 children abducted from their homes in the middle of the night turned into child soldiers. It was a war that took almost 10 years and killed hundreds of thousands of people. And little innocent boys and girls were stolen from their home and they were taken to be child soldiers initiated through human sacrifice and eating human parts and unbelievable stuff. We had two of our extended family children taken in the middle of the night. Then we heard that the little girl had come back. We never heard from the little boy again. His bones are somewhere out there. When we heard the little girl had escaped, I said Marilyn go up and see if you can find her and meet her. So she went up and she went to the IDP camp. She saw the HIV AIDS as bad as it was, the food being stolen, the UN food being stolen by the drunks and child headed households and unbelievable circumstances. The head of the IDP camp said we're so tired of you NGOs coming up here and giving us sweets and blankets. We don't need sweets and blankets. We need help. And she felt that we were to bring children back down to Kampala and help them. God spoke to her and said no, you're not to bring kids down here to start a church here. So we did that. But she went to find Irene, the little girl that had been stolen. She went to her home. She found her there with her mother. She said, Irene, please tell me your story. She didn't want to. But eventually she did. She said in the middle of the night they came. They broke the door down. They beat up my mother and my old grandmother. And then they took us, all of the children. And we ran all night as we ran through the night. Some of the little ones got tired. So they said we need a rest. So they took them. They said here you can rest by this tree. And then they beat the little ones to death and said you can rest here forever. Everybody gets tired, run. They ran. One of the little children tried to escape. They saw her trying to escape. They brought them back and made Irene and her brothers and sisters beat their other sibling to death. And then they ran. And they finally got to the camp in the morning. The soldiers took off their shirts. They threw them in a pile. The girls were told to pick up a shirt. They picked up a shirt. Whatever soldier owned that shirt, the girl became another wife, another helper, another sexual partner for that soldier. Irene was just 12 years old when she was given to an older soldier. And for two years she lived in the bush servicing him, cooking his food, carrying his clothes. She had a little baby in the bush. And one day in the middle of a war she was able to escape. But before she did, she tells of how she laid on the bush floor in the middle of the night. And she sang a song that she used to sing when she went to Sunday school. My only hope is you, Jesus, my only hope is you. From early in the morning till late at night, my only hope is you. And she cried. And I believe that when she cried, God in heaven saw the tears and heard her cry. She managed to escape. It took four months to get home. Her baby died. Marilyn showed up. Marilyn said, Irene, I'm so sorry. She cried. She said, all I wanted to do was be a normal girl, go to school and become a nurse. Marilyn said, we're going to make sure you are exactly what you want to be. We were able to help Irene. She didn't go on to be a nurse. She went on to be a social worker. Today she works as a social worker on the border between South Sudan and Uganda, helping refugees who are escaping out of South Sudan because that's what God does. He rescues the vulnerable and he does something wonderful with their lives. I could go on all night. You get the point. Exodus chapter 3. Moses is in the wilderness looking after his father-in-law's sheep. He sees a bush on fire but not being consumed. He goes over to see it and God speaks to him out of the bush. Sometimes God will grab your attention so he can speak to you. Take off your shoes. Where you are is holy ground. And then God speaks to Moses and this is what he said. I have seen the misery of my people. I have heard their cry and I have felt their pain, so I've decided to come down and do something about it. And I want you to know when there is pain, God steals it. When there is a cry, God hears it. When there is anguish, he senses it himself and he always responds. He responds by coming down. He did it through Jesus to a world that was crying out in its sin. That's God. And you can hear Moses say to God, Well, God, I'm glad you finally showed up to do something about the problem. What does God say? So I'm sending you. When God has a problem, he looks for a man or a woman. And what does Moses do? He does what we all do. He began to make excuses. Go read it. That's his chapter three and four. It will blow your mind what Moses has to say to God. God's ticked off. Really ticked off. But he says, But God, who am I? The problem is so big. I'm so small. Who am I? And God says, Moses, Moses, Moses. It doesn't matter who you are. It matters who I am. Moses, I am enough. You and I, we can do this. And if God has called you to be a missionary or God called you to do whatever he's called you to do in this country, I want you to know you and God are enough. What does Moses do? More excuses. But what if they don't listen to me? Moses, what's in your hand? It was just a dead stick. The shepherd's staff. It was the symbol of his livelihood. Moses, throw it on the ground. Moses threw it on the ground and it turned into a snake. He said, pick it up by the tail. He picked it up by the tail. And Moses' simple shepherd's staff was turned into a mighty rod of authority that brought water out of the rock and parted the Red Sea. Because God takes whatever is in our hand. When we dedicate it to him, he enters into it. And that simple, ordinary, little, insignificant, nothing that you think God is, nothing can never be used. God can use that. So, we have no excuse. Because we have a big, big God. And though the problem may be big, you and I, with God's help, can be the hand of Jesus to touch a hurting world. Thank you for listening to this week's podcast. If you are ever in the Tegucigalpa area and looking for an English-speaking congregation, please join us on Sunday afternoon at 4 p.m. in the main auditorium of Iglesia CCI in Colonia Trapiche, just off Boulevard Suyapa, near UNAH. If you would like prayer or more information about our church, contact us at fellowship.cci at gmail.com. That's fellowship.cci at gmail.com. Or follow us on social media. We hope to see you or hear from you soon. Blessings.
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