Tuesday, September 4, 2007

One More Wake-Up!

There was a comment on yesterday's blog from Shari, a co-worker from the plant. (Boy, that already seems like such a long time ago.) She asked if I was interested in doing one more outage. For those of you who may not know, outage is a month or two of 75 hour weeks. (Or for one dark period, 3 years of 60 - 75 hour weeks.) I assure you, outage was not one of the highlights of my former occupation. Tomorrow begins an intensive training time at the plant as contract workers are brought in to support the massive amount of work.

For my family, tomorrow marks the end of an intensive time of training and the beginning of critical path work. It is our turn to be among the workers contracted to support the job.

He told them, "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.
Luke 10:2

For the entirety of my career at the plant, I was confident that God had placed me in the harvest field of the plant. Often I fought against it. Sometimes I accepted it, with much whining and grumbling. But sometimes, I was faithful to the call He puts on our hearts:

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.
Matthew 28:19-20

It is no question as to whether we, as followers of Christ, have His call to make disciples. The only real question before us is where we are to go. Again, the question is not whether we are to go. We are to go. We are to make disciples.

As I said earlier, my willingness often faltered in making disciples in the place He sent me. But He is gracious. He can, and does, work through our weakness. As He enabled me to follow Him, He was able to use me to help others on their journey. Now He has called me and my family to go somewhere other than what has always been home. This is nothing more than the call He has placed on your heart to be a witness of His glory and love where you are.

Even as I plead for your prayers, I pray that His Spirit will guide you. May you be bold to share the love and glory of the Father with those whom have not yet known Him. May His grace enable you to lift up those who have stumbled in their walk with Him. May the sacrifice Jesus made on the cross for our redemption be revealed once again to the inmost place of your spirit.

May the grace of the Lord Jesus be with God's people,
Tom

4 comments:

  1. Beautiful Blog. As you wake today and travel to the airport I pray that you are surrounded in a peace beyond understanding, that there is ease at check- in and a great excitement within all. May the children be content and of great joy to all on the flight. We will be thinking and praying for you... Be prepared to melt in Manila! :)

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  2. I'm praying for safe travel and for a successful journey for each of you. I can't wait to hear of your days and the sharing and learning that takes place. Thanks for taking the time to share part of your lives with us.

    Holly

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  3. ...and all God's children, said "Amen". You said that so well.
    I am very excited for you and can't wait to hear about your journey and all the individuals you meet along the way. My prayers for safe travel, smooth skies and not too many critters on your bus rides. Hugs and prayers, Momma B

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  4. Tom, sorry I missed your calls just before you left on your journey. I think we played phone tag. It was a bit out of control when we were preparing, but I was blessed with a great team to help us qualify the contractors ALL before the outage breaker went open. As I caught up on your blog activity I can only say that God has you where he wants you and great things are happening. Don't for a minute think that you did not have an affect on the people God put in your path at Cook. You did a great job of witnessing here too. Outage is about half done, everything is going pretty good. We decorated up Fritz's cube in the ALARA office for his 50th birthday. He comes in tonight to find it. Wish I knew how to attach a picture. Often times I get asked how Tom is doing, and now I am updated on your activities to let them know, God is at work among some fair skinned americans in a far away place. God bless you and yours and those also that you have the opportunity to minister too. Wish I could have heard that first sermon. Remember us in your prayers as well, we will return the favor. Milt

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