Geography Matters

When you read this, my plane will be landing back in the United States having been in the country of Moldova for a week.  In partnering with John Maxwell’s EQUIP, I was honored to teach Christian leadership principles to pastors who will have journeyed long distances to hear an American pastor.  Two weeks ago, in working with New Hope Moldova, your response in supporting orphanages and financially adopting children in this part of the world was so appreciated.  You kept kids off the streets from being kidnapped into sex trafficking.  You became Difference Makers.

Presently, our Compassion Pastor, Keith Norman, is leading our church to adopt a neighborhood of families who may have financial challenges this coming Christmas. Our Local Compassion Team is providing an opportunity for the needs of each family to be adopted.  The management of the community has not only invited us into their neighborhood, but is joining us in our efforts with assistance that is overwhelming - another chance for us to be Difference Makers.

Our preschool and elementary kids are participating in Operation Christmas Child where families can package shoeboxes with essential items for underprivileged kids around the world.  A family in our church, who adopted their daughter from Latvia, shared her story two weeks ago at BridgePointe, sharing when she received a shoebox gift for this same organization… because someone was a Difference Maker. It is our turn now.

Geography matters to God.  It is a strange thought, I know.  But the maps in the back of our Bibles (that tend to stick together because we never use them) are intended to be a visual lesson of this very principle.  The maps show specific and strategic places where God’s people were being sent.  This was a simple reminder that God does not do “random” or “accidental”.  There is a sovereign and divine plan behind “sent Christians” that is the story behind the story.  There is a person on the receiving end of our compassion and message that is unknown to us, but known to God.

In Acts 16:6-10, Paul was prevented from speaking the message in Asia as a divine closed door they understood to be from God.  Instead, Paul was given a dream of a man in Macedonia pleading for help and proceeded there by faith.  What Paul did not know is that God was already at work ahead of time.  He was at work in the heart of a wealthy businesswoman, named Lydia, wondering if there was a greater purpose in life than just success.  God was preparing a demonized girl to experience freedom from bondage from the evil things in this world.  He was working in the life of a middle-class jailer who would later discover life in Jesus and be the spiritual anchor for his family that he always wanted to be.

Geography matters to God. The person God is preparing beforehand is the story behind the story that compels us to be Difference Makers at BridgePointe.