The A-Team to the Rescue!

A few weeks ago, we got an email that I almost threw into the spam box.  A guy in San Diego "found me" online and wanted to skype with our family about missions.  His email was just a few sentences explaining that a group in their church did this each week, and they wanted to put us on the calendar.

They call themselves the A-Team (Agents Training in Evangelism And Missions). In this guy's words: "Along with the ministry we started a construction called A-Team Contractors. We use our construction company to fund missionaries around the world and send college students on mission trips abroad. We also evangelize daily to the youth in our downtown area...."

I googled him and his church, found out they were internet legit, and we set up a time to video conference...after their Sunday evening service...at 8 PM...in California.

At first that didn't register for me.  California.  Hmm, that's a few hours different from our time zone, right?  Yeah.  We connected with them last night just before 2 AM.  But they didn't seem deterred by our puffy eyes and cotton pajamas.

What a pleasant surprise it was to find out that these folks are doing!  About 10 of them gathered around the screen last night, greeted us, asked for a brief introduction to our family and our work here, then asked how they could pray for us.

We shared a few specific needs (you know the ones), then relished their heartfelt petitions going up to God in English.

After the prayer, they sang a praise and worship tune--again, in English.

Until you've had the bulk of your spiritual interaction take place in another language, you can't know how sweet it is to pray, sing, and share in words you don't have to process, phrases you get the instant you hear them.

We didn't recognize the particular song (we're a bit out of the loop), but enjoyed the acoustic worship coming across our internet.  We soaked up the sweet spirit that didn't know the boundary of distance or time.

These guys made it a point to speak encouragement to us throughout the phone call, to let us know that they appreciate what we're doing, that they will continue to pray for our family.  What a blessing!

I thought about how many times I make excuses for things I could be doing to reach out to people.  I reason that if I can't do it "right," I won't do it, or that there are so many who could do a better job, who know how to preach, who have the gift of whatever.

But these folks just put it out there.  This wasn't some major production put together by a tech team, with sound and lights and perfect harmony.  Simply a group of young adults that wanted to make a difference and just did it!

We were totally impressed and thankful we kept connection long enough to pray for them as well, before hanging up.  We were all very encouraged by their effort to reach out to us, very inspired by the genuineness of their ministry.  God bless the A-Team!

Email ThisBlogThis!Share to XShare to FacebookShare to Pinterest