Journey of Faith – Shawna Melnyk

Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for He who promised is faithful.  Hebrews 10:23

God’s faithfulness – that was the Gracepoint story of our journey to Mexico.

Our family had the opportunity to go to San Quintin in July of 2012 with my sister’s church.  That week left an impact, and as a family we decided on our return that we would love to go back in 2013.  The group we went down with was not intending to go back the following year, so we had to come up with another plan.  Our home fellowship, Gracepoint Community Church, had just come through an excruciating year of challenges and we were hesitant to approach them, but approach them we did; all we asked was for an opportunity to invite people to join us.  The leadership granted us the opportunity and our journey of faith began.

And was God faithful when we stepped out?  Absolutely!  Were there challenges along the way?  Without a doubt.  We totally trusted God to bring the people He wanted to have on the team – and that ended up being 37 of us.  We had hoped for 10-20, but he had something else in mind.  Financially, we knew that there was no room in the church budget to support the project and that as a team we would have to raise all the funds.  Did that hinder God’s plan?  No way.  Ephesians 3:20 says that He “is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine.”  And once again He proved faithful; the funds came in “pressed down, shaken together and running over” (Luke 6:38).  God is good.

The rest of Ephesians 3:20 states “according to His power that is at work within us.”  Us.  That means we play a part.  God is faithful, but He asks us to be as well.  Galatians 5:22 lists one of the fruit of the spirit as faithfulness.  As a team we needed to be faithful to God’s calling and work to accomplish the task set before us.  And work we did:  bottle drives, penny drives, a Cinco de Mayo church luncheon, coffee bars and 275 hand-sewn sock monkeys.  For those of us who had been to San Quintin before, we shared our story; for those who were heading down for the first time, we shared our dream:  with friends, relatives, neighbours, co-workers, our church family, the kids at VBS, the less fortunate who attend the Sunday night community dinner at Gracepoint, sales clerks…  If there was an opening, we spoke and let God do the rest.  God in us – makes for a great team.

Our week in San Quintin was incredible, but for me personally, it was the journey that built my faith and challenged me to trust in our incredible heavenly Father.  Am I planning to join OLOC in Mexico in 2014?  You know it!  I can’t wait to see who God wants to have join us and how He is going to make things happen in the upcoming year. And I echo the cry in Ephesians 3:21, “to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.”

Shawna Melnyk – Gracepoint Community Church

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