Yesterday New Life received this letter from Missionaries Andy Raatz, missionary to Moldova.
A letter form the Raatz Family,
It was 5:47 am. I really should have been sleeping. A team from Florida had left at 3 am. I had laid back down to sleep at 4:30 am. The week had been extremely full, morning to night.
Then something woke me up.
I thought it was the neighbor chopping wood in his backyard. I stumbled to the window, pressed my face to the glass and attempted to spot his cursed endeavors. As my eyes slowly focused, I found myself face to face with a 2-inch sparrow.
That tiny bird was my perceived lumberjack. He was perched on the windowsill, pecking at his impressive reflection. He was prepared to show the “other sparrow” who was boss, and if it took 1,000,000 pecks, he was going to show him!
Stupid bird.
The five a.m. lumberjack routine continued for four tortuous days, at which I was now making plans to exterminate the infidel. Since the window was on the thrid floor, my assassination plans were a little more complicated, but I figured that my tennis racket duct-taped to a twelve-foot pole would just about do the trick.
As I reached the day of decision, my little friend must have reached the 1,000,000-peck threshold and he departed, never to peck again! My vengeance was not assuaged, but at least I could sleep!
I am amazed at the impact of his tiny almost-imperceptible taps. I wanted to ignore him, pretend he didn’t exist. I tried to shoo him away, banging on the window to make him stop. But his little taps would wake me up, over and over again.
I wonder how many times God has been tapping at my window, trying to wake me up to the world around. How many times have I tried to shoo Him away, just wanted to sleep through it all, to go on living my “nice Christian life?”
I wonder if God was tapping for the eight month journey for our living permits, trying to say, “Andy, you need to learn patience and trust.”
I wonder if God was speaking through lonely kids like Tanya, trying to shake me up and say, “Who is going to reach these kids?”
I wonder if God is tapping me with every bone-jarring pothole, shaking loose my wallet to give, shaking loose my spirit to pray, and shaking loose my limited vision to expand to His expanding vision of a transformed Moldova.
“Lord, help me to not drown out Your still, small voice in order to retain my comfort. Help me to cut loose from my personal agenda, my self-centeredness, and my complacency.
“Keep tapping on my life. And help me to hear.”
Awake in Moldova,
Andy Raatz
PS: The Home of Hope is almost ready to open! We are working feverishly finishing the construction, training workers, and getting the pieces together to give life-changing ministry to victims of trafficking. We are out of money, but not out of vision. We are almost out of time, but not out of eternal perspective. We are at the end of ourselves, but with less of us there is more room for God. Thanks for praying, giving, and supporting. Please continue.
AND…we had a major computer crash, so please let me know if you want to unsubscribe. If we accidently readded your email, forgive us and let us know.
We are updating our website, and it will be a couple more weeks before we finish. You can check out our blogs a http://raatz.blogs.com and at http://raatzmoldova.blogspot.com.
You can send support to: World Missions, 1445 N Booville Ave., Springfield, MO 65803, Acct. 2477537 or click to give online (http://ag.org/top/missionary_directory/world/world.cfm?Display=Yes&churchdetail=AGFM049B) . We have some much going; church construction, Teen Challenge, Elderly Home, Stella’s Home and finished the Home of Hope. Amazingly, God speaks to people’s hearts over and over again, just when we need the support. Thanks for your partnership in building His Church.
This Wednesday New Life Assembly will be hosting missionary Todd Chapman. He will be sharing his vision for university students in Scotland. Todd and his wife Andrea have been youth pastor in Waupaca and most recently helped plant a church in Oshkosh. We are looking forward to hearing from them this Wednesday. Don’t miss it.