As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, He saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. “Come, Follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men.” At once they left their nets and followed Him.
When He had gone a little farther, He saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John in a boat, preparing their nets. Without delay He called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed Him. Mark 1:14-20

Today I am just going to reminisce about God’s invitation to two farm kids, two little people on this great big world that God created.

He invites each of us to join Him. Is it a short sprint? Maybe for some. For most of us, it’s a daily walk, step by step, day by day, listening to our Father’s voice and morphing and changing our inner beings to reflect His glory.

Dan and I grew up in Rural Minnesota, with hard-working, patriotic, God-fearing parents who taught us that if we did good in school, worked hard, God would bless. That may not be what they intended to teach us, but that is what we got out of it. We met when I (Tina) was in Fifth Grade and Dan was in Eighth Grade. We were in the same Church Class and got to know each other at church.  When we were 18 and 21 we married in that little church.  Did God have a plan for those rural children way back in the 70’s? I believe He did.

We grew up in  a wonderful little community church where we got to experience missionary conferences every year and knew missionaries as real people doing God’s work in another part of our World. As we get ready to go to the Biannual Meeting of Converge and be Commissioned to our denomination, I want to share how God has brought us to this point of our response to His Invitation.

My point for today is: We need to spiritually feed and nurture our children and bring them into the reality of what God is doing in this world and that with His help and guidance they  can do anything THROUGH HIM and FOR HIM.