Furtile Field

So not to harp on the history of my church some more--but I found out today that the guy who was the catalyst in starting the original Sunday School that became my church worked for the American Sunday School Union--which was sort of like a mission agency to reach all parts of America with educational materials and places to study them. They started in Philadelphia, and worked out from there--way back in 1817--starting Sunday schools and printing cirriculum to be taught in them. They were key in the spiritual recovery of our nation after the Civil War.

They had different campaigns to reach the whole country. But the funny thing is about the guy from Willow Grove, who ended up in Havertown--is that he was back at the beginning--back where the thing started, probably ten miles outside of Philly--almost a hundred years later. And they needed him. That stretch of countryside had no Sunday school to speak of.. so they formed one under his direction--and a church was organized 5 years later that still exists today.

So I suppose we should never think that a ministry is done--or an area covered when we're trying to reach the nations. We should follow God's leading, no matter how much we may want an exciting assignment. The people in our general vacinity need God's love just as much as the ones on the other side of the world--and vice versa. God loves everyone, and He leads in so many different ways.

And when we think about our roles in something keep in mind this transcription from the walls of Memorial Church at Stanford University---

The highest service may be prepared for and done in the humblest surroundings. In silence, in waiting, in obscure, unnoticed offices, in years of uneventful, unrecorded duties, the Son of God grew and waxed strong.