We attend a missionary minded church, one that not only sends individuals across the ocean with passports and visas to reach the lost, but also church members who reach our own inner city families with the gospel message. Not only giving financially, many individuals and groups personally go themselves for a few days abroad, to spread God’s Word and love. Each of our children’s programs even get involved doing things like praying, collecting money for special bikes for the handicapped children in India, and packing Operation Christmas Child shoe boxes during Sunday School. Then of course, there are the traditional missionaries who live abroad full time to spread the gospel.

We often get e-mail newsletters from various missionaries and this morning we read one from some staff members for Campus Crusade for Christ. He had made a recent trip to Thessalonika, where Paul had preached and left his mark. This modern missionary’s purpose for the trip was to meet with other staff members in charge of strategic planning to reach the world for Christ…through the internet! This has been an ongoing request for prayer, as this missionary has been working on various aspects of this ministry with the growing technology. Over the years, he has sent links that CCC has developed to minister to on-line seekers during times of national need.

I found the parallels between Thessalonika and an on-line ministry intriguing. Paul wrote 2 letters to this young church. In fact, the young believers were so charged with a passion to spread the gospel message, that as Paul traveled, he got news that they had already heard the message from the Thessalonians. I Thess. 1:6-9 As the CCC staff member noted in his e-mail, while working with team members from the area, the church in Thessalonika today is alive and well! Praise the Lord!

Over the last year, the Lord seemed to impress me to start blogging, for many reasons. Honestly, I did not know if I had anything valuable to contribute, so I thought I’d merely pursue my creative writing outlet while sharing my various interests and homeschool adventures. Nevertheless, underneath it all, would be the source from which all my ideas came, the desire to honor the Lord and somehow to magnify Him. What if someone who needed a word of encouragement from Him stumbled upon a little thing I wrote? God could use that for His own means, for His bigger work. Since I was studying Beth Moore’s book on Daniel, I was immersed in end time prophecies. What if the tribulation came? What would I leave behind? Would any words for unbelievers guide them through dark days ahead, just because they did a mindless search on the internet, and happened to stumble upon my blog?

A few weeks ago, I received this e-mail from Citizen Link, a ministry from Focus on the Family. 

www.citizenlink.org/CLtopstories/A000005912.cfm

It’s a timely article about the call to Christians to be purposeful in their blogging, to be effective communicators of Christ to a lost world. Now I know that most readers of my blog are saved homeschoolers. Therefore, most of my blogs are lighthearted, reflecting a shared journey with my on-line friends in homeschool life. However, could that not be used by the Lord? What if someone stumbles over here and happens to see a little Sonshine in a blog entry, which plants a seed for a ripe harvest later? Does that mean we have to give the Four Spiritual Laws in each entry? I don’t think so. Hmmmm, perhaps I could put that into my sidebar, once I figure that out! ;) This is the beauty of lifestyle evangelism. By the little things we say, or don’t say, what are we communicating? As they see us encouraging each other, they could be drawn in to seek Him who helps us.

Often while I work in my front yard garden, my neighbors walk by and leave me with lovely comments. As much as I enjoy my garden for myself, I am thrilled that others are able to enjoy it too. I tell my husband and kids this is our little garden ministry, blessing the neighborhood. However, it’s interesting how people start to know who we are by our gardens. They also identify us by what we do in the neighborhood.

If we are not gardening in our yard, then we are walking in our neighborhood…enjoying other terrific gardens! When we lived at an Air Force base in North Texas, I took my little ones out for walks almost daily. I’d be astonished at how often I’d meet people around base and they’d identify us "that family who walks in the neighborhood". One of these ladies, whom I had never met before, asked if she and her kids could join us on our walks. On another occasion, a good friend of mine down the street, finally asked if she could join our daily walks with her children. What attracted them to walking with us?

One day while walking out of the neighborhood to a nearby playground, we were approached by a huge rottweiler who leapt at us and greeted us with big licks! Thankfully, we were on his "friends" list! He followed us everywhere…to the playground, played with my kids, then started to follow us home. Everyone thought he was our dog. As we walked by his real home, the owner saw him and claimed him. Who would join our walks next?

A few weeks ago I took a rare walk by myself, since my kids were still busy with their chores. A few streets from us, I saw a lady gardening and enjoyed watching the cat laying down in her driveway, lazily watching her weed. We chatted for a few moments and I asked about her cat. She was surprised to see that cat because it wasn’t hers. Then she asked me about my kids. Apparently she had seen us on previous walks and missed the kids this time.

On all of these walks, I’ve been keeping an eye on the surroundings…the beauty of the yards, the cloud formations in the sky, the safety of my son riding his bike, watching for traffic, while chatting with my dd. We’ve seen ducks nesting with their eggs in tree tops! We’ve watched hawks soar high in the sky and swallows swoop before our paths. One day two little girls asked us if we had seen their turtle that ran away from home! Through it all we greet the neighbors who are out as we pass by. I usually take it for just that, a mere greeting. However, now that I know that some people actually notice us, I ponder deeper questions. How much do they see? What kind of witness are we? What are we saying about who we are when we are out? Are we glorifying God in our walk? A garden witness is easy, abut the test is our witness when we walk.

As I ponder these deep thoughts, I anticipate our walk past one particular house. It is a small yard loaded with more plants than grass. There are roses, yellow daisies, yucca plants, lantana and crepe myrtles, all immaculately kept. The gardener there we often meet, an elderly lady, covered from head to toe to protect herself from the sun. We enjoy telling her how lovely her garden is. I am glad she has a garden ministry, blessing us with her green thumb!