Being a missionary on the mission field it is easy to become so involved in the work of God. There are times when we become fully immersed in the tasks that we forget about ourselves. When we serve and care for others we sometimes tend to put our own needs on the back burner. Don’t get me wrong we love what we do and we are willing to do anything to help others. But missionaries need recovery time. It is common for missionaries to become burnt out and tired. It is important for missionaries to take time for a personal, mental, and spiritual breather. When we take time to care for ourselves, we can better care and serve those God puts before us.
A dear friend of ours, Melyssa who is working with 61 Isaiah, put out her newsletter about how her summer had gone. For most missionaries the summer months are the busiest of the year and 61 Isaiah had a full calendar. After the last team had left the staff were blessed to receive a gift from a man whose ministry is to minister to the ministers. Leave it to God to place specific people in your life to help.
Below is what Melyssa had to say in her news letter…
Life recovered… an update after summer 2017
This was originally written for the 61 Isaiah newsletter, but I would like to share it with anyone who will read it on here. God bless y’all.
Since it has been a few months since our last newsletter, there is a lot to update you on. I won’t be able to update you on everything in this short amount of time, so I hope that I can see you in person one day or that we can talk via email or Facebook. Let me just say that God is so good, and yet again He has shown His love to all of us in many ways this summer. Among the crazy and busy, event filled days starting from June to now, it has honestly been an unforgettable summer. God moved in many people’s lives, and for me personally, these last few months have been a time of God getting a hold of me and my heart again (for lack of better words). As I write this right now even, I am realizing how God has brought this summer full circle. Let me share with you a little bit about that.
In June, all of us (even Edith, yay!) got to go to the US and participate in Super Summer. It was my first ever Super Summer, and I really enjoyed it. As you know, Shannon was the main speaker for the session that we attended, and I want to share with all of you that Shannon did an amazing job proclaiming the mystery of the Gospel and sharing with hundreds of students practical ways that they can share the Gospel to the people that they are around every day. It was also at Super Summer that I met and heard of a man named Jimmy Storrie, who’s ministry is called Life Recovered. To put it simply, what Jimmy does is he ministers to ministers. The things he shared about ministers burning out, running on empty, and having deep, tired souls really resonated with me and I felt like someone understood how I was truly feeling inside. I reached out to Jimmy and that’s what started the journey of recovering my soul in Jesus.
Fast forward a few weeks and we hit the ground running in July with hosting 11 mission teams in about 5 weeks. I mean it when I say that it was a wonderful summer. I greatly enjoyed walking with the people from FBC Sanger, Turner Memorial Baptist Church, FBC Zavalla, Taylor’s Valley Baptist Church, FBC Marble Falls, Central Baptist Church, FBC Gordon, The Gathering, FBC West, FBC Teague, Waxahachie Bible Church, Primera Iglesia Bautista Waxahachie, Ranchhouse Cowboy Church of Maypearl, and FBC Red Oak. A friend of mine from college, Gabe Gonzales, also came to walk with us, and that was an awesome time. In some of the villages that we all ministered in, we saw individuals accept Christ as their Savior and other individuals were baptized. In other villages, there were events like a medical brigade, and in others a Marriage Conference to build relationships with the people but ultimately to help them grow in their relationship with God and their spouses. In other villages, the women were focused on and ministered to in a deeper way. In other communities, the need was to pray for specific pastors and leaders to answer the call to share the Gospel in their area. And as always, we focused on the 9:38 prayer, asking God to send Honduran workers into the harvest. Overall, our time with the mission teams was incredible. Each person that came got to utilize their gifts and share the love of Christ with our friends in Honduras, and they encouraged each one of us, as well.
At the beginning of August, I moved into a new apartment, and that was and still is a HUGE blessing from God. Along with moving apartments, I gained two roommates, Ellie and McCayla. They are both awesome women, and it has been a joy getting to know them more and make our little place our home. McCayla just arrived a couple of weeks ago, and she is the newest team member of 61 Isaiah. She is an answered prayer and already fitting right in. She has a huge heart to serve anyone and in any way. I am very thankful for her, and I’m very thankful for the whole team of 61 Isaiah – Shannon, Kristi, Frank, Edith, Cathy, and all the board members stateside.
This brings me to the weekend we just had. After a packed summer, together as a team we got away for a little bit and regrouped. Jimmy Storrie of Life Recovered came and led us through a staff retreat, and his ministry to us was invaluable. Jimmy led us through getting to know each other better by looking at our different personality types, and he also led us through a very important spiritual discipline of resting in God. This retreat definitely helped me get to know my teammates better and appreciate the way that God made them, but it also helped me see that for so long I had been running on empty. Jimmy likes to say, “The journey starts when you take the first step.” I say that God brought this summer full circle because it started with me being deeply tired in my soul, but through the ministry of Life Recovered, I got to hear that there was hope. I really believe that God helped me take that first step in reaching out to Jimmy at Super Summer, but God continued to keep going after me all summer. This season may have started out tired and running on empty, but it ended with being recovered and rested in God, and I am very thankful for how He used Jimmy to help me with that. The purpose of being recovered though is so that I can continue serving the Lord and telling people about Him and how much He loves them.
If you have made it this far in my update, I want to say thank you. Thank you for your prayers. I mean that with all of my heart. Thank you for your love for Honduras. God is a big, loving God, and what a privilege it is to walk with Him and walk with all of you as part of the same big family. God bless you all.
I challenge you to be in prayer for the missionaries out on the mission field. Pray that God will send the harvesters to assist them.
In him,
The Agee Family