Virgil and Jeri Holt we-hope to-blog from the holts It’s been interesting for us being on home assignment this year. Because of Jeri’s need for knee surgery, we haven’t been able to travel much. As a result, I’ve been able to observe other people and just what they are living for. I see people who have worked for 30 years or more now talk about their retirement and what they want to do. We’ve seen people who have spent their lives “living the dream,” and are now thinking about retirement and whether they have enough accumulated to continue living at their present level. I confess having felt “cheated” and it’s been tempting to be jealous. But God is so faithful to teach us. His lessons are often not taught in a physical classroom. The difficulty is to reject the lie of Satan, then recognize and appropriate His truth.
A few days ago I heard a message on the radio about the spiritual heritage we leave in the way we invest our lives. Then Jeri read excerpts to me from a daily email by Pastor John Barnett* about the way we invest our lives. He shared about the “tragedy” of how two missionaries died in a car accident. Both of them, still serving the Lord in their eighties, had given their lives “to be spent in unheralded service to the perishing poor for the glory of Jesus Christ-even two decades after most of their American counterparts had retired to throw away their lives on trifles.” Now I’m NOT inferring that living a life apart from being a missionary is a waste, but I AM inferring that living a life apart from His will is a terrible waste. I remember the words to a song saying: “only one life, so soon it will pass. Only what’s done for Christ will last.” When I gave my life to be a missionary, God used the words of Jim Elliot to challenge me. They are a good reminder today. “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.”
We are so thankful that the Lord has given us the privilege of investing our lives to train so many missionaries, both from the US, and Mexico.
This fall there are again over 30 students in our missionary training program in Chihuahua. God has challenged these lives with the possibility of participating in planting churches in areas that have never even heard of Jesus. Please continue to pray that their churches will truly commit to sending them to fulfill that task.
Meanwhile Jeri and I are still waiting for her first knee surgery. The hold-up seems to be the limited schedule of the doctor and limited space in the schedule for surgery. We called recently to try to express our need to get back to Mexico, and they “penciled” her in for a surgery the end of January. Apparently they are remodeling the operating area of the hospital, and have limited availability. The Lord obviously has plans for this time that we still cannot see. We are willing to wait, but please pray that God would open up a slot before then.
* To read pastor Barnett’s article click the following link: http://campaign.constantcontact.com/render?v=001oczvTRwKduu1mkYPFE0RXOOtjxu3IG3FawCCnakBzFJzGw7GBag02dM8HeZFCZQht7QxCMj52oC0qZxTi3Xxl8chPxJ7pYyFRn5MuKqfoin_QXJYX7Jmjg%3D%3D
