We are Part of Something Bigger

For the past 2 days I have been internally paralyzed......  I have had very little drive, very little bounce... very little me.....   Connie Turner, one of those amazing Godly women who we have had the privilege of walking the planet with, has gone home to be with the Lord after a struggle with liver disease. 
Why am I paralyzed?  Because in her passing many things have come to my attention.  Yes, there is my own mortality and the fact that I only have one short life to live before I am off to the eternal.  Yes there is the fact we must do all we can for Jesus Christ while we are still here..... but more so, there is this massive internal loss because I have realized, as much as we think we do things on our own.... We don’t. 
Connie was a patient, inspirational, tireless worker, who would light up a room when she came in.  She was one of those people who carried Young Life Kelowna in the 90’s, through the good and bad, grafting in the mud of Mexico while we were trying to figuring it out how to take teens on mission trips...  Grafting in committee when we were trying to grow the work into more than one club.... Even grafting at our wedding reception to make the event special though we were new to the Turner’s World.... 

When I stopped to reflect on her passing, I was shocked to realize how much of what was accomplished for the Lord in YL at that time would not have happened if it was not for the Turners.... There would not have been the Mexico missions, in turn; there would not have been the YMP and the work we do in Africa.  My stay in Kelowna would most likely have been a lot harder and probably shorter, and I most likely would have not be in the UK now as a missionary.
Connie’s life SHOUTS that we are part of something bigger.  That we are all interconnected through this body we call the kingdom of God.  Today as I begin to move from mourning to celebrating her life, I want those of you who feel that you are not important, to understand that YES YOU ARE.  If you think; ‘I have no value in the kingdom’, understand YES YOU DO.  If you feel you can’t make a difference.... YES YOU WILL.  Because no matter what you choose to do this day... it will make a difference.    It really does. 
I want to encourage you to do whatever you can in whatever ‘ministry’ God has given you, to do it with all your heart, soul, strength and mind..... because together we are the body of Christ, and each one of us is a part of it  1Cor 12:27....  Connie did... and the body is a richer place because of the time we had with her.....
UPDATE CONTINUES WITH NEXT POST
"FINISHING OFF THE CAMP"

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