Begin to Weave

There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. —1 Corinthians 12:5 (niv)

The Sunday morning after the mission team returned from Honduras, I was feeling down. Will I ever be able to make as big a difference in someone’s life as I did in Honduras two years ago? I wondered. There, I’d taught Bible school to hundreds of children.

I listened wistfully as a Sunday school class member chatted about the huge effect they’d had on a family’s life when the team put a metal stovepipe in a clay oven inside their adobe home, so the three young children wouldn’t constantly suffer from respiratory problems.

Then someone tapped me on the shoulder. It was Dave, the mission team leader. “I have something for you,” he said. He handed me a small pale-blue envelope with my name on it. It was a little battered and smudged with dirt. “I’m delivering this to you late. Last time you went to Honduras with us, someone from our class gave me a note to give to you. It got misplaced in my suitcase, and it’s traveled all over the country with me since then. I just found it this week.”

I opened the envelope and pulled out a note card that read, “Karen, begin to weave and God will give you thread (a German proverb). What an opportunity for you to put His word into action. You have made a difference already through your prayer study. You are a remarkable woman, and I am very proud of you. I continue to pray for you. Love and blessings, Claudia.”

I smiled. Even though the letter was two years old, it had been delivered right on time.