Gifting

Last night our team gathered for a final devotional time together. It ended with a celebration of sorts. Not a balloons and cake party, but a celebration of gifts put to use this past week.

At the start of the week, each of us had been given the name of a secret "prayer target," a fellow team member to pray for. As the week went on, we could find out more about our prayer target's unique strengths. We could pray about special concerns he or she might have during the week's various tasks, or offer prayers of thanks for his or her talents.

Last night was revelation time. We celebrated what each of us had brought to this mission. Gifts abounded. Not tangible presents wrapped in boxes, but acknowledgement of personality traits, experiences, skills, and character all wrapped together in this one team for this short time.

In one of His parables, Jesus spoke of middle managers (well, stewards is the usual translation) who were given gifts of talents (an appropriate translation indeed!) to be used to advance the purposes of the CEO (aka, King). The point of the story? Use what we've been given for God's agenda.

So we celebrated the many gifts God put together on this team in mysterious ways, the gift of Open Door Ministries, and the opportunity we were given this past week to put some talents to use.

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