our mission...

This past weekend I was privileged to be in Indiana to take part in the friday night state-wide IMPACT service.  It was awesome to witness the graduation of 6 interns out of zone 1 of Impact Leadership Development.

I shared the excitement of DYD's Eddie & Carrie Underwood as they expressed how proud they were of these 6 young students & their commitment to follow Christ & make a difference.

On my second and final connection (memphis, tn-springfield, mo) of my flight home...I experienced a real God moment (It seems that if we are open & willing those things just POP up completely out of nowhere...)  anyways...i was a little tired from a weekend of preaching & I was also coming off of a huge sugar rush, thank you very much stormie & jessica for introducing me to “Ale-8” a “rock-your-world” soda created in KY (www.ale8one.com)...so on my second flight departing at 8pm i was ready to catch a few zzz's.

An older gentleman sat down beside me and we immediately began to strike up a conversation.  After finding out that I was a minister & worked quite often with young people, he exclaimed “that's awesome, I actually just finished writing a letter to my son, who is in the middle of his mission.”

This intrigued me so I inquired for some more info.  To make a long story into a short blog...He eventually told me that he & his family belong to the LDS church (mormons). His son (age 19) was one year into a 2 year mission in Ghana, Africa.

I told him that I was very inspired by his son's commitment to serve a 2yr mission, especially at such a young age.  

He responded by telling me that between 80-90% of all mormon men serve a 2yr mission, and the majority do it when they turn 18!  

I was in shock.  I mean what a commitment!  Every year young people (by the thousands) in the LDS church commit 2 years of their life to do NOTHING but MISSION with the goal of spreading their mormon beliefs.  

You see this is a main reason why the mormon church is one of the fastest growing churches in the world... dedicated young people on MISSION.  

You may ask, “Did you debate with him?” “Did you try to convince & show him why Mormonism is a false doctrine?”

My answer is no.  I simply listened to him, answered any questions that he would ask me about my faith, and most of all prayed, “God forgive me & my Christian brothers & sisters for our lack of commitment to true MISSION.”  

Share some thoughts/discussion with us on this topic of MISSION...