My name is Christie Burleson, and I said, “Yes!”In the months leading up to Vacation Bible School, I helped gather leaders, and helped Staci and Daniel do whatever they needed to make VBS a success. Me personally saying yes to helping with Vacation Bible School was not in my comfort zone at all. I felt like God wanted me to step out of my comfort zone, even though I didn’t know what that meant.
What it did for me personally was it exercised my willingness to put myself aside. I’m so thankful that God gave me the courage to say yes because I was able to watch Him work. And it doesn’t have to be about my own strengths and what I’ve done before and what I’ve been successful doing in the past. It’s not about that. It’s about God allowing me to join Him and what He’s going to do. What was going to happen anyway. And He strengthened my faith, which is always my prayer.
…it doesn’t have to be about my own strengths and what I’ve done before and what I’ve been successful doing in the past. It’s not about that. It’s about God allowing me to join Him and what He’s going to do.
I have been praying about some opportunities that maybe I could involve the kids in. When I found out that there was a family mission trip to the Dominican Republic, I started praying if that was the good opportunity He was allowing me to have. I was obviously scared and nervous, and in thinking about those fears, I realized that most of the fears had to do with me. You reap what you sow in your children. And so, I just thought this could be an opportunity for me to grow my own faith, but with my children together, I could plant seeds. And as a parent, it’s hard to escape the fear that your children are not going to grow up and love the Lord. I can’t control the people my children grow up to be. But what I can do is purchase the time and plant as many seeds as possible in their little souls and then hope that God grows those to become people that love Him with their whole heart.
So, when we went to the Dominican Republic, I still was wondering, is this right? When we got there and I watched my children serve, especially my middle child Hope, something sparked in her that was different than I had seen before. And her heart to serve just really came out. And there was a point where we were in the room, and she fell back on the bed and her feet were in the air, and she said, “I just want to live here, and I never want to leave. And I want to keep serving. Can we just stay here?”
And I just…it was like God just showed me, you know, sometimes when you say yes, sometimes those yeses aren’t always all about you. You know, maybe we went there so that she could get that opportunity and experience what it’s like to serve the Lord in a different way. The kids got to see a different culture serving the same God.
I do think that there were some seeds sown there that I think will continue to grow.
What I would say to a parent that feels the Lord is giving them an opportunity to serve Him in a way that they’ve never done before, that possibly feels uncomfortable, is that you have to remember that God will always equip you to do His work. And that even though you may feel afraid because you feel inadequate, the God you’re serving is not inadequate.
