Investing for Life

Last Sunday night, the preacher at GWAC (Glen Waverely Anglican Church - and its an awesome God honouring church) shared with us that he had received an e-mail from someone who had once been a member of Gary's youth group. The person told of the great investment that Gary and Bec had made in her life and spoke of her desire now to help others like they had helped her. The investment we make in the lives of others should never be underestimated.

This caused me to reflect a little on those who have invested in my life. Take Rod. He moved into the house behind us, with his wife, Jeanette. We lived in Howrah in Hobart and although I attended a church with mum and dad, I was far away from any relationship with Jesus. Rod took an interest in me and encouraged me to think more about Jesus. In the process he and Jeanette invited me into their life and home. We cut a gateway into the fence which made it easy to get to their place. When they had their first child, they did something very special and of great life-changing significance for me. They asked me to look after their new baby while they went out to dinner. WOW! Over the two years or so that we lived as neighbours, Rod invested so much in my life. He taught me to memorise Bible texts, encouraged me to pray, became the behind the scenes enabler as I began to share my new found faith with friends. We started a new youth group that met in their home and lots of my friends started attending, and we even got excommunicated from the local Anglican Church because the parish priest did not like the idea of someone else having such an influence with some of the youth from his church, me included. Leave the youth group or leave the Anglican Church was the Priests ultimatum. We left the local Anglican church and the youth group grew and people became followers of Jesus.

A few years later, Rod left his job and went into college to train to be a Pastor. Years later, I did the same thing - not simply because Rod did, but Rod did play a big part in my direction in life. When we left Tassy and moved to Melbourne, my faith in Jesus was strong and my understanding of the significance of mentors in our life was established.

Why not take some time to contact the people who have invested in you and encourage them for encouraging you.