by Greg Mundis

 Give a Year - Pray About a Lifetime

Dear Friends:

Ecclesiastes 3:2 says, "a time to be born and a time to die ... "

December 30, 2008, through January 1, 2009, saw the birth of a passion to serve the Lord in ministry for a year and to pray about a lifetime for 838 university students attending the Assemblies of God World Missions Summit in Cincinnati, Ohio. Three-thousand students descended on this city on the Ohio River with a goal to touch God and hear from Him about their place in the harvest fields of the world. It was very moving to see students from university campuses across America coming forward to an altar and signing a card indicating their desire to give a year to the Lord and pray about a lifetime. In a time of economic uncertainty, it was refreshing to see the Lord birth or fan the flame of passion in these young people to serve Him. Birth is such a joyous occasion, and I rejoice to be able to share this good news with you.

However, on the flip side, January 4, 2009, saw the death, or better said, the home-going of Maralyn Mathias. Maralyn and her husband, Jim, served the Lord as missionaries in Belgium at Continental Theological Seminary and also in Iso Kirja, Finland, at the Bible school in the far north of Finland. Maralyn was 59 years old when she died. It was time. She suffered from ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease) for 18 months. During those months she lived the Scripture, "Teach us to number our days." She lived—she didn't wait for death. She lived—she didn't succumb to self-pity or blame. She lived—she demonstrated to us that death is not an end but a beginning of life in a new dimension. We can rejoice because Maralyn showed us the joy in trusting in Jesus when the clock is ticking. We will miss her. Her insights in her blog-- http://maralynsupdates.blogspot.com/ are worth reading and implementing in our lives.

A time to be born and a time to die—you are in the in-between time with me. What we decide now determines our eternal destination. It determines how we will live and how we will die. As for me, I am going to follow Maralyn's example and live for Christ and die for Christ. How about you?

Sincerely,

Greg Mundis

AGWM Europe Regional Director

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