Gainesville is a Gideon

Do you ever feel too small to be used by God?

 

Well, good news.

 

God uses the little guy.

 

The story of Gideon has been really on my heart. A little guy, least of the least, that God used in mighty ways.

 

Sometimes, that's how I feel about Gainesville. Well, more specifically Adventures in Missions.

But "Gainesville is a Gideon" has a nice ring to it.

 

Don't get me wrong, I work for a fantastic, well established missions organization that is a leader in innovation and discipleship for our generation. When I tell people about Adventures and what we do, it sounds super impressive and like we should have a giant staff full of highly experienced professionals. And again, we have some. We're blessed with some of the top leaders in ministry right at our fingertips.

 

But I'll just be real, sometimes it feels like we're playing house.

 

You know when you're a kid, and you and your friends play "house" or "school"? When your little sister decides she's the teacher or you make the dog the dad? It's all fun and games, but very much fake.

The little guy gets big responsibility.

 

And that's how it feels some days. When we drive into work, and there's a caravan of 20-something year old missionaries pulling onto Wellspring Trail in the middle of nowhere, Georgia. It feels fake. It feels like people our age are still supposed to be in our parent's basements, still waiting to finish their education before they can "start real life." But here, you've got a bunch of us. Living off really little money. And doing really big things.

 

Today, I had an interdepartmental meeting about developing permission marketing strategies for cross platform social media integration. Lots of fancy words. But the meeting attendees? Me, representing the Marketing department. My team leader Kyle from the World Race, leading the Alumni department, and another member of his department, also a World Racer. Kyle and I played with kids in Ecuador together. We visited ancient temples, fed kids in Africa. Now, we're having interdepartmental meetings about changing the world.

 

What?

 

That's just one example.

 

Cause even though it feels like it shouldn't work. Even though it feels like one hundred 20-somethings, living on crazy budgets, sharing rooms, and coming straight from overseas are the "least of the least" in the professional realm, we're doing it. Led by an amazing team of an older generation of world changers, we're all doing it.

And we're doing it with excellence. Because God chose to use the little guys.

 

It's not playing house. This is real.

Our generation HAS risen up. We ARE making a difference.

 

Our staff does all the design, film production, photography curation, writing, recruitment,
application reviews, admissions interviews, mobilization, training, logistical set-up,
financial accountability, discipleship, and SO much more.

 

God didn't discount Gideon.

He didn't discount Georgia.

He didn't discount Gainesville.

He didn't discount my generation.
And he doesn't discount you.

 

What area in your life do you feel like a Gideon? Like you couldn't possibly be good enough? Like you couldn't possibly be making THAT much of a difference? I challenge you to go for it. You may end up having a million roommates, or eating too many ramen noodles, or (let's just be real) being way more single than you really want to be. But you can change the world.

God isn't discounting you. I promise.