What I Really Want to Do Is …

About 25 years ago, my boss challenged me to write my perfect job description. At the time, I was teaching music and/or performing about 50 hours/week … and my soul was restless. What I really wanted to do was travel, teach Bible, and walk alongside pastors and missionaries in any way I could. My new job description was on his desk by 8:30 the following morning! Silently, he read through it and then gave me a long, quizzical look.

“Um, there’s no music here …?”

“Yeah. I like music — and I’m good at it — but it’s not my dream. It’s not what my heart wants.”

A year or so later, the Lord released me from music teaching and … you guessed it … I began traveling, teaching Bible full time, and learning how to walk alongside ministry leaders! And that’s a great description of this past month. 😊 Here are some highlights:

• An engaging one-day workshop on “God’s Story and Your Story” for about 25 women at Connections Church in Johnstown, Colorado. We had so much fun learning together!
• A young adult church group in south Denver, teaching on the power of and responsibility for becoming good communicators. Before the meeting began, I asked a few of them about their dreams to “make a difference” in the world. Two young women articulately described how they wanted to “fix” the work of the ministry, and both accounts were viable and thoughtful. Then they asked me, “What do you want to fix?” I was delighted to sincerely respond, “My fixing days are over. What I want now, is to do whatever I can to come alongside you and help make God’s dreams for you come true.” They weren’t expecting that!
• A weekend missions training intensive for a church in north Denver that’s sending a team to the Navajo Reservation next month. It was a stretching time of study, vulnerability, and learning. They were champs!
• Several encouraging and informative online conversations with missionaries around the world.
• I hosted a variety of gatherings in my home ~ missional living, hospitality, creating a safe and comfortable space for people to simply be …
• Six days of debriefing ministry leaders in my home. Listening to their stories, their heartaches, their joys and stressors, blessings and losses. Then going to Jesus together so He could mend, heal, reveal, begin, renew. Holy ground …
• A beautiful Easter service in which Jon’s fiancé, Charlotte, led the heavenly worshipful music (tears), followed by coffee at a quaint shop nearby, and a long walk along Boulder Creek. Does it get any better than that???

But wait … there’s more! Before the end of this month, I’ll be heading to Europe! Week one will be in the south of France with dear friends and missionaries, Andy and Jessie Duncan. You may remember them as the ones I visited in Berlin … and now they’ve moved to France. Week two (drum roll, please) — a bucket list holiday in Cornwall, England where a friend and I will walk the coastal paths above the cliffs which drop into the Atlantic Ocean! So. Excited. Would you please pray for safety, for sensitivity to the ministry leaders with whom I’ll be working, and for soul renewal? Many thanks ~

Until next month, when I’ll have some great news to share about a summer ministry opportunity!

Mary Jean :)

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Ways to partner: Give online at getthewordout.cc/give · Venmo: @Mary Jean Powers / Get the Word Out · By check: Get the Word Out, 4210 Vulcan Creek Dr. Unit 208, Loveland, CO 80538.