Spiritual Reflections
Don't be afraid of change

Pat

Ozment, Jr.

Today we leave for Richmond, Virginia. Some of you are probably ready for us to go because you are tired of hearing about it. When most of you read this Peggy and I will be at the IMB's Learning Center for, orientation, and training as missionaries to Tamale, Ghana. It is difficult to believe that we will actually spend the next three years of our lives in Africa. The staff of the International Mission Board will use our seven weeks at the learning center to prepare us to work, and live, in an environment, and a culture, very different from anything we have ever experienced.

In Ghana we will find, what it is like to be part of a very small racial minority and a very small religious minority. We will be bombarded by sights, sounds, smells, and experiences that will seem strange. At the Learning Center, our mentors will work to whip us into shape, in a kind of "Spiritual Boot Camp."

We know, that when we arrive at the center, we will be asked to relinquish control of our lives so that we can be changed into what God can use, to accomplish His will. I believe that two things will occur over these next two months. Yes, we will be asked to learn many new things, but in order to learn the new things, we will first need to unlearn some old things. Before we can be reprogrammed, we will need to be de-programmed. Much of who we are will not fit where we are going and we will have to "lay aside the things that will encumber us, so we can run the race set before us."

When we leave for Africa we will be different people, and when we return someday, we will be different still. Don't be afraid of change.

Change is necessary as we grow in God's grace. 1 Corinthians 15:51 and following, tells us that one day "we will all be changed in the twinkling of an eye, so that this corruption can put on incorruption."

Who we are now, won't get it in Africa, just as who we are on earth, won't get it in heaven. When God brings change into your life, don't fight it. It's just practice for the final change that is to come.

See you in church.

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