Have you ever gone on a God Hunt? A God Hunt begins when you teach yourself to look for God’s hand at work in the everyday occurrences of your life. Here’s one of my personal God Hunt Sightings:
My husband has decided that those of us on the Global Bag Project team—a micro-enterprise venture we are sponsoring to empower women living beneath the poverty line to make a living by sewing reusable African-cloth shopping bags—are not closers. We talk too much about what needs to be done without setting up the calendars, the timelines and the deadlines that hold people (us) accountable to finishing the tasks.
So at our last meeting Carla Boelkens, our Stateside Director, was encouraged to write a donor letter encouraging those who have previously bought Global Bag Project products to hold a home party—one of the main ways we tell the story, challenge people to help and earn income for our African coworkers by selling their bags.
Carla asked me and our in-house editor/designer to come up with a flyer reminding customers that a home party is a fun and satisfying way to meet with friends and to empower women overseas who are seeking to feed their families, pay their rent and get enough tuition together to send their children to school.
So I had that draft flyer on Carla’s desk when she came into the office on our Global Bag Project Tuesday. Her idea was to slip it into the African bags we mailed to customers ordering products through our website.
“Wouldn’t this work as the letter for the mailing also?” she asked. I looked at her. A volunteer had run labels and we were ready to imprint blank envelopes with our Global Bag Project return address. I re-read the flyer and realized we had created a two-for-one. Easy. Easy, easy, easy.
Carla marched into David’s office and announced, “Just want you to know. We have the letter for the mailing; the labels are done. We’re planning to stuff the letters on Thursday.” He was really impressed.
Sometimes, there is no point in telling anyone (especially bosses) why easy is easy when it is easy. It just is.
David and I leave for Kenya on April 11th; Carla comes a week later. Easter is next week. There’s all that spring cleanup to do. A gift before you, just left in your lap (or on the desk) is simply that—a gift. God walks with us in this collaboration called living life well. Not everything has to be hard or arduous. He, the Great Collaborator, loves to give us easy moments, easy walks along pleasant paths—not enough to spoil us or make us feel as though life owes us easiness—but just enough to help us understand: He is near, handing us the right tool, the right word, or the right illustration to make things a little simpler.
Here is a flyer. Use it as many ways as you please. The Global Bag Project was really My idea—you’ve done a whole lot of work on it. I’m really the One who got you into all this. Let Me make it a little easier for you.
I spy God!
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Award-winning author Karen Mains has long had an interest in spiritual formation and the obedient Christian walk. She has written about the God Hunt in her book by the same name, The God Hunt: The Delightful Chase and the Wonder of Being Found. A hardback copy can be ordered from Mainstay Ministries for $10.00 plus $4.95 shipping and handling. Contact Karen at info@mainstayministries.org and she will be happy to autograph a copy for you.
Karen continues to write content for her Christian blog, “Thoughts-by-Karen-Mains.” In so doing, she desires to touch the lives of Christian women and men and help them find ways to walk closer with the Lord Jesus Christ. In addition, through silent retreats, spiritual teaching, women’s retreats, Christian vacation opportunities, and other ministry activities, Karen helps each Christian woman and man receive vital spiritual food.
Through her Hungry Souls ministry, Karen serves as a spiritual coach to many Christian women and men, and teaches a mentor-writing class. And, through the Global Bag Project, she is working to develop a network of African women who sew exquisite cloth reusable shopping bags, Africa bags. This micro-finance women opportunity helps provide a much-needed sustainable income for struggling African families. For more information on this critically important project, please click here.
For decades, Karen and her husband, David, have served God through religious communications—radio, television, and print publication. They are the co-authors of the Kingdom Tales Trilogy: Tales of the Kingdom, Tales of the Resistance, and Tales of the Restoration. To find many valuable resources for pastors and congregations at the Mainstay Ministries main website, please click here.
Likewise, pastors will find special resources to help them prepare effective, life-transforming Sunday sermons by visiting David Mains’ website by clicking here.
