The Power and Potential of Friendship

I came across this blog I wrote a couple years ago.  As I think about our upcoming trip to Brazil the message here speaks to me all the louder.  My friend who started this ministry, passed away since I wrote this.  The impact of his life stirs me all the more as I consider these thoughts again.

There is a friend that sticks closer than a brother...

A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother. Proverbs 18:24 (NIV)

I'm sitting in northern Georgia in the US and am between sessions at a missions event I'm leading worship for. This particular organization helps construct church buildings for existing churches in Brazil. They have done this for over 30 years and have taken thousands of people on their first missions trips (including me!). Over 300 churches built, countless lives impacted by the Love of Jesus and more stories than you can imagine. All of it stemming from one American guy and his Brazilian friend.

These two men became friends on accident. They should have never met. They had nothing in common. One, a country preacher in the US and the other a businessman in the center of the Amazon in Brazil. However, they did become friends. And they found they had two things in common... they both loved Jesus and the both wanted to do something for the Brazilian people.

And so, over 30 years later, I am here at an event where these two friends (now in their 60's) are talking about all that God has done through them and all that they have planned for the years ahead. And it makes me think of my friends.

I shouldn't know my friends in Austria and Bosnia and Brazil and Belgium and Uganda, etc... There was no earthly reason for us to meet. But as I sit here, inspired by the ministry and accomplishments of two friends who just did what they could to build the Kingdom of God I think about my friends and what stories we will tell 30 years from now. I hope to make a difference. I want to impact this world for Jesus. And, I'd love to get to do it with my friends.

So, the next time you share a cup of coffee with a friend, or send an email to a friend across the seas think of what God may use that friendship to accomplish. We are not our own and we are not here for our own purposes. He desires to use us to see His Kingdom come and HIs will to be done on the earth!

Inspired,
Nathan