Sacrificate

Fired Up.

Fire is quite amazing. It has the power to change things, all from a very tiny spark. From one spark thousands of acres of forest can be wiped out. Every year thousands of acres of forest in Honduras are destroyed, air traffic is suspended, and the sky is thick with smoke, all due to one small spark.

Get fired up for the Lord! I have heard it many times. “We need to be on fire.” It’s really quite a good illustration. If we are on fire, just like small spark can grow, we can begin as a small spark and affect thousands. We can completely change our surroundings.

Working in the mission field I think a lot of fire. For one reason it closes down the international airport in the capital of Honduras every year. But also because of the sparks that Ally and I have been privileged enough to be able to work with, both American and Honduran.

Like the spreading of sparks and fire the leaf cutter ants of Central America take advantage of team work or their partners to move large amounts of green roughage daily.

Many people have seen the documentaries on the Discovery Channel of these amazing ants that carry enormous pieces of leaves on their backs. They are all over Honduras and they are very productive.

The nest of these ant colonies are well engineered, with thousands of underground chambers extending downwards more than 6 metres in depth. The central nest mound itself may be 30 metres in diameter, and have numerous 0.3 metre diameter feeder mounds extending outwards to a radius of 80 metres.
A leafcutter ant colony with millions of workers produces enormous amounts of waste. In order to prevent the spread of diseases and the rise of pathogenic pests in their gardens, leafcutter ants have developed one of the most advanced waste management systems in nature. Waste products from the gardens and dead members of the colony are segregated away from the main nest by specialized "waste workers". Transporters carry the waste to garbage heaps, where other workers who live exclusively in the heap turn over the growing pile in order to accelerate decomposition..
The whole process by which leaf cutter ants strip trees of their foliage, build their enormous colonies, and work together to achieve a common goal is admirable.
Unfortunately mission work requires funds, money, a resource that does not grow on trees. Fund raising is the most dreaded aspect of mission work for most missionaries. I actually don’t mind it. I really enjoy telling others of what God is doing here, whether they want to send any money or not. I get so excited I wonder if the groups of missions committees or elders or other interested folks think that I am crazy. Give me 30 minutes of your time and I’ll fill it with what God’s doing in Honduras.

But, I can only reach so many. There are some dear friends of the work in Honduras who when they go back to the US they don’t allow the spark that is lit every year when they are down here to go out. They spread that fire, pretty soon they have touched many and have started a fire storm. They give of their time and resources to spread God’s word in a foreign country but they also place tiny sparks in the hearts of many that they come in contact with back in the US.

They are not simply donors, they are partners, they are our collaborative cutter ants.. They are partners with us in an amazing work that is changing lives and saving souls in rural southern Honduras. To all of our partners, who go a bit further than just one week a year in Honduras, God Bless you. Your efforts don’t go unnoticed.