Short Stories

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A Time Of Testing,Is It Just Lip Service?

There was this Missionary, an inexperienced one at that. This young man was fascinated with the missionary testimonies he had heard through his local church. Over several months he prayed and sought God about wanting to do missionary work. He earnestly prayed, " God I want to go places in this world that I have never been before and witness to people who are in need of you." There was something missing in his prayers, in the back of his mind he had envisioned himself in a place like the coast of Africa, not knowing any real details about Africa, somehow he had invented this fantasy. There would be white sandy beaches, and friendly people to greet him once he would arrive. The idea of standing on some street corner and passing out Bibles was what he had in mind. It would be a a fun trip not much work to it at all. Over the next several weeks, not once did this young man look up information about Africa, all he had was the fantasy in his mind.
The day before the trip to Africa, the young missionary want to be was confronted by his pastor." Are you sure you are ready for this son?" " Yes," the young man replied with great excitment. "I have it all mapped out as how I will carry out this mission trip down to every detail."
The airplane finally set down in a small airport, somewhere in Africa, as the young man and his guide stepped down out of the airplane, the young man noticed there was no welcome team there to welcome them. Immediately he was disappointed and began to grumble. "Hey, God where is the welcome team that was supposed to greet us?" God replied, " I never said there would be a welcome team." The young man thought to himself, "well maybe it will get better along the way." That evening the missionary want to be and his guide finally made it to a small village in the deep jungle. The missionary said to his guide, "why have you taking me here?" " This is not what I had in mind. I want a hotel to stay in. I can't stay out here with no water and shelter. What about room service?" The guide said with sympathy," this is where you have been assigned to by your superiors." The missionary began to grumble and complain all the more." God, you left this part out. What happened to room service?" God replied, "I never promised you room service." With a deep breath, the missionary said, " I hope it will be better by tomorrow or else I'm leaving."
That night the situation became worse, the missionary had to sleep in a tent,
and still had no room service." Oh! well, I will make the best of it and pray that this is all one big joke" the young man said.
During the night, some of the local tribe members came to the tent where the missionary was sleeping, they grabbed him up and blindfolded him and carried him away. He was scared to death and thought that this was the end for him.
He was placed in some kind of holding area. It was so smelly that he could hardly breathe. The leader of the tribe took the blindfold off and the missionary,
found himself stuck in wooden cage. To make matters worse, there was several pigs in it too. "How could this be? Stuck out here in the middle of nowhere?" "These people are going to eat me alive," the missionary thought.
The missionary began to cry out to God, "God why did you bring me to a place like this?" "God, where are the pretty white beaches and friendly people?" "God,where are the hotels and room service?" " God, you never told me that it would be like this." God replied, "You said you wanted to go places that you have never been and witness to people who are in need of Me, You said you wanted to be a missionary to reach the lost." " You didn't ask for a vacation, and I never promised you a rose garden." " All I promise you is to be with you along the way." " You say with your lips you want to serve me, but your heart is far from me."
What can we learn from this story? God will test us to see the true intentions of our heart.

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