Welcoming Committee


When I was in ninth grade, I got an electric bass guitar for Christmas and immediately joined a band. My goal was simple: I wanted to be a famous rock star. I wanted to get radio play and I really wanted my face to wind up on the cover of Rolling Stone. I wanted to find myself staring out of newsstands and coffee tables all over the country. I wanted my little face to be all over the place... internationally known. I wanted some kid in some foreign country to know who I was and have my picture pasted up on their wall.

Well, that ship has sailed and that dream never came true... not completely anyway. You see, part of it actually did come true this week and what has happened is so much cooler than anything my fourteen year-old self could have possible hoped for. Yesterday we got a letter in the mail from a boy named Shaukan Happy Musoke. He lives in Uganda and he’s one of our World Vision kids. He wrote us a letter that goes like this:

    Dear Christy and family,

    Much greetings from your Ugandan son Shaukan Happy Musoke; how are you dear, and well done. How is Lee your husband? How about Anna and Norah? I love them so much. I have hanged your photo in our dining room for everyone to see you. A lot of greetings to you from my sister. She is now 16 years. I am now back to school after a long holiday of two months. I wish you well in all.

    From Shaukan Happy Musoke

Wow! Our picture is hanging up on a boy’s dining room wall in Uganda! Our hearts are in Uganda! Who knew that for so little, you can receive so much. We love someone so far away who loves us back. Now he knows Jesus and one day we’ll get to know him forever in heaven! Our Ugandan son... no, our Ugandan brother!

In Luke 16, Jesus told a story about a loan officer whose boss was about to fire him. The guy didn’t want to do manual labor for the rest of his life and he was too ashamed to beg, so he came up with a plan... You see, back in those days, loan sharks would charge excessive amounts of interest and they weren’t supposed to charge any! So this guy who was about to get fired went around to all the debtors and told them to slash down their debt to the principal and forget the interest. What happened was that the debtors were so thankful for this guy that they became his friends... the kinds of friends who would help a brother out who just got fired. Even his boss recognized the shrewd genius of the plan.

Jesus interpreted the parable by saying, “I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.”  What if you use the money you have now to support ministries and people who are bringing others to know Jesus, so that when you get to heaven, there are all kinds of folks there because you gave? That’s why we’re here! We’re here to send our hearts out and do what we can to bring more and more people home with us. When I go home to heaven, I want there to be a welcoming committee... folks who love me who are glad I came! Don’t you?