Two years ago I partnered with Matrix Ministries on a secret mission to make it possible for kids from a Christian Children’s Home in Oklahoma to take a trip to Costa Rica. I worked on this effort because I thought it would be cool for these kids from the hills of Oklahoma to leave the country. Matrix Ministries engaged the effort to organize the trip and teach this group of High School students that serving the Lord is, at times, hard work and that this particular kind of hard work is rewarding.
For the last couple of years, watching these kids after they came back from the mission trip, I have seen the fingerprints that the trip has left on them. Many of them went off to Bible college, others went into the military or are out working jobs. All of them speak of what they saw and learned during the trip and I’ve always felt that the efforts Matrix Ministries and I expended to make this happen were miniscule compared to the blessings that God caused using our little bit of effort.
During June of this year, as a participant on another Matrix Ministries trip to Costa Rica I had an opportunity to speak at the church that these kids helped to build. As I toured the facility I saw a second set of fingerprints that, although it never should have, blindsided me.
I heard stories like the one about “the crazy pick-axe kid” who worked so hard swinging a pick-axe in the hot son that the church leaders still talk about him. I heard about how the kids worked as a team to get hard labor done. I talked with people who were amazed that these high school children never complained even though the environment was much more harsh than the one they left to come there. I saw the places where they made an impact on those living in Costa Rica. The fingerprints were clear and the fingerprints were permanent.
The part that blindsided me was the part where God multiplied the fingerprints. They were on both ends of the trip and more! On those going, on those hosting, and on those receiving the fruits of the efforts. I focused on the part touching the High School kids and completely missed the fingerprints left on missionaries from The Brook, on leaders from Matrix Ministries, on leaders from the High School sponsors and as my eyes were suddenly opened to all these blessings I found fingerprints were left all over me.
