Michelle Suarez

In KidONE this month, we’ve been learning about God’s creativity and how He has put that creativity into each of us. You see, God created us in His image, different from anything else in all creation. He created us with the capacity to think, to love, to imagine, to create. Ultimately, he created us to have a relationship with Him. That was His reason for creation in the first place. The land, sea, stars, plants, and animals were all created to prepare the way for His best creation – us. And all of that was because He wants us to know Him.

One of the best things about kids is their ability to make friends with people so easily. Head to the playground for an hour or so and soon your child will have so many new friends! He may not know any of their names, but in his mind, they’re now his “friends.” Adults have a harder time make friends because we know there is a difference in knowing someone and being friends with someone. God wants us to know Him, but He wants so much more than that! He wants to be our Friend.

I used to have an issue with calling God our “Friend” because it seems like such a superficial title. We tend to use the word “friend” to signify anyone that we know. But that’s not the true sense of the word. When you start to think about friends – true friends – you realize that it’s much deeper than that. Friends are there for you in good times and in bad times. Friends care enough about you to confront you when you’re making bad decisions and when you’re wrong. Friends care about you, respect you, and you trust them with your most intimate thoughts and feelings.

“Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” John 15:13 NIV

That’s friendship. That’s what God did for us out of his desire for us to know Him and have a relationship with Him. Because our sin prevented that relationship, God solved the problem by sending His Son to lay down His life for His friends.

So this month, as we’ve learned about being made in God’s image, which we often take for granted because we’ve heard it so many times, remember that it’s so much more than the ability to love and be creative. Its the ability to have a relationship with the God of the Universe who loves us so much He sent His Son for us. The God who calls us “Friend”.

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I am a product of Women’s Missionary Union (WMU) of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC). I was attending WMU meetings with my mother before I even understood the acronym. Since then, I’ve been involved in attending and leading in nearly every aspect of WMU.

I was a GA in 5th-6th grade.
I was an Acteen during 7th-8th grade.
I was involved in Women on Mission (WOM) as a young adult – and they even let me serve as President for a year or two!
I’ve been a leader at the church and associational level for Mission Friends, GAs, and Acteens.
I’ve attended and then planned and directed GA camp for nearly 10 years.
I’ve led leadership conferences at the state level with Texas WMU.
I’ve written leadership articles for national WMU – mostly children’s leadership, but in the past few years I’ve begun writing for adult levels also.
I’ve even attended RA Camp as a sponsor more times than I can count (or want to remember)!

I worked for a NAMB (North American Mission Board) missionary and rubbed elbows with those same missionaries we learned about in GA. I’ve experienced the behind the scenes aspects of missions in ways many people will never see.  I know Annie and Lottie and Mary and Edna on a first name basis!  (SBC Missions Offerings are named after significant women in missions.)

That is a LOT of missions education!! I have learned and taught about missionaries in every part of the world. I know more acronyms than most seminary graduates!

But I’ve never been!  I’ve never gone on an International mission trip and experience these things first hand.  I really thought I was destined to be one who taught and never experienced.

So, just imagine how excited I am to be weeks away from boarding a plane on my first mission trip to New Day Orphanage in Zambia, Africa!!  But, if all the WMU talk isn’t enough to convince you, just wait…..there’s more!!

We were members of First Baptist Church in Brazoria, Texas for over 16 years. In all of those years we learned about and prayed for a missionary couple with ties to our church. That couple lived and served as IMB (International Mission Board) missionaries in Zambia, Africa.  For over a decade we were kept up-to-date on the things happening in Zambia as they ministered in the very region I’ll soon be visiting!

It’s amazing to see how God has pulled from so many areas of my life to bring about this experience!!

In the weeks ahead I ask that you pray for a few things:

• The staff of New Day.  It takes a LOT of work to prepare for an incoming mission team. They’ll be exhausted before we even get there, then they’ll work harder than usual while we’re there.  Pray for strength and endurance…..and rest!
• The work of New Day.  Our mission team is coming in to do a week’s worth of work.  It’s usually work that needs to be done, but because of day-to-day activities, the New Day staff just doesn’t have time to do.  Pray that the work we do is beneficial to the overall ministry and brings a sense of relief and satisfaction to the staff.  And pray that nothing we do is detrimental to what they’re trying to accomplish!
• Our mission team. I truly believe that most people who go on mission trips do so with the idea that they’ll be making a significant impact on the people they’ll meet.  While that certainly does happen, I believe the beauty of mission trips is that the reverse is what happens more often than not – the people we thought we would be ministering to, actually make more of an impact on us!  Pray that we’re able to process the things we see and experience. Pray that we come back with a heart for God’s people – in Zambia and down the street. Pray that the trip doesn’t end when we arrive back in America – but that we’ll continue to be on mission for God no matter where we are.