Writing Letters

I've been wondering a lot recently about what my Christian life looks like now that I'm a stay at home mum. Previously, I was a teacher, and it was easy to see that work as my mission field. The students, the staff, the parents even, were the ones I was called to share the gospel with. I'm wasn't neglecting other areas of my life, certainly, I'd say I prayed for my friends, family and church just as much, but the drive to work kind of highlighted for me that I was going somewhere God had placed me to do his work.

Now, I don't have a drive to work. I don't have several classes of students to manage, and to try to see as God sees them. There are no people in my staff room to encourage or uphold. There are no parents to teach me patience.

What am I doing? I wonder. I want to use every opportunity to have God's good news on my lips, but I'm lacking the vast number of people to share it with. Sure, I'm meeting new people at the park, but I have to meet them repeatedly, to be able to build up that rapport. Yep, I've got my girls to teach everyday, but they are currently 18 months and four weeks. Hardly ready for a gospel smack down.

In bible study, we are reading through Acts (apparently, we've been doing Acts for more than six months now, but it doesn't seem that long to me). At the end of chapter 24, Paul is in prison. In fact, he's been there for two years.

It strikes me that Paul, who is pretty obsessed with using every chance he gets to share the gospel, was determined to get to Rome to do that work. In fact, God had told him (Acts 23:11) that he would get to do just that. And now here Paul is, stuck in prison (or under house arrest, but either way, not really heading to Rome anytime soon).

We were discussing this last Wednesday night, and someone said "What was he doing for two years?" To which the answer is: writing letters. Paul used his time to write letters to the churches he had started, to encourage, build, correct, direct and instruct. Without Paul's two years in jail, we wouldn't have a substantial amount of the New Testament.

So maybe this is my time to write letters. I may not be in a position to be sharing the gospel to lots of people, or even planting churches like Paul was, but I am in a position to encourage those people I have around me in my life. I can be writing letters to build up my fellow Christians. I can be praying for them. Even though I feel like this is a rather stagnant time of life, God has a purpose for it, just as he had a purpose for Paul's time in jail.