"FULL CIRCLE" God Moment
Doubt and Skepticism. Followers of Christ all around the world for many generations have expressed these two feelings when sharing details of their journey on the path to be more like Jesus. We all desire to have the faith of some great patriarch or matriarch of the Bible, but when we are forced to walk by faith our flesh often takes control.
We can only see our circumstances from one perspective! Our emotions tell us lies.
Along the way of following Christ, we all have times when we are just unsure of what the outcome of our current actions or task may be. A Bible study with friends, serving in a community ministry, blessing a family in need, going on a mission trip, or teaching a small group of kids at VBS are all things that we might do, with little long term insight as to what the return of our investment might be. We each are limited by time and space, so it is impossible for us to know the impact our life choices have on the future. Both the Good and the Bad!
In 1999, I was asked to help with the task of pulling together and launching a new campus ministry curriculum as part of my brand new job with the North American Mission Board. I had just started working with the mission board, and had not even been given my assignment. I was placed on a team of youth ministers and evangelist who were all experienced and passionate about campus evangelism.
The curriculum was called "F.I.S.H." It was written for two purposes: 1. To update the curriculum that many campus ministries had been using. 2. To expand and start new campus ministries in the high schools and middle schools across the United States. The curriculum was designed to be lead through the efforts of students, guided by their adult leaders, and supported by the network of local churches.
The two summers and school years that followed the launch of F.I.S.H., I dedicated all my energy into the promotion of the curriculum, teaching of its core principles, and implementation of the strategy behind the mission of reaching a generation with the Gospel. Hundreds of campus clubs adopted the F.I.S.H. strategy and began to use the curriculum, and hundreds more campus clubs were launched through students who had a desire to reach their campus with the Gospel. My ministry calendar was full of appointments, and I could recite the presentation backwards while swimming underwater if necessary. The F.I.S.H. strategy (cycle) had become a part of me.
Over the next ten years the number of ministries and campus clubs using "F.I.S.H." curriculums began to fall off and as new ones were written to replace F.I.S.H as it was growing old. Just as teaching a class of kids at VBS, the time passed, we all grew older, and the memory of what once was, began to fade. I asked myself, "What was the point of that season of my life? Why had I become so wrapped up in this curriculum that was no longer being used by the ministries that I was a part of?" Doubts along with skepticism found their way into my questions.
Fast forward to this summer (2019), twenty years later, I found myself in Kenya serving with one of our new ministry partners, "Swahiba Networks / First Priority Kenya" where they are using the F.I.S.H. strategy in the campus clubs all around the city of Niarobi. The First Priority Clubs. I witnessed high school leaders sharing the Gospel with fellow students through their school clubs. The first Saturday of my trip, I had the privilege of attending a First Priority student leader training with a large group of students. They were being trained to implement and use the F.I.S.H. curriculum into their school clubs. Incredible? Awesome?
I was so overwhelmed. I felt transported back in time, and listened as their instructor walked them through the training materials. How amazing! God had preserved the curriculum in the heart of some great men, and kept it for this time and application twenty years later.
I also went with a team of the First Priority staff from Kenya to Uganda where we taught the F.I.S.H. strategy to a group of youth pastors, campus ministry leaders, and First Priority Uganda staff. Equipping them to train students to use the curriculum in new campus clubs in the schools all across the country of Uganda.
I could have never foreseen the journey that God along with my efforts, time, and investment would go in the "life span" of this campus ministry curriculum. What I thought had grown old and was collecting dust somewhere, is now fresh and new in East Africa. And I saw it in the faces of the students and youth pastors. In their expressions I saw the same excitement and confidence that I had seen before in the faces of those who I shared with so many years ago. A "Full Circle" moment for me, to see in this God Moment that I was on the right path back then, and on the right path today.
It is true, we can only see our life from one perspective, and for me that's a good thing. It takes control out of my hands, and leaves me only my decision to obey and follow the call of God. The best part, is the rare special moments when God allows the path of our life to give us clarity and insight to the impact our life has had because we followed Him by faith. Those "Full Circle" God Moments.
Mateo Melendez
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