Fitting Into a New Place

A Word From Mitch

I have been re-reading the book “When helping hurts” by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert and was reminded of a very crucial principal that should be my focus before approaching anything in my life. Steve asks in the beginning of the book the basic review question, “Why did Jesus come to earth?”. Although most of us have an easy, readily available answer like ‘He came to die on the cross for our sins’, Steve answers the question with quite a bit of depth. He says this,

“While this answer is true, Jesus’ message is an even more grand and sweeping epic than that: “The kingdom of Heaven is at hand. I am the King who is bringing healing to the entire cosmos. If- and only if- you repent and believe in me, you will someday enjoy all the many benefits that my kingdom brings”.

This reminder has been a great truth for our lives in the last several months. While we were beginning the transitional process to leave King Williams Town, and enter into our new home and roles at the OM Missions Discipleship Training Base in Pretoria, we’ve struggled to find where we’d fit in. We could no longer be the first point of reference to the people we led, loved, and worked with in our previous ministries, and we were the newcomers in our new-already-existing ministries in Pretoria. So, naturally we had moments of feeling lost and a little uncertain of our place.

Caylee and I attended a church service last week with a congregation that- I am positive- mimicked what a congregation would look like in Heaven. Not because of their faithfulness, but because of their diversity. People from all 4 corners of the earth were gathered to fellowship together and worship Jesus and it was beautiful. It was then I realized what I was experiencing and I was reminded why Jesus came to earth, and ultimately, where I “fit in”.

As missionaries, we will struggle throughout our ministry finding our place with cultures, people, tribes, nations, and opinions, but at the core, and at the most basic truth, we are not necessarily meant to fit in with the rhyme and rhythms of life, but rather fit in with God’s calling and purpose for our lives. It is there that He will do the work to fit us in, exactly where He meant for us to fit in.

A word from Caylee

Before moving to Pretoria, I didn’t think moving from one place in South Africa to another or from one ministry to another would be a big deal at all. I didn’t expect life and ministry on this side to be so different to King William’s Town as it is.

Everywhere I go, my heart longs to serve the people I see around me and share with them the hope of Jesus.

Just the other day I found myself in a Government Clinic for over 3 hours. It felt like everyone around me was speaking a different language (Most of which I couldn’t understand), I saw sick people barely able to sit up straight in the chair as they waited for hours to be seen by a doctor. I heard babies crying as nurses gave them their injections, I saw new moms tiredly waiting for their turn to be seen as their sweet little babies slept in their arms unaware of how tired their moms were. As I waited and looked around I couldn’t help but ask God, “Where is my place in this?”. Was there someone in the waiting room that He wanted me to talk to? If there was, how could I if they didn’t speak English or Xhosa? I longed to share hope with the foreigners around me who were trying to navigate a system and language they didn’t understand. The dilemma was in the how because I myself didn’t understand the system or the language either. All I could do was sit and pray as the hours ticked by and the sick, tired, happy and sad came into the clinic waited their turn and left again.

As Mitch and I look around this BIG new world, our eyes are searching for where God is moving and where He is calling us to move with Him. Most of our time will be spent with new missionaries as they try to navigate with God their new life, but we are aware that there is also a world outside our window and people just down the road that God is calling us to get to know and serve.

Preparing our global missions vision board

We have been busy meeting with Global ministry leaders discussing the work and ministries that are happening around the world. God is moving and we are so excited to play a small part in his international involvement.

Our hope for the vision board that we built is to provide information to those we will training with resources about what God is already doing around the world. While we find information about ministry opportunities happening in various countries we will attach that information to our board and pray that the people that read these opportunities will have a stirring in their hearts for the least reached.

Prayer points:

• Pray with us as we continue to transition into our new roles within OM at the MDT Base.

• Please pray for Caylee’s pregnancy and the continued health and growth of our unborn baby. (Due in less than 8 weeks)

• Please pray for the coming participants that’ll be attending MDT+ this February. Pray that Covid restrictions won’t prevent them from joining our team and that our current team will remain safe and healthy.

• And finally, you can be praying for us as we continue to wait on the results from Mitch’s spousal visa application.

Thank you too all of our supporters, we couldn't do any of this without you. If you would like to become one of our supporters we’d love to be in contact with you to share what that'll look like and to hear from you on how you would like to begin doing so.

Our mailing address is:
Mitchell.caissie@om.org, Caylee.Good@om.org

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Operation Mobilization · 84 West St. · Port Colborne, Ontario L3K 4C8 · Canada