Only One...

Sorry it's been a while since my last post. Everything is good at the Fortner house hold!! We have done a lot of traveling this month. James had a pastor's conference in Dallas for two days and I was able to tag along. It was great!! The topic was "Spiritual Fathering/Mothering". I learned so much and really felt convicted at the same time. One of the speakers was talking about how some people get overwhelmed leading someone to Christ. The he asked the question...When was the last time you led someone to Christ? Talk about feeling crappy!! I just sat there trying to remember and I know I've talked to people about Christ but I don't know when the last time was when I actually led someone to Christ. The good news for me is that I was not the only one in the group thinking this. I'm in a room full of pastors and yes they ask the question from the pull-pit but not one could say that they actually led one person to Christ by themselves in a really long time. So then the speaker show us how so many times new Christians come and they get really frustrated so easily because they have not been taught anything about their new spiritual walk. So the challenge was to just have one to five people that you mentor to and speak into their lives for a full six months and see what happens. Did you know that if one person led another person to Christ and then that person led someone tho Christ and so on and so on...it would only take 21 years to have the ENTIRE earth followers of Christ!! That just blew me away. I'm 30 year old and just to imagine for a bit that nine years ago the entire world would know Christ just really got me to thinking...what am I doing to be apart of that? So while I'm feeling REALLY convicted I just felt a sense of release. Yes I need to do my part but all that it takes is one person!! So after the meeting James and I were talking and he felt convicted as well. We have a small group that meets at our house every other Sunday and it's made up of newly married couples. If you know us at all you know that we have a passion for married couples, newly married and not so newly married. So I was thinking if James and I could mentor the couples in our small group that would be a great start. As we were planning this we came to discover how hard it is to make our schedules free. The thing I had to overcome was me being selfish. I hate even saying that but it is the truth. How many times was Jesus selfish with his time, never. He sat on the side of a hill and asked people to follow Him and then turned around and spent time with is friends telling them stories and investing in their lives. And that is what I so badly want to do. We want to invest in people and want people to invest in us. So we are very excited to move into the place where God wants us to just love on His children.
The next thing for us this week is quiet busy again. James is gong to Austin and helping a church with their budget. James really loves doing this and has such a gift for it. His mind is just full of ideas and numbers!! I on the other had will be at a retreat with our college girls. The topic is "Sleeping Beauties". I just love girl stuff!! So I will post next week about tell you how the retreat went!!