Dear Friends,
As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth:  It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.
–Isaiah 55:10-11

In all honesty, my yearly trip to the Rainbow Gathering can be discouraging at times.  We have many amazing conversations, pray over numerous people, and see some of them respond to the Gospel.  However, I have yet to experience the momentous changes I hope and pray for.  Nevertheless, over the past month, God has repeatedly reminded me that the verses written above really are true.  Before we left on the trip, my pastor read them to me during a prayer time, and on one of our first days at the Gathering, I woke up with a deep assurance of the fact that the things we say there really do make a difference.

This truth has a very freeing effect.  It has also shown me that whether I feel passionate for God or far from him, he is able to use me, as long as I am obedient to his calling.  I may be emotionally fickle, but God is not.  I may feel like “doing ministry” on some days and not on others, but God is the same regardless of how I feel.  Knowing this allowed me to speak with a great number of people at the Gathering and go away from those conversations with the confidence that God would use what I had said to advance his Kingdom and to bring the people closer to him.  He also gave me a very concrete example of this principle:

About half-way through our trip, one of the s from our camp told me that someone she had been talking to had asked about me, so I went over to say hello.  To tell you the truth, I recognized the person but couldn’t remember his name or anything about him.  It turns out that we met at the California Gathering in 2004.  We began to talk, and he said, “When we met, you were doing street ministry in Minneapolis.  Are you still doing that?  How is it going?”  I was surprised that he would remember such details after so long, but that was just the beginning.  After I told him about the ministry in Minneapolis, he said, “I was also thinking about how you told me you came to faith.”  He then proceeded to repeat my testimony back to me.  After that, he asked a few more questions about very specific things I had told him, and we had another wonderful conversation about God.

Imagine: a man I met in the middle of the woods two years ago remembers how and why I gave my life to Jesus.  Our conversation had enough of an impact on him that he came to the Jesus Kitchen to find me two years later.  The most amazing thing, however, is that the California Gathering took place while I was in the midst of a great struggle for my faith.  I did not feel like doing ministry at all; I hardly knew if God was real.  But he used me regardless of that fact.  It is his word that accomplishes its purpose, not our emotional state when we speak his word.

This year, we had a number of people camp with us who were interested in Christianity or who were lone Christians in need of connecting with a group.  We saw people respond to the Gospel.  We served thousands of meals and washed many people’s feet.  We gave away hundreds of Bibles and talked to numerous people about Jesus.  In some ways, it was an uneventful year for me—I have fewer crazy stories than usual—but I have no doubt that our time there was very significant.  For the first time in five years, I got to the end of the two weeks and felt like I could stay longer.  I am looking forward to going back next year and continuing to minister here in Minneapolis in the meantime.

By the time you get this, I will be back to work and the rest of what my “normal” life entails.  I will also be trying to raise more support, since my need to drop to half-time employment becomes unavoidable starting in September. Please read the prayer requests on the back for more details.  As always, thank you for your support.  I have especially appreciated your prayers over the last month; they made a huge difference and sustained me through a very challenging time.  Be blessed, all of you!

Take hold of the life that is truly life!

Molly S. Waggoner

The Discipleship School I am helping lead begins in September and ends in December.  I will need to work half-time during the school.  If I do not have enough support to cover my expenses, I will end up going into debt in order to fulfill my role in this new ministry.  Of course, I do not want this to happen!  Therefore, I am in great need of a few things:

There is a lot going on in my life and brain these days.  I would appreciate your prayers for a sense of stability and mental order.  Getting back into the “real world” is always a challenge, and I need to be able to continue to focus on God and on ministry, rather than get caught up in the many distractions that arise.