Many years ago while living in the southeast, we became acquainted with an organization called Worldwide Tentmakers.  Worldwide Tentmakers seeks to come alongside and assist local churches in the promotion, preparation, and placement of self-supporting witnesses.*

The biblical model for tentmakers is the Apostle Paul.  Paul was a tentmaker and could support himself as he evangelized and planted churches.  

The idea of modern tentmakers was for a Christian businessman and/or tradesman to take a job where a missionary or church planter was already working to establish a ministry in order to help  them with financial support and lay ministry. 

At the time we came across WWTM, they were publishing lists of international jobs that were available for qualified individuals.  We began to use their lists to look for jobs in places with ministry needs.

There was an opportunity to teach history in Soldotna, AK.  I sent a resume’, but the position was filled from within the existing faculty.  There was a need for a Master Plumber at the US Embassy in Moscow, but no dependents were allowed.  We also had missionary friends ministering to Micronesian people in Hawaii, so I sent resume’s there as well, but without results.  Many other opportunities were pursued, but no doors opened.

I had always had a burden for the rural people of the Midwest, which was home for me, but I didn’t want to go there because it was home.  Wherever my family and I went, it needed to be where God wanted us to be, not where I wanted us to be.  

We eventually sent resume’s to the largest city near my hometown.  On a trip home that summer I followed up and was hired by a commercial plumbing/HVAC subcontractor in that city.  

We returned to South Carolina, sold our home there and moved back to the Midwest in about two months time.  No other opportunity opened up for us.  I knew we were right where God wanted us.

Both of my parents passed away shortly after we arrived home.  Dad was gone within thirty days and mom about seven months later.  I have an older sister who is a dependent and who was living with mom and dad at that time.  

We were able to purchase the home place from the estate and to build an addition to the house with a  small living area for my sister.  With the exception of a couple of years with other family members, she has lived with us since.

I have had dreams and visions of things that I wanted to accomplish for the Lord, but didn’t.  Perhaps my motives were questionable.  Perhaps these dreams, visions  and goals were just mine and not really according to His purpose.   In recent times, I’ve begun to wonder if His purpose all along was for us to come home and care for my sister.

We often want a showy place to minister.  A position that shows we are successful at what God has called us to do.  Something that we can report on when we go back to the place where we began to serve God.  The sad thing is that we are usually looking somewhere other than our home for that fulfillment.  

Are you where God wants you?

Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.  James 1:27

*www.worldwidetentmakers.