Jeff Adams

Marco and I are sitting in the airport in Panama City waiting for our flight that is now about an hour delayed. This will make for a brief connection time in Houston and we are hoping to make it. We are scheduled to get back to Kansas City a bit before ten tonight, but this could put us later. We are both ready to get home.

I had an interesting experience this morning. I mentioned in passing that we were going to have a Chinese breakfast today, what you might know as dim sum. A great young Chinese couple in the church had invited us. As we pulled up in front of the restaurant, a Panamanian landmark, I had sense of deja vu. The main part of the restaurant is on the second floor, and as we walked in I immediately recognized that this is the same place where Cheryl and I enjoyed a wonderful meal with friends in 1975!

Sitting there I reflected back on many years of ministry between my first time in this restaurant and today. We often make mention of our mission of making disciples. This is the commission we have received. Making disciples is all about multiplication. The passion of my life has been to multiply myself in others. In 1975 I knew no one in Panama. We had come to Panama City to renew our visas for Costa Rica. To think that today I am heard on radio here every day and that the pastor of one of the larger churches in nation looks to me as a type of mentor is at once humbling and gratifying. Lives are being touched by God’s truth all over this country through the natural and biblical process of multiplication by biblical disciple making. This is what life is about.

With all the many demands on our time, this is a good reminder for me and maybe for you. Are you reproducing yourself in others? Who are the people in your sphere of influence? Can you name them? Can you see their faces? How are you influencing them? For good or for bad? Do you see them carrying on that same reproductive process? No matter who you are, what gifts you have or the type of things you do, you should be multiplying yourself in others. Are you?