Take This Job and Love It Exemplo

DAY SIX

WORKING FOR THE LORD 

On this last day of the study, I am beyond excited for you to read about my friends Jerome and Shanna Crawford. They are the greatest example that I know of people who once worked jobs without the Lord in mind to becoming people who now do everything they do... for Him.   

Christ tells us in scripture, “No one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit.  Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’” 

Jerome and Shanna were truly born again. This is their story... in Shanna’s words: 

Jerome is a former drug dealer who came to Christ at 21. I am an ex-stripper who also gave her life to Christ at 21.  At 23, we married, both young believers yet growing in our faith each day. From the very beginning of our courtship, Jerome told me that we would not be living the American dream.  Boy was he right.  

In the 22 years we have been married, I can honestly say we have lived a life of our food being to do His will. He has called us to take in over 20 wounded people to live with us as we helped disciple and love them up close and personal. He also called us for several years to lead a ministry that met in local nightclubs in the heart of the city where we live. We saw many who were far from Christ be brought near. 

In the last decade, the Lord has broken our hearts for the fatherless. This has resulted in us being foster parents, adopting a sibling set of 3 children that we fostered, starting a ministry focused on orphan care, and sharing the gospel in one of the poorest nations of the world.  

Twelve years ago, we started a nonprofit called Komeo International Ministries. Since then, we have taken countless ministry teams to Sierra Leone, Africa, to help meet physical needs, encourage the orphans in our sponsorship program and help provide medical care in remote villages. We even lived there with our 6 children during the height of Ebola. With the help of the body of Christ over 40 of the kids raised in the orphanage we support are in college. All of this started by reading the Bible every day and asking the Lord for the grace to live it out. As we have been faithful to bring Him our loaves and fishes, He has been faithful to multiply it to spiritually nourish many. 

Throughout most of our marriage, Jerome has been a computer programmer, and I have been a housewife who home educates our children. God has taken the two of us with our broken pasts and ordinary lives and done extraordinary things through us. It has not been easy. There have been many trials and a lot of suffering along the way. But just as we were the joy set before Him when He endured the cross, He has been the joy set before us as we embraced the pain that comes when you deny yourself, take up your cross and follow Him. 

Even as I type this, we are halfway through 24 hours of traveling to West Africa to visit distressed orphans and widows. Jerome is working remotely beside me as a computer programmer, and I am writing this devotion as a stay-at-home mom who is also a missionary.  

My encouragement to those reading this is to work with all your heart at whatever God has set before you. Read His word every day with a prayerful heart. Start with the gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John). Then pattern your life after the life of Christ. When you do this, all of your work will have eternity wrapped up in it.  

If you want to know Him intimately, you must obey Him. To know what He requires of you; you must read His word. If you do these simple (but hard) things, you will live a God-glorifying life that points others to Him. This is my prayer for you.