In the middle of transition, everything can feel a bit out of sorts because you are growing through something, out of something, into something. All of that is good and necessary, and hard.

I was in just such a moment, sitting at my desk in the home office of Cup of Cold Water Ministries, sorting through our next steps, planning, dreaming and considering when I prayed….what’s next for CCWM Lord?

The prayer faded into the tasks at hand as I moved through the afternoon with intention until I was interrupted by our founder.

The youthful face of Odell Kittleson stared up at me from a pile of faded old folders, as if to say, “look here…let me show you where we came from before you consider where we’re headed next.”

I had been fortunate enough to meet Odell, the founder of Cup of Cold Water Ministries, before he left this earth. Although he was much older than the Odell In the picture, the eyes reflected the same kind of love and care I remembered from my hour spent with the seasoned missionary. Odell had been a trend setter long before there was such a term. He wasn’t afraid to go first, to start new things, to question the status quo or to rock the boat of the mission world.

In fact, this is exactly what catalyzed the beginnings of CCWM. Odell’s previous mission board had not appreciated his atypical view of missions. Odell had a vision to meld together the proclamation and the demonstration of the Gospel. “Both, Both, Both,” was Odell’s motto.

To Odell, it was the melding of the two that delivered the powerful punch to the enemy’s plans and brought about the healing and restoration a suffering soul was longing for.

I picked up the worn out copy of Odell’s early writings,

“and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.”

I thought about all the work involved in ‘vetting’ missionaries who apply to CCWM. It’s a serious process with many emails, questionnaires, follow ups and application review and that is all before we submit the candidate to the CCWM Board.

Would we approve of Odell Kittelson if he applied to CCWM today?

How would I filter a candidate who was telling me, he had felt called to be a “preacher” just a few days after he became a Christian? Would I smile patiently, understanding his new found passion, wondering how long it would last? Would I advise him to take a few years to learn the Word of God before he applied again?

Probably.

I read on,

Until I am spent.

Those words settled quiet in my thoughts for the afternoon. They followed me around throughout my working hours and sat with me while I tried to settle the question, “What’s next for CCWM Lord?”

God hath said Go, that is all. That was Odell’s motive. That was the preface to all that took place, to the beautiful ministry Odell went on to forge in Bolivia all the way to now, to me at this desk contemplating our forty-four missionaries and their precious work of proclamation and demonstration.

It was simple, almost too simple. Where was the strategic planning? The charts and goals? Perhaps they were somewhere, perhaps they came later but the start, the very beginning was a call to Go, that’s all.

What a gift, to look back. To read the words that began the journey, the words that would carry the traveler until He was spent … carry us all…until we too are spent.

Sometimes looking back reminds us of why we are going forward, and the why is often the exact thing to carry us farther than any of our plans today could take us.