“… but let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the imperishable quality of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is precious in the sight of God.” I Peter 3:4 NAS

This world runs on influence. There is good influence and there is bad influence.  There is strong, permanent influence, and there is weak, temporary influence. Some influence is effective, some is not, where  actions  change to meet expectations only as long as the influencer is present.  Once that influence is removed, those changes go back to as before. Good influence, provided in the right way, at the right time, can endure for generations.  It can change societies. It can change history.

I had many good influencers brought into my life at just the right time. Mark and Ellie Geppert, with their open hearts and open home, lived side by side with me in very formative years. Their passion for prayer, worship, and seeing the world reached with Good News shaped every fiber of my being into a pattern that I walk in to this very day. Pastor Philip Papabathani and his sweet wife, Lily came to further that influence, deepening the grooves the Holy Spirit was inscribing on my heart. Lily prayed for many hours with me, spending time pouring her humble and yet so powerful ways into a young, unformed missionary girl. Pastor Philip did not have an undedicated bone in his body … he lived and breathed for the Kingdom.

Inevitably, the influence that bore lasting fruit in my life was brought to bear through friendship, time shared, laughter, tears, and, above all, by love from a true heart.

It is our prayer that our love and influence will cut similar grooves into the hearts and minds of those He has given us to love, to lead, and to work with. That this loving influence will flow like a mighty river throughout the region. Changing lives. Changing history. One heart at a time.

~ Debbie Ecker