Word for today: Do not despise the days of small beginnings.

Another great word from Kris Vallotton, so enouraged!

Don't despise the day of small beginnings. For more than 5 years I preached in a convalescent home every Sunday morning. My congregation consisted of about 11 people; 8 of which had Alzheimer's. When I would a yell a powerful point, (I used to preach with drama), several of them would pee the floor and the nurse would wheel them out. 
Bill Johnson taught me that if I prepared as if I was teaching 1000s, someday God would entrust 1000s to me. So I spent hours every week, reading, studying, and preparing my messages. As I prepared, I would envision myself in stadiums filled with hungry people, all listening to me preaching. Many times I would preach at the hospital with my eyes closed...I was preaching to a different reality.
I taught an average of 4 times a week for 17 years...almost all of my public ministry was to groups nobody wanted. Camp grounds, hospitals, home groups, children's church, 11 people I mentored every Sunday for 10 years, kids on probation, jails, prisons...anyone who would listen.
We started 9 businesses during that time, while raising a family of 4 kids. I also coached, basketball and soccer.
Busy? Yes! We didn't have time to watch TV or waste time. But we worked and played together as a family, with great passion.
Three of our four kids fell in love with ministering to people and made it their career.
Many people want more for their life, but they are unwilling to pour their lives into anything; unwilling to sacrifice. They have a lottery mentality; they keep playing the numbers believing that someday they are going hit the big one.
Hard work, persistence and passion, are quickly going out of vogue; viewed as anti-grace, dead works, and religion. It's just easier to promote yourself with a great website and large a blog, than it is to actually get in the trenches, and dirty your hands with the souls of men.
Crazy teaching comes from those who have never actually had to live out their teaching or make it work.
I am nobody special...but I am a man possessed with possibility. ‪#‎kvm‬