"She should be out by now," I said to my husband. I wasn't worried; just noting that I was expecting to be in the recovery room with her by now. 

"Don't worry! Everything's fine," my husband reassured me. 

Only it wasn't fine. 

An hour passed. The simple surgery to remove her gall bladder was now past two hours. 

When the doctor came out and asked for me to sign a release to give blood, I felt panic rising in my heart. What was going on? You don't give blood during a simple surgery. Unless...

I began to pray. I found an empty spot and sang to Jesus and cried out to Him to keep my baby safe. Texts were made to my children, sister, and closest friends, begging them to pray. 

During that time, my daughter was bleeding out on the operating table. They had no idea why. They gave her one pint of blood and then another. Still she was bleeding out. They made plans to airlift her to another hospital, making calls to arrange for another surgeon. 

Not knowing any of this was going on, I just kept praying. My daughter Julianna arrived. Then, Jenny Rose arrived. We waited. We worried. We prayed. 

A transplant specialist, famous in central Florida, just happened to be free and decided to drive an hour to the hospital rather than have her airlifted so she could be kept stable. There was another consent to be signed. I still didn't know what was going on and I was scared. We all just kept praying and asking God to save our little girl. 

One of Jesus' last commands was to make disciples "of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and to teach them to obey all I have commanded you." (Matthew 28) Everyone is called to make disciples. No one is exempt.

Which is all well and good and everything—like, kudos to all the missionaries out there that are living it out. But how am I supposed to do that? What does it even look like for an American teenager to walk out Jesus’ last command?

The most obvious way is to get involved in a mentoring relationship. If you don’t have a clue what I’m talking about, or if the only picture that pops up in your head is some kind of Big Brother program, let me explain.
A mentoring relationship is where a more mature Christian takes a new Christian under their wing and teaches them the basics of the faith. It’s a relationship that models what Jesus had with his disciples—the discipler and disciple spend time with one another, becoming friends and confidantes, praying and fasting together, seeking the Lord together, and encouraging one another to keep fighting the good fight. It’s actually a pretty complex thing that varies from church to church and relationship to relationship, but the gist of it is that the mature Christian takes care of the baby Christian.

Since I was eleven, I had been on the disciple end of the mentoring relationship, but the late summer of 2013 marked a new chapter of my life: I became the mentor.

I've had the privilege of watching a beautiful young lady mature in the Lord for nearly two years now. We talk about anything going on in our lives that’s difficult, asking for prayer and advice from one another. We discuss how our quiet times are going, what God has been teaching us through them, and questions that have risen from studying the Bible.

But our relationship doesn't end in that hour-and-a-half window.

We’re friends. We spend time with one another at events and at church, we have sleepovers. We go to the mall, to the movies, or we sit lazily in the other’s room and chat about whatever comes to mind. We're in one another's lives, and we grow closer with passing time.

The way the discipleship relationship works is quite simple, yet it requires an investment of oneself. You have to be willing to devote your time, your energy, your love, and your persistence. But it's worth it.

And it's only one of the many ways to fulfill Jesus’ last command.

Moving in the more officially sanctioned vein is starting new ministries and involving ourselves in current ones.

My brother-in-law and another one of the young men from our church started a ministry where they play basketball in a nearby neighborhood, invite the residents, and use that opportunity to share the Gospel.

I help teach Sunday School to four- to eleven-year olds, sharing Bible stories and their practical application in the kids’ lives.

My church has both a teen and a young adult program, ministries that are geared toward bringing in and building up people in those age brackets.

There are so many ministries available to us, waiting to be employed in the pursuit of making disciples. All we have to do is look, and join in. Finding a nearby ministry—whether it’s an extension of your home church, or some kind of organization that takes care of the widows and orphans and allows you to share your faith—is never all that hard. 

And once you’ve found your ministry, you dive in. Start sowing into people’s lives, caring for the broken and the needy—making disciples.

Several years ago, my niece was spending the summer with us and it was her birthday. The problem was that Mike was in seminary and we had NO money, not even money for extra food. We were living on hot dogs, macaroni and cheese, and eggs for dinner. I really wanted her birthday to be special, but so far--nothing. I woke her up that morning and told her that I wanted to bless her for her birthday but had no money to buy anything for her, even food for a special dinner.       

"But God has lots of money," I told her "And He can give us a special birthday dinner."  Katie Beth nodded her head--even at the age of two she trusted the Lord. The three of us prayed together.          

Later that day, we went to a food pantry (a ministry similar to Harvest International) where we paid two dollars for two bags of food. That was the only day ever (it never happened before or afterward) that they had cake mixes there. I chose a cake mix (her favorite flavor) from the "pick one" table and then a frosting can from another "pick two tables". God was soooooooooooo good!!!!!!!