Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.

• 1 Corinthians 10:31

I plan to do so when I go to Spain. I hope to see you while passing through and to have you assist me on my journey there, after I have enjoyed your company for a while.

• Romans 15:24

Within the first year of having started this blogsite, I was looking over the map of the countries where visitors had viewed posts.  I did not have a lot of data, but the number of countries was growing.  I noticed that no tiny countries in Europe had visited the site by that point.

I bowed my head and prayed, “God, this is a silly request, but you want us to spread the Gospel to all corners of the globe, and I have not had a small country in Europe visit this site.  I would be elated, Joy upon Joy, if I could have a visitor from one of those countries.  You know, like Angola.”

Editor’s Note:  I know.  I know.  If you caught that, just read on.

I turned off the computer and went to bed.  That prayer was made at bedtime, one Saturday night, in early 2018.

I awoke the next morning, and I turned on the computer after I had brushed my teeth.  To my surprise, one of the visitors that I got over night, the night I prayed that prayer, was a view from Angola.

Without checking anything further, I got ready for church.  My wife and I went to the early service, and after the service, I told the pastor my prayer and the immediate answer.

Then, he popped my bubble by explaining that I had been thinking of Andorra, the country between Spain and France.  Angola was not small and was not in Europe.  Angola was a huge country in southern Africa.

With my bubble popped, I went to my Sunday school class.  After the class, I told my Sunday school teacher the entire story.  I mixed up Andorra and Angola.  God granted my prayer, by having someone from Angola visit the site.  And the pastor correcting my Geography mistake.

My Sunday school teacher, who I still feel was my best friend ever (other than my wife) said, “That only proves two things.  God was listening to your prayer.  And God has a sense of humor.”  Then he doubled over laughing.

Well, until two days ago, I had that one single view from Angola and still no view from Andorra.  As for small countries in Europe, I have had a few views from Monaco, in Europe and smaller than Andorra.

But two nights ago, as of writing this, I got that elusive view from Andorra.  There are still other small countries in Europe to go, and even smaller islands in the world, but a six-year long joke has ended, or has it?

But that one view was overshadowed by the return of views from the country of Georgia (after a four year absence), two other countries added: Sierra Leone and Montenegro.  And another wonderful gift was a view from Ukraine, the first since fighting broke out there. I never had a lot of views from Ukraine, but at least a few each quarter, but then nothing after the war started until the one view, another gift from God. That puts me past 75% of the countries in the world, but then again, there are so many lists of the countries in the world that differ, it would make your head spin.  I even got four views from Uzbekistan earlier this year.  In other words, they did not open one post and figure out that they got there by mistake.  They looked at a few more.

This year, the views are about 61% domestic (USA) which is not far from the over-all average, but when I felt God calling me to start this blogsite – now about seven years ago – I get excited each time a new country is added to the overall list.

I guess what I am feeling is the feeling that Paul had when he dreamed of taking the Gospel to Spain.  Note: Spain is in my top ten in all-time views.

But this is not a bragging post.  I have that other 25% of the countries in the world to go.  And the one person that might need to read my post the most may live down the block from me.  But God keeps letting me cast the net.  Besides absolutely loving what I am doing, I like the side benefits where God lets me know that He is listening to my prayers.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.