Finish what you started!
By: Eglaide Seiber Barroso
The vision of the Lighthouse Newsletter in 2019 was to provide a platform for Christian writers to honor God with their writing skills and to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The first steps taken for this vision to become a reality, besides the publication name, was the tagline and the picture for the front page. Both came simultaneously as a download from Heaven, followed by a support team dedicated to giving their best to the LORD. The first issue was published in June of 2020, almost a year later, amidst my foot surgery and the COVID-19 world pandemic. During that time, the political arena was becoming a boiling pot here in the US, focusing on the possible re-election of then-President Trump and with the conservative group shouting, “Four more years!” Today, as I sit here to write about the direction that the LORD has given me for this coming season with the publication, some conservative groups are still echoing these same words about the former president. At this point, so many things have changed in the world arena pertaining to family values, freedom of speech, immigration matters, gender equality, and financial and global peace stability that one must wonder why we, as the church, are still placing our faith in a single man or even in a political party. Something must have happened to change the direction we have come thus far as a nation because it is quite clear that going around this same mountain since 2020 has kept us in bondage to the systems that, without a doubt, have failed us.
During these past two years publishing The Lighthouse News in hard copy, we reported on the national presidential campaign and voting challenges, the new administration’s left-wing detrimental public health decisions with mask mandate and vaccine enforcement, the abortion law changes, the supreme court’s new nomination and decisions, the Russia-Ukraine war, the woke harmful education agenda, mass shootings and the big tech companies’ cohorts with the media to sell us lies about everything we knew to be the truth. Because of these things and the actions of extremely corrupted leaders on both sides of the arena, life, as we once knew, will never be the same!
Our publication tagline clearly states who we are. “We are CHRIST Inspired, LOVE Driven, and Followers of GOD’S WORD. But we got into the Trump and politics train, deviating from our Evangelistic mission and becoming newsworthy instead of God-focused. We took a direction of our own instead of following God’s lead. As the founder and publisher of The Lighthouse News, I am the one to blame and the one being called to go back to the missionary field, returning to the publication vision of spreading the good news throughout the four corners of the world. In our last quarter published issue, we celebrated our two years of publishing in hard copy with a beautiful design highlighting that accomplishment. It was not an easy ride by any means because besides the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, I had undergone six surgeries, and my husband had many health issues too. Publishing The Lighthouse News quarterly kept my focus on serving others instead of the health hardship we were dealing with daily. Celebrating the second anniversary of the publication came at the same time things were coming back to normal around us, so looking back and seeing how far we had come as a team and as a publication was almost surreal. We gained new writers’ contributions and new nations with possibilities for partnership in the near future. Our website is another reason for our excitement because it was a gift from one of our team members in September 2021. The next issue would also feature this major milestone. But soon after all copies were on the distribution route locally and sent by mail, I began to feel as if we had reached the end of the road. I saw no purpose in continuing to publish, trying to follow the dark cloud covering the country and the world because, in my view, we were too small to try to report on major issues confronting the global community. My experience with world news reporting since 1999 allowed me to see we were neglecting major events and our target audience was becoming lost in the process of trying to be both an evangelical and world news publication. With all these concerns on my mind, praying for God’s direction was the best route to take. “Do I need to walk away from this project and do the next thing you want me to do, LORD?” I knew I had time to set my concerns aside and wait on an answer from the LORD until it was time to start the next issue. Because I didn’t hear anything from the LORD about quitting when the time to start the next issue came, I did what I knew to do in my heart. But this time, the emptiness I felt was distressing me to the point of having agonizing doubt that I was supposed to continue with the publication. When everything was done, with more than 90% of the articles, pictures and layout approved, I became very sick with a hives attack that covered my entire body, including my face, that led me to the emergency room twice in one week. That ordeal kept me from doing any of my work at my regular job and for The Lighthouse News. For over ten days, I had the mindset to completely quit this project. The support I had from everyone to quit if necessary was like a kiss from Heaven. Everyone was praying for my healing and encouraging me to rest and let things unfold as they eventually would. As my healing began to slowly take place, I started to hear the LORD say to me that this situation was not bringing me to the end of The Lighthouse News. That it was the pause needed for me to go back to the beginning of the revelation vision of moving The Lighthouse Writer’s Group into a publication. The Bible says in Romans 8:28, KJV: ALL THINGS work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.Writing and publishing is God’s purpose for my life, and writing about HIS goodness, character, power, joy, miracles, and LOVE is the way the world will know about Him and will come to know Jesus Christ as the only son of God, who gave His own life to save mankind from going to an eternal hell.
This past July, when our family came together for my second granddaughter’s first birthday celebration, I had to stop at a gas station before meeting them at their rented beach house. As I began to fill my gas tank, I was prompted to look down, and when I did, I saw I was stepping onto a large sticker with the number 7 screaming at me. I promptly picked up my phone and took a picture of it with my foot still on it because I had learned in 2015 that the number 7 meant completion, the end of something and that a new beginning was at hand. I had lived through my 2015 transition ordeal and knew how much better my life had become. How the LORD had brought me to become a confident Christian entrepreneur and how everything I had suffered in the past built solid steps to the latter that brought me up from the abyss of despair to be closer and closer to HIM as my Heavenly Father. He walked me through every hardship holding my hand and whispering to me not to give up on my dreams. When I was going through the valley of indecision this time, I remembered hearing from Him so loud in my spirit saying, “FINISH WHAT YOU STARTED!” That prompted me to search for a picture with that phrase online, and when I found it, I used it as my desktop background at work and at home because I knew He was giving me a mandate to finish what I had started with The Lighthouse News. Not knowing exactly what to do, I began to pray for HIS strategies and direction. That’s when we decided to publish the articles from the last unpublished issue online. As we obeyed, we became more focused on the evangelical mission freeing ourselves from the need to report on world events and the political chaos surrounding our nation and families.
Our first women’s group resumed soon after I returned to work from my last health problem, with a new song as the opening of our worship. The song’s name on the YouTube video read “Potter Song X Finish What You Started.” It is needless to say how much His presence invaded our prayer room with joy and confidence that He who had started this beautiful work is faithful to finish. Philippians 1:6, KJV: Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.
As new beginnings take place in our lives, the old must die, and its death is truly painful because we don’t understand God’s plans and the ways He completes His purpose in our lives. My prayer today is that we all embrace changes and become teachable to learn that what GOD has for us is so much more than our mind’s preconceived notion of what will bring us success, peace, joy, and life more abundantly.
As the new year arrives, be encouraged regardless of what is going on around you or even with you because the Potter always finishes what He starts. “ Let me tell you what my God does best, what He starts, He finishes!” In quotes is part of the lyrics from the “Potter Song X Finish What You Started” YouTube video.
In 2023, Let the LORD take complete control of your life and direct your dreams and future. May His Mighty hand lead you to fulfill HIS PURPOSE for you and your family. HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYONE!!!
“Potter Song X Finish What You Started” YouTube video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lq9YsNcREKE
