Feelin' the Love in the arch support

I've been thinking and praying about the big picture part of this trip to Africa for months now. God's heart and the way mine can look more like His. His will in my life. The Kingdom. You know, that kind of stuff.

And now it's go-time. This is really happening! It was much easier when it was a big and abstract idea I could just dream with Jesus about. Now I find myself flooded in details... moving dates, storage searches, vaccinations, travel plans, finances, client loads... Whew. Deep breath. 

Swirly is usually the word I use. There's so much to do that everything feels swirly.

Despite the to-do list that gets longer every day, God is still taking my breath away. He's gotten bigger and bigger in the tangible presence in my life in the smallest of details.

My heart for this trip is for orphans to feel known and loved. In the process, however, I am consumed by the warmest and fuzziest and most captivating sense of being known and loved by friends and family. I feel like I am being blessed, prepared and sent out in a way I never expected. He's taking the swirls out of the to-do lists with hugs, people who understand, and even people willing to take on part of the burden and help me. They're helping me with the stinky, tedious, boring details! It's the hands-on work of the body in which I'm truly experiencing His love

Cathy and Ramona are hunting down storage units and turning the crisis counseling program into a moving crew. The Boldens are giving me a place to live. Rhonda's looking for boxes. Pam's offering her house for Home Parties. Laurie's making cornbread. Ashley's cooking feasts. Lucas is offering Kenyan sweet tea. Nicci's buzzing around church like an African mosquito. And Dub and Bode (even after I was so difficult) gave me Chaco's - because they knew they'd be perfect for African terrain.

I'm experiencing the big-picture love of Christ in the smallest gestures of His children. Thank you for being His hands... and for providing Chaco's for my feet!

"Christ has no body on earth but yours, no hands but yours, no feet bu yours. Yours are the eyes through which Christ's compassion for the world is to look out; yours are the feet with which He is to go about doing good; and yours are the hands with which He is to bless us now."

-Saint Teresa of Avila

Quote of the day...

I have an 87 year-old friend.

She's had a hard time adjusting to the idea of me leaving the country and not being able to visit with her every week. I couldn't help smiling from ear to ear when she said this today:

"I'm positive God wants you to go to Africa. If you do half the good for one of those orphans that you've done for me, then you're home safe. You're kinda like Oprah without the money...

...but I'm kindly concerned. You're 25? I guess you still have 10 years or so... Honey,I want you to find your husband. You need to read John 14 and ask the LORD to provide a husband for you."

Amen. And Goodnight.

I believe...

I believe that God loves us profoundly. Indescribably.

I believe He knows us personally. Our names. Our hearts.

I believe that Jesus came and died on a cross so that we could have intimate communion with God. So that He could touch us, speak to us and live through us.

I believe that we all need Home - a place we are known and loved. Our HOME is the Kingdom of God, and while we are here, it's our job to bring the Kingdom to one another. Jesus calls us to care for the widows, orphans and those who've never experienced a Home in Christ.

God is calling me to extend Home to those who don't have one – specifically, orphans.

I'm going to South Africa with Youth With A Mission (YWAM) to participate in a Discipleship Training School (DTS). I will be staying at YWAM's South African base, Ten Thousand Homes, where they are living out Jesus' proclamation by bringing homes and hope to HIV/AIDS orphans. After 3 months of DTS, my team and I will travel to another African country for outreach for 2 months.

I believe God’s heart is for the American church to join this mighty Kingdom work. Will you pray for the Homes of the orphans and Africans I will encounter, as well as follow me prayerfully on my blog? I appreciate your prayers for the details of the trip as well, as I am just beginning raising support, will be moving out of my apartment in a few weeks and arranging all the details for the journey ahead.

I will be raising $9000 for 8 months of traveling, training and ministry, as well as money to build a house for a family unit to give Home to a few orphaned children. It only takes 1000 bricks to build a house for 4 - and it only costs $3/brick!

My church, Bay Area Community Church in League City, TX, is sending a team to join me in July to put their hands and feet into His work, and build the house we raise. I believe God has already started working in us as a body to turn our hearts toward the Kingdom together.

I feel like I have a front row seat into a big, big work God is doing and I'm honored to be a part of it. I believe this is our mission, and that we can join together for the good of Africa's orphans and for the glory of the Kingdom.