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