Prayer Circles

When preparing for  a mission trip, I start praying the day I know that I am supposed to go. My list of prayers covers a variety of topics from safe travel, to providing enough funding, to bringing the right team together, to being used by God. There are so many details that need to be in place before one steps foot out the door.

The one of the biggest prayer circles I present before the Father is to accomplish His work in my heart. I don't want to wait until I get to the destination for Him get my heart ready. I am hungry to know what's on His heart concerning the days ahead.  

When asked, I knew immediately that God wanted me to go. As I was talking with another team member who had been struggling with the reasons for going, he again asked the question.. "Why should I be going?" I kept reassuring him of all the reasons to go, but it wasn't until God reminded him of a previous mission trip experience in the Dominican Republic, that actually helped him feel assured of the mission call. There was a tender moment a year ago when God opened his eyes to the distractions of his life at home, only to reveal the "rich" life of those he had traveled to serve. The American dream is quickly cast aside when it collides with wide-spread poverty, and buried with the disadvantaged.  That was life-changing for him, as it was for most of the team members.

God prepares you as you pray to prepare. 


He will always bring us   


to seeing their needs 


to His broken heart 


to loving them as His people.


It's there that we can see God's purpose in serving.   


Purpose.  Once we see His heart...how can we say no?

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The Broken Road

When preparing for a mission, if you seek God, He will prepare you for what is ahead.  Sometimes though I don't know that anything could really prepare me for what His real is.


I have been reading some blogs lately of missionaries on the ground in Swaziland.  There have been heart wrenching stories that have come out of that small country.  It makes me pause.  It makes me broken.


I pray for the broken lives there and for those who need mending.  I ask myself, "How can I make a difference in just a few days?"    

I believe what Ps. 147:3 says, "God heals the brokenhearted and bids up their wounds."

So I cling to the promise that He knows.  He sees.  He heals.  He mends.  He loves deeply.  In my own broken world, it's hard to imagine theirs.  I am glad I serve a God who cares about the "whys".  

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This is the team shirt for our mission to Swaziland.  The words in the center mean a lot to me.


Be.  
Be who God called you to be.  You are special, unique and He has given you gifts to share with others.


Go.
Jesus met people with compassion right where they were and showed them the truth.  He went with a heart loaded with mercy and grace.  If we don't go, sharing the same, who will?


Love.
The reason for our being, the reason for our going is in this last word - love.  Love speaks volumes when words fail.  Love speaks of mercy.  Love communicates grace.  Love heals.  Love hugs.  Love bridges the gaps.  Love is enough.


When I think of the mission ahead, I pray for God to load my heart with love for those who need to receive.  Love motivates me to be, Love propels me to go, Love moves my heart to give.


My thoughts travel to Africa everyday.

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Something I Can't Get Past...

I can't get past this story.  But God can.  He is bigger than the pain and the scars leftover from such a violent act.  I am thankful that we have a God who cares, and knows.  And the end of the day, and at the end of this story, God is still God.  And that is enough.

Of course this story brings up the age old question of, why God?  Why did you allow this young precious girl be violated in such a way?  Because evil exists.  Everywhere, it's not just confined to Africa.  What I do know that in the middle of her pain God was there to meet her with the hug and touch through this missionary couple.  Grace and mercy were given.  In situations like this, when words fail, a touch of comfort is what is needed.  

Where is God in the middle of these type of situations?   I believe that God weeps too when his children are hurting.  I watched a the movie Tears of the Sun this past weekend.  It was on our "recommended" list of resources in preparation for this mission trip to Swaziland.  Here's your disclaimer.  I know that it is rated R.  I don't watch rated R movies...ever.  The violence is too much, I can't absorb it, and it doesn't entertain me.  This movie was very violent, and horrific.  The good guys win in the end, but there is a lot of blood shed.  I wouldn't recommend it at all unless you really like bloody fighting scenes riddled with profanity.  I now have those hurtful images in my mind of such horrible acts of violence.  I can't get past those either. 

Why does God allow bad things to happen, even to the innocent?  I don't know.  But I know that God loves and I know that my response to those who commit acts of violence is one that should be of love.  Without conditions, without judgments just like what Christ has offered to me.  That kind of love is something I can't get past either.  I hope I never do.    

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Heavy Heart

When God calls you to something, it's interesting that He also plants a passion in your heart that can't be quenched.  It's like he backs up your dreams with his.  Sometimes the fire burning inside my heart is so strong...


that I can't see past stepping off the plane and hugging kids.  


that I wonder if I could ever learn the language.  


that the return trip home will be twice as long and what about the "what-happens-next?"


Today I read a blog about being a visionary.  I like that word.  In my mind it means that God gives life to your dreams.  

"Being a visionary has to do with what you can bring to life. God is the Creator not because He imagined or envisioned creation. But because He acted and brought it into existence. ~ Steven Furtick"

I strive to have God-sized dreams and dreams that align with his will. Going on international mission trips will always be on my dream list.  That is what I feel called to.  I know God is breathing life into this mission trip dream to Africa.  He has inflated my heart with his passion for the broken there.  I have too many tears not to go.

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Missions Horizon

God continues to deepen the impact of missions daily in the folds of my heart.  He is filling crevices that I didn't know existed.  I see this as a good thing.  I think about the mission trip to Swaziland, Africa everyday.  I also think about the days after I return home. How will I make a difference then?

Just in time for your summer reading list.  Mission of Mercy, an awesome organization, has posted two of my blogs on their top ten summer blog list.

You can keep missions on your horizons by reading these blogs.

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