When dreams come true

It's always been my dream...

I remember singing about the missionary plane in kindergarten, reading Norma Youngberg books at night by flashlight as an eight-year-old, and going on two life-changing mission trips to the Philippines when I was seventeen and nineteen. Watching mission videos, hearing missionaries speak, seeing the need of people around the world...

And now, my dream has nearly come true. I get to be a foreign missionary.

To which country? That in itself has been a journey. I had plans; God's differed. But He has led, closed and opened doors, given advice through the voices of friends and family, and now I'm making plans to go teach at a school in Cambodia at the end of August.

My friends Sarah and Laura went to teach at Wat Preah Yesu, a children's orphanage and school, a couple of years ago. I kept up with them a little as they went over and wrote of their experiences teaching there at school. Little did I know that I would get to live similar adventures later down the road!

Another wonderful opportunity has been placed across my path as well - a month-long summer missionary training program with AFM (even though I won't be a missionary with them). And so (pending my acceptance there, at this point) I plan to travel to Michigan in July to learn from experts in the field before I begin my overseas journey. I am really looking forward to it!

It is a sad thing to leave my station at Young Disciple, but I believe that the challenges and opportunities ahead are God-led. The past six years have been amazing and full of lessons, miracles, and forever friends, and I am excited to see what God has in store for this new chapter of life.

I will share more later about Cambodia and other details of life. Stay posted!

P.S. I currently sponsor a young girl at an orphanage in Myanmar, but due to the expenses of my upcoming trip, I will no longer be able to support her. Would you consider "adopting" her as your own? If God places this on your heart, please let me know and I can give you more information. :-)

The last appeal

Stephen’s last appeal to the hard hearts of the Pharisees…

“Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye. 

“Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which shewed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers: 

“Who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it.” *

---

Circumcision was one of the Pharisees' most important laws and ceremonies, so to call them uncircumcised was a huge disgrace. And in their heart and ears?

They also took great pride in the prophets, but they killed each of them that foretold of the Messiah, and then they ended up killing Him too.

The law was their pride and joy, but as Stephen pointed out, in reality, they had not kept it, even though their whole point of being Pharisees was that they were strictly law-keepers.

How easily we can profess to be and do something (and be proud of it!), but actually not be faithful in those very things...

*Acts 7:51-53

Timothy

A touching story...

that requires action.

Watch, and see if you don't shed a few tears yourself...


Timothy from Reel Mission Productions on Vimeo.

(thanks, Schane.)

The little stuff

It's the little things that really brighten life. I keep a list of simple things that cheer me and remind me of God's ever-present love. Here's a condensed version:

• Adobe InDesign.
• Music alarms on my iPod.
• Scripture Typer.
• An organized to do list.
• Encouraging blogposts (especially missions or practical and applicable spiritual truths).
• Old songbooks (ever heard of Literature Evangelists Sing?).
• Sleeping in.
• Special nuggets from studying God's Word.
• Expecting packages in the mail.
• Listening to owls hooting in the woods.
• Productive Sundays.
• Being the last house on a country road (in other words, the middle of nowhere).
• Starting memorization on a new chapter in Acts.
• Friends who know just how to cheer me up.
• Summer.
• A pile of books to read.
• The mail-order library (where the above books come from.)
• Full moon brightness.
• My cozy little bedroom.
• Hot dogs over the fire.
• Having plenty of time to simply READ (rare, indeed).
• Homemade laundry soap.
• Christmas peacefulness.
• Missionary friends to pray for.
• Church Christmas programs (especially cute kiddos who steal the show).
• Busy work days.
• Sitting next to a wiggly 4-year-old (and then he flings arms round you and proclaims, "I love you!").
• Design assistants.
• Reading back through my journal and seeing how God has led.
• A warm kitty girl sleeping by my feet all night.
• Diminishing my list of memorization review left to do.

Mission in the moment

The big picture is important, but individual moments are what counts:

The Mission in the Moment (Jeffrey Dean) from gotandem on Vimeo.

Thinking back on yesterday

Funny how a month and day can seem completely normal and mundane to one person, and yet hold year-to-year meaning for another...

It's amazing just how much can occur in the time frame of just one revolution around the sun. And yet, if today is in the context of just yesterday, or the day before, I don't see much change. I have to flip the pages of my journal all the way back to February 24 of last year and see just what has been recorded since then.

The question is posed again: Am I any different than I was last year? My journal reminds me that the answer is yes. Absolutely yes. Lessons learned, challenges embarked on, new burdens placed on my heart, all morph to change the very core of this body and mind that is me.

God has changed me. It's not the end of the journey by any means, but I am encouraged to see His working so clearly.

This year's goal: surrender. To know Him more, so fully that nothing can separate. To be able to read my journal a year from now and see once again that God has molded me to be an even closer resemblance to His beautiful character of love.

Are you watching?

What will it profit us to cherish pride of spirit... 
and pray for humility? 

What will it profit to seek eagerly the friendship and applause of the world...
and pray for heavenly affections?

What will it profit to indulge in passionate temper and un-Christlike words...
and then ask for the meekness of Christ? 

This is not watching unto prayer.

In the lack of that faith that works by love and purifies the soul 
lies the secret of unanswered prayer.

If the church will arise in the strength of God to meet her responsibilities, 
consecrating to God every power,
the Spirit of the Lord will be poured out in rich abundance.

—from Manuscript 35, January 8, 1893, "Publishing Work."


Oh, to know Him... to know His grace.