Happy Memorial Day weekend!
It's time to kick off the summer… last days of school, graduations, and vacations are all around me as the earth celebrates the return of life – tiger lilies lining the roadsides, green, fluttering leaves under an endless blue sky, and fireflies lacing paths through the dusk…. my most favorite time of year! I love being outside, especially in early summer. Everything feels so vibrant, so exuberant. I love it. I love the picture God gives us in nature of His goodness and His love.
Silly as it seems, I feel as if something inside of me has also been returning to life, something that's been dormant for too long. God's been speaking to me about living a life of thankfulness. This past week it felt as if a mirror had been placed before me and what I saw wasn't pretty. I saw a heart divided between stress, worry, and fear, and the times I chose to voice those things instead of praise to the Living God. That was enough to send me to my knees and to ask Him to make a change in me, to let Him be my focus with my eyes fixed on Him. I think somewhere these last few months I looked away, and because He wasn't filling my gaze, I closed my eyes.
It took that mirror for them to re-open.
Since that day, I've been overwhelmed. Filled with sorrow for the opportunities I've missed to praise Him, for the times instead that I said anything contrary to praise, but more than that… overwhelmed with awe. With thankfulness for who God is, for what He has done, for His forgiveness. Thanking Him that I can trust Him with all the things I need to do, with my concerns big and small… with my heart. That He cares. He's turning my heart into one of praise and once again, my eyes are becoming locked on His.
While I have so many reasons to praise Him, one huge reason is that He provided the entire cost of the Thailand trip! Right now I don't know the exact number because the month hasn't ended, but I can say with certainty that I received the $595 needed to cover the Thailand trip. In addition, I have received enough to partially cover the India trip in August, which I'll write more about next month. But right now, I want to say THANK YOU!!!! Thank you so much! Thank you, God! Thank you to those of you who have been praying! Thank you to those of you who gave financially. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Secondly, thank you so much for praying for the Training Conference we had at AIM last week. We had 14 people in all who came for preparation for Long Term Overseas Ministry. It was a great week of conversations, laughter, learning, and excitement of what God is going to do.
(Above left: me teaching a short session on Member Care. Right: the LTM Team).
We had prospective missionaries for Thailand, Cambodia, Ireland, Jordan, Swaziland, and India. Being able to meet them, to hear their hearts for the hurting and the depths of their commitment to serve the Lord was inspiring and exciting. Now, all of those people are home, ready to dive into support raising. Then it will be time for them to go!
And we go back to interviewing new prospective missionaries, helping them on their journeys, and inviting them to the next training, which is in October, as well as helping those who just finished the training work through the support raising stage.
Lastly, I leave for Thailand tomorrow! AHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am so excited! Excited to see those I met in October, to check in and see how certain people are doing; to be able to share God's love in a place that mangles that word in the worst possible way… to be a witness of Him and to what He is doing.
Please pray for us as we travel… that's a long flight! For safety… for the team as we meet them there, that there will be energy despite jet lag. We are a team of 17. Connie is the leader and I'm support staffing, then there are 15 participants. We've been talking with them via email and phone, but now we get to meet in person. Exciting!
I'll do my best to post updates from over there, letting you know how things are going. Thank you so much for praying! Thank you for your generosity! Thank you for everything!
