Bold Prayers

There is no doubting that South Africa- and other parts of the world- need prayers for protection.  For an end to poverty. For an end to fear and violence.  For an end to a lack of resources for education.  All of these remain areas on which to pray fervently and consistently. 

But what about the other bold prayers?  Big, dreamy, I-want-to-fly-to-the-moon type of prayers?

I look around at some of these precious faces and wonder...What do they dream?  What ignites their passion?  What is their true heartbeat?  I'm not talking about things to possess or even careers to be had, but what do they want to do in their lives?

Do they even know?  Have they even allowed themselves to possess greater dreams?

Please don't mis-hear me!  I'm not talking about chasing the "American Dream", but what has God called them to do with great joy and excitement?  We know what challenges they have, but what are the challenges they WANT?  I look around and see the faces of great leaders, teachers, mentors, healers....but do they see it?  Do they feel it?

This is my prayer for my friends in South Africa...

I pray that each and every one of you comes to know the full measure of Jesus' love for you!  I pray that you feel connected to the body of Christ...not as members holding on for dear life, but as members paving the way in the gifts planted in your souls.  I pray that you know you are irreplaceable branches on God's vine!  You are fine patches in the middle of God's great tapestry!  You are FEARFULLY AND WONDERFULLY MADE!!!  

I pray that you not only find joy in your lives but you seize joy!  I pray you connect with your God-given talents and purposes, and I pray that connection leads to bigger risks and remarkable movement...both in your lives and in the life of your community!  I pray you are lifted to Godly heights; circling God's promises and refusing to move until our Great and Mighty God has answered!

Now to Him, who is able to do immeasurably.....IMMEASURABLY...more than we could ever hope or imagine.  Re-ignite these souls, Oh God! May they dance, sing, rejoice, create, lead, teach, serve, and LIVE in YOU once again!

Amen!!! <3

"You were made to shine

 You were made for life

 Even if you've lost your way

 Turn and you will hear love say"

"You were made for more

  So much more

  Child of everlasting light

  Made to blaze away the night"

"So baby burn bright!

 Burn bright!"

~lyrics from "Burn Bright" by Natalie Grant

"If you fix the root, you fix the fruit"

We were blessed to be able to attend Wednesday night service with Pastor Trevor tonight.  So many wonderful moments at Khula and Murchison today (saw both of my girls!), but I want to share with you my notes on Pastor Trevor's talk from the book of Nehemiah. Please keep in mind that these are my notes...he does a much better job of delivering the message :)

Nehemiah has been sent to motivate the Jews to rebuild Jerusalem's walls...and he does!  When we think about the walls coming down in our own lives, we need to examine 3 things:

1.  What are the reasons why your walls are down?

     *neglect:  in the spiritual aspect of your life, you have neglected your relationship with Christ

     *war:  the enemy attacks (external & out of your control)

     *you leave the gates open:  you are corrupt from within (internal)

2.  What are your priorities?

     "If you fix the root, you will fix the fruit"

      *stop trying to fix your challenges and draw closer to Christ!  stop wasting your time and energy on trying to fix the fruit!

      *fruit from the vine is natural; it's not forced or manipulated

3.  What is your prayer?

     Nehemiah's prayer in Chapter 1 is argued to be one of the greatest prayers in the bible.  He follows a beautiful pattern of Adoration Confession Thanksgiving (reminding God of His promises) and Supplication!

      *while this is a beautiful prayer, it's not the theology of it that is so beautiful...it's the HEART of the prayer.

      *some of the most meaningful prayers are 2 words (remember me, help me, forgive me)

I LOVED this message tonight, because it's exactly what I needed to hear.  There is NO challenge that drawing nearer to God won't heal.  Stop focusing on the fruit and draw closer to the Root!!

Much love!  xoxox Be blessed, peeps!

Leave Your Map Behind...

In Sarah Young's Devotionals, "Jesus Calling", she writes of our need to constantly see the map of our lives and to know just where it is we're heading.  But, she goes on to say, that Jesus is the best map we could have.  

What would happen if we left the map behind and followed The Guide instead?  

Genesis, I believe, is doing just that...leaving the map behind.  I was blown away today when Sharon reminded us that they are coming up on 10 years of the Genesis ministry start, right there at the Care Center.  What an amazing amount of community outreach and growth that has occurred in just 10 short years!

We were also reminded today of the story about how Genesis got started in the first place.  Pastor Trevor was so distraught after he found a man who had died, alone, on the church grounds.  He was so broken by this that he asked this question at church the following Sunday..."If the church were gone tomorrow, would anybody know?"  

The thing is, the church can pour their resources into building their own church and their own programs...without any direct contact with or impact on their community.  They can spend all of their time loving each other and building up other believers. They can lay out an ideal map of what "church" and "ministry" should look like within their own four walls.  But God calls us to walk with Him and BE the church.  BE the adventure. BE the journey.  "Church" should not be a noun, but a verb!

Genesis continues to leave the map behind.  The Care Center is now training other area pastors on how to handle grief within their community.  They are partnering with local churches to alert them when one of their community members is released from the hospital and is heading home, so that they can be looked in on and supported in the transition.  They have just started a training module for home visiting nurses (a real-life "Call the Midwife" scenario, if you will....so cool!), and they are working on ideas on how to make such a program sustainable into the future, because it's what their community needs!

It's so inspiring to see what focusing on Jesus can do, and where it can lead!  I want to be brave, put down my map, and follow Him!

Road trip, anyone?

Music Monday!

This picture pretty much sums up my day today.  This girl has been my little angel since the first year I came to South Africa.  Today, she had her arms wrapped around me in the tightest little hug before I even realized who was hugging me!  When I finally saw her face, I shouted her name and she just beamed at me!  Ahhhhhh...heart melted!

It was a day of beautiful music at both Khula and Murchison!  The little ones at Khula learned some new Jim Gill songs, of which I will hopefully have video to share with you by the end of the week!  (I can't wait to show Jim...he has such a fan base in this amazing little preschool :). It was so cute seeing them learn the little finger plays and jumping up and down to the trampoline song :)

Murchison now has a choir!!  We are desperately trying to upload the video to Facebook, so be on the lookout for that!  The boys and girls sang their hearts out in the music room, and the little ones could be seen gathered outside the windows, dancing!  

For anyone who has ever thought or said that music & the arts have no value...I challenge you to come to South Africa and sit yourself down in the music room at Murchison.  I think God has a thing or two he would like to discuss with you.  And I'll see you next May at our first orientation meeting... :-)

Tomorrow, we are off to the Care Center for the entire day!!  I'm so looking forward to spending more time with the patients this year!  

Praying that your are all having a blessed week this far!

Sunday Highlights!

I started my Sunday with quiet devotional time under a bright morning sun.  We had a full day scheduled, and I wanted to set my heart in the right place before heading out.

We always end our day with a debrief...to address any difficult moments and process the day as a whole.  But one of my favorite things is talking about the highlights of the day.  It's usually different for everyone, but it's so awesome to recount the blessings, and seeing moments of gratitude through various lenses.

Here are my highlights for today...

1.  Seeing the little guy from the orphanage walking this year!!!  Aaaaahhh!!  I think I may have jumped up and down in excitement when I saw this! Last year, he was so sad and you could tell he was in pain...both physically and spiritually.  But this year was a completely different story, and it was awesome to see him keeping up with his peers!

2.  Reconnecting with friends at church and hearing Trevor give the orientation talk.  Because I never tire of hearing him speak about South Africa's history, culture, and plans for the future!  It was wonderful having time with him, Helene, & Jordan!

3.  13 to 30 service at Youth Alive!  This is a great group of young adults who come together on Sunday nights for praise, worship, and time in God's word.  

I also found out tonight that if you go to the bathroom and then return right before they get started, they will clap for you, ask you what brand of toothpaste you use, and make you show them your best dance moves.  (Amy Davis, you would have been proud of my Ho Down dance ;-)

My last highlight was actually our debrief time, as I posed this question to my travel mates...How do you pray?  I struggle so much sometimes with staying focused in prayer, coming boldly to Christ, and giving breath to requests on behalf of others.  I have a list of your prayers (yes...yours!), and I want to clear the cob webs from my heart before I offer them up to God.

I loved Karen's suggestion for praying through a scripture.  Like maybe a Psalm.  Read through it and let this prayer guide you in praying for others.  I also loved Susan's suggestion when getting a prayer request in passing... Pray right then and there!  Because let's be honest...sometimes when we say we will pray for someone, there are many times when it just doesn't happen.

One of my goals for this trip was to become more disciplined in prayer time.  Not because I think God is looking for my discipline, but because I think the discipline will help me...and Him...better understand my heart.

It was a fun day, and another great way to get the week of serving started.  Tomorrow, we are off to Khula in the morning and then Murchison!!!

Until then, I leave you with a few more adorable pictures...

Saturday Devotion: A Focus on 2 Corinthians 1:9

We had a great first full day in Port Shepstone, spending time with friends and dipping our toes into the fragile waters of service today.  It was a small easing into the hard stuff, but even the shortest of moments can hit you like a wave.

We visited the children's ward at the Murchison hospital; a first for me on this trip.  It's a tiny, hopeful place full of loving nurses and doting mothers for some.  

But it was also a place with scared faces of young mothers.  And downhearted, exhausted mothers. Or no mothers at all.

Looking down at babies with scarred faces, wrapped limbs, and broken bodies undid me.  I stared hard into the cartoon painted wall, trying to will the tears back into my eyes. I can't let them see me cry.  I can't let them see anything but hope.  But my mind was racing with questions of "why?".  Why are they here?  Why do they have these burns on their little bodies?  Why are their growing bones twisted; bones bending in familiar but un-natural directions?  Why...when they already endure such pain & poverty?  Why?...

I have been racking my brain trying to figure out what I can possibly say on this blog that I haven't already said the past 2 years.  What can I say to you that could possibly make you understand the level of hardship here?

I think the answer to that question is:  I can't.  I can't fully describe the level of frustration I feel at seeing some of the things I see.  Not because we don't have pain, disease, hardships and brokenness in the United States....because we do, and everyone's pain & suffering should be validated.  But what I can't understand is how the world became so unbalanced when it comes to treating and tending to these tragedies?  I could go to any hospital around the world and potentially see a baby with burns on his body.  But in a place of extreme poverty, that baby is not getting the same treatment as other babies around the world.  And that little boy over there in that bed with Cerebral Palsy?  He's not getting physical therapy or a communication system or even a possibility of a wheelchair.  And that baby sitting at the table, waiting for the orange and banana we brought her?  She's not getting social work to get to the bottom of why she can't make eye contact or why she pulls away from a touch to her shoulder or why no mom or other relative is around to tell her it's going to be okay.

I don't pretend to know or understand the answers to these questions.  But my devotional today...before I even left for the hospital...prepared my heart ever so slightly with these words from 2 Corinthians 1:9...

"In our hearts we felt the sentence of death.  But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but, on God, who raises the dead"

God lifted little voices to sing and play peek a boo from cribs.  God brought smiles and satisfaction and filled empty bellies with oranges and bananas and juice pouches.  God heard prayers, laid upon the alter in the name of Jesus, for the sake of His children.  God brought an entourage of family and friends to the bedside of a child who was struck by a car yesterday.  God arranged for a girl from Illinois to walk through the doors of a hospital and wrap her hands around tiny fingers and to smile deep into the eyes of a 7 month old baby girl, telling her that she was going to get well.  That her mama was sitting at the end of her bed, and that it was okay to fall asleep.

God raised the dead today.  He showed up in hospitals everywhere.  He shed light where darkness tries to hide and linger and steal souls.  He brought joy to eager faces.

Upon these things I choose to steady my heart.  Upon these victories I choose to focus.

God raised the dead today.  And placed beauty in the darkness...

Getting Acquainted

Hey everybody!!  We have officially started our journey back to South Africa!!  We arrived safely in NYC (thanks so much for your continued prayers!), and I am standing in line at security heading into the International Gates :) 

Cool things so far?  We've met 4 traveling companions...a family from Iowa heading to Mozambique and a student from Zambia going back to visit her family.  She's studying health sciences and wants to be an OT working with small children!  Small world...God's story!

Personally, I have also learned the following about my 2 travel buddies.  Karen is freaked out by dogs but is very much looking forward to a Safari experience.  And Susan watches too much Amazing Race.  Lol

Friends & Family, thank you so much for your continued prayers.  Please continue to pray and please pray for the people that God has put in our path so far.  May they have wonderfully blessed travel experiences!

Almost to the check in....gotta go!