OMS Reunion Pics

I'm going to have to set aside more time to blog- because there are a lot of exciting things happening and you all are a part of it!  I've written a little about our OMS Family Reunion/ 110th Anniversary- now here are some pics!  Above is a picture of most of our summer interns- it has been so great to get to know them and I can't believe the first two will be leaving this week!  Thanks to those of you who have been praying over them and me as I've been leading them this summer.  We were lucky to get some time away with Bette Crouse, whose husband is OMS' former president!  She had great stories and wisdom to share with us!  Bette is on the far left, and next to her is my friend and co-worker Cat, who's funding to join the Mobilization department at HQ!

Bette and Dawn, my sweet friend and our director of Mobilization's wife.

There were a lot of people at the reunion... over 300 missionaries gathered from the US and around the world to worship, learn and deepen community together!

Paul, Cat and I were in a skit the first day to share about OMS History.

Kids at the reunion

Our interns were an awesome help with the kids program and skits!

Amanda, Megan and Sarah rocking the skits!

 Hillary is our Mobilization intern and Jody is serving in Hope61

Emily is serving in Communications

Brianna's family serves in Haiti, Tiffy's family at HQ

Jessica, Cat and I got to know Tania and Sergii during lunch one day.  Tania's from Australia and Sergii's from Ukraine, where they now serve with their three kids.  They're going through CROSS Training as a family right now, so be praying for their prep for the field.

Bruce Bennett, director of OMS South Africa, shared about the Into Africa Project and the thousands of churches being planted throughout the continent!

 Travis is our CFO and Patrick directs eXtreme Walk!

Robin!

Cookout on OMS Campus

Emily is serious about cornhole

Another update is coming soon!!!  In the meantime, join me in praising and thanking God for this nourishing time during the reunion!  I am always so happy to hear what is going on with you, too!

110

Tonight, Jesus met with us as we celebrated the 110th anniversary of One Mission Society.  He is so good!   Beth Kinlaw Coppedge spoke, starting by reading excerpts from 2 Corinthians 4-6.  Then, she asked God to come and take over the time, to speak to us "nose-to-nose and face-to-face" and to speak to us and teach us by name and individually instead of in general. She asked Jesus to come not as our guest but as our host, and as she prayed, I could tell... this woman loves Jesus.

Praise God, through her, His Word penetrated my heart, and seemingly the hearts of many others there, and brought me to tears before she was even a quarter of the way through.  My heart had been hungry for this teaching, and as she spoke, sharing about a desire for fresh healing, wisdom and annointing, I found myself yearning for it, too.

OMS is an organization that has a Wesleyan/Holiness background, and so, our speakers have been focusing on holiness and sanctification- some of which I can have a hard time sorting out or resting in... but tonight we digested the fact that Jesus wants all of us and he wants 100 percent-- why?  So that He can dwell in us, and so we don't go reproducing who we are but instead who He is.

What a great time processing with the Lord about sanctification and His transforming power.  His power to transform our hearts, mind, desires and even our belief in the lie that things can never be different.

A couple of weeks ago, a friend shared with me about being encouraged by the fact that we are not to temper or balance truth and emotions by reigning either in, but instead God calls us to be fully invested both in truth and an emotional relationship with Him.  Last night was a great example of that for me.


I don't think I've ever heard a woman speak with such power, while maintaining such a sweet voice and tender spirit.  Beth shared that she was caught up in her own needs and fears when God told her,


"Give those to me and let me make you bigger than your coping mechanisms."


Whoa...  I don't know about you but I think that's good news!


I think the part that stood out most to me about all this was just the call to a love relationship with the Lord and a reminder that He is waiting for me to soak up His presence and spend time with Him in His word, and in the midst of serving him in full-time ministry, it is not a worker that he is looking for but a lover-- Wow, what a pointed reminder!  He cares more about us having the intimacy of the presence of Jesus than us being busy serving.

What a generous blessing tonight was!  I'm so thankful for the encouragement, depth and healing He provided for us tonight through His truth and presence.

I hope some of this translates and encourages you more than seeming like a whirlwind recap.  Thank you for those of you who read along and journey with me.  Thank you so much for those of you who pray as you read.  Please pray over the next two days of our Missionary Reunion/ 110th Anniversary.  May tonight just be the beginning of more deep moments with Him!

Hello, friends!

Hello, friends! It has been an exciting few weeks!! Thank you so much to those of you who have been praying over my transition to Mobilization. I'm loving it and have felt so supported by the headquarters staff in this   move :)


One of my favorite parts of this job so far is getting to sit down and pray with candidates and come alongside young women as they are seeking the Lord's leading in their lives!! What an exciting place to be... in a front row seat, watching God develop His people and reveal His next steps for them. It has been such a gift to get to host these candidates, and to get to know my new co-workers in our department!


This week, we had our first summer intern, Hillary arrive-- she did a great job! I'm looking forward to meeting the rest of the interns that we've been praying over and preparing for! Our director of Mobilization, Paul, and I have been preparing a summer program for the interns, so that they can have the opportunity to dig into spiritual formation and build community despite the fact that they are serving in different departments.


…And in the time since I started writing this a week ago (shame on me), four more interns have arrived and there’s been a Hispanic marriage retreat at headquarters where I served alongside some dear friends that coordinated the weekend.


Needless to say it has been a busy time, but God has been doing exciting things. I’ve been reading Ephesians recently, which started a couple of weeks ago when I found myself clinging to Ephesians 4… boy did I need to hear all of it: a call for unity in the body through compassion, yielding and forgiveness alongside the need to be rooted in Christ in the midst of the waves of life.


Would you be praying this over our team, house church, our interns, OMS and the couples that attended the marriage retreat? I will certainly be praying it over you… what a crazy time some seasons can be, but God is unmovable and unchanging and that’s one of the reasons I want to be more rooted in Him.


In a lot of ways, my heart still feels shaken up and unsettled since being in Africa. I feel a sense of urgency in my heart which I know could just be transition, but I also think it’s me struggling to see how the things I saw there and the truths I believe about wanting to radically follow the Lord fit in with the culture or life here—even within some Christian sub-cultures. This makes it a little hard to write recently, because even at times when the schedule has settled down, I haven’t. It has been more of a seeking and striving phase than one of conclusions. I’m still waiting to see where this change in perspective and desires fits exactly, but maybe that’s just how it’s supposed to be… because it requires dependence.


I guess that’s all for tonight---except that I’m finding myself overwhelming thankful for the good examples of disciples that Jesus has put in my life. What a blessing to live life with them and learn together.


Thank you for praying and for seeking Jesus and for being a part of my life through this team!

Big News and Timing!

Our department has been looking forward to today—it was Jessica and Susan’s first day back in the office since they left for Asia two weeks ago.  They left only a few days after I returned from Africa, and in the meantime one of our coworkers has been out for a week with his new baby and another is in Mexico and another is in Florida…it has been a busy place to say the least!  And weird to be taking turns holding down the fort and working in silence in a department that is otherwise always filled with banter.

Friday, I was gone, too, but on a much shorter trip—I was in Kentucky for my first visit to Asbury University!  I drove down to speak at Friday Night Live at the OMS house on Asbury’s campus. It was fun to see Wilmore and the campus after hearing about it for years from different friends and family. I spent Friday and Saturday with my good friends Mandi and Steven and their two little boys. It was a treat to see a little of their community and where they’re living while Steven is in seminary.

Before speaking at the Friday night group, I met a student on campus, who’s considering applying to serve in communications with OMS.  She’ll be coming to visit our headquarters tomorrow, and we’re looking forward to showing her the communications ministry and getting to know her!

This trip was especially fun for me, because it was a brief glimpse of what I’ll be doing in the coming year with OMS!  April 25—that’s right, a week from today—I’ll be starting a new position in OMS’ mobilization department!!  I’m so excited about this opportunity and think it will be a great fit!  God really confirmed this move for me during my time in Africa, and I can’t wait to come alongside applicants, candidates and our current missionaries as they seek God’s direction in their lives!  One of the things I’ll be doing as a mobilizer is building relationships and discipling students on a few different college campuses, and Asbury is one of them!

Isn’t it funny how this trip to Wilmore happened to be just a week before I start as a mobilizer?  Speaking at Asbury has been in my calendar for a while.  It was way back in the fall when I was asked to come April 15th.  While planning the trip to Africa, I remember thinking it was pretty convenient to be coming back right before I was to share in Wilmore, but little did I know, headquarters would be approving my first day in mobilization to be just one week after I spoke.  I didn't know, but He knew.

God knows me in and out, and He knows the timing of my life. He knew the timing of lessons I needed to learn in Haiti.  He knew that even though going to Africa in March seemed rushed to me, it was the perfect timing to be away, seeking His direction in changing ministry positions. And He knew in October, when the Colemans asked me to come speak at Asbury, that April was the perfect time to go and get to start a new relationship with them!

I’m reading this book right now, Sacred Waiting, and today, I read an example that really made sense to me. The author’s referring to a little league baseball coach, training kids on how to steal bases. (I used to love going to the ballpark to watch Steve play little league!) He writes:

“…it seemed to me that the training shared the three facets of waiting on God: (1.) recognize the voice of your coach; (2.) run immediately when the coach says “Go!”; and (3.) trust that the coach’s sense of timing is better than your own. The coach, after all, is watching the entire field and can see the whole play unfolding. The runner must remain focused entirely on the next base.”

I don’t know about you, but for me, sometimes the third one seems the hardest to get through my head, which is one of the reasons I just love when God lets me see, through things like this weekend, that He’s known all along.

"You know when I sit and when I rise... You discern my going out and my lying down... Before a word is on my tongue, you know it completely, O Lord... All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be."  Psalm 139

Anyway, I'm so excited to be sharing with you about this new opportunity to serve Jesus.  Would you be praying over my last few days in the communications department and this transition into the mobilization department next week?  

If you have any questions for me about this transition or new role, please let me know! I'm looking forward to sharing more with you as I get started next week.

Thank you so much for being my teammate in this ministry!

Kids' hearts for Africa

It has been such a joy to share with people about my time in Africa.  Last week, I had the chance to share some stories and pictures with a few kids, and they were just soaking it up.  A few of them had seen some of the photos the day before and so whenever I’d ask what they thought was happening in a certain photo, they remembered!  I was so glad to just see their excitement and know that some of the stories were sticking with them.

One of the things they kept asking about was this little boy.  He was a smiley little guy at a YFC orphanage in Burundi.  You’ll notice his shoes are mismatched.  I didn’t realize until I picked him up that he’s wearing a tennis shoe on one foot because he has a prosthetic leg.

Another thing we talked about is water and how lucky we are to have running water and faucets in our houses.

While I was sharing with the kids, my friend Robin had one of them grab a milk jug from the fridge.  The kids took turns trying to carry it on their heads, and we told them to try to imagine carrying something 10 times as heavy.  I shared with them that I had seen kids smaller than the girl in this first photo carrying water jugs.

They were soaking it up and asking so many questions, which just makes me happy!  We finished the night by praying for the little boy from Burundi and missionary Aimee and the Mozambican women she serves with.
Would love it if you would pray for them, too, but pray also for these sweet kids who are already learning about other cultures and how big Jesus' heart is for the world.  Pray that He'd keep shaping their hearts and giving us the tools to help them find ways to serve (which they've been asking about a lot!).