Catalyst and transparency

The theme of this week would have to be transparent stories of God's faithfulness.  Friday morning, two of my teammates and I had the gift of hearing Beth and Cat's testimonies.  Beth and Cat serve in Mobilization and are currently going through Crosstraining (the four-week training all new OMS missionaries go through).  There are 14 missionaries going through the training and they started by sharing their testimonies with each other during the first week- they see no need to waste time before going deep.  It was such a privilege to hear some of their life story and pieces that God used to draw them to Himself and make them who they are today.


Friday evening was the beginning of the Catalyst retreat on OMS campus.  This was the first Catalyst event we've ever done, and it was a blessing to be a part of the facilitation team for the event!  I always get excited when we have new people on our campus and have the gift of deep processing time together before the Lord, but one of the special things about this event is it was tailored specifically for Every Community for Christ's church-planting ministry and the potential applicants we are working with right now that are interested in serving through this OMS ministry.  ECC is the church-planting catalyst within OMS :)


Friday night at Catalyst, three missionaries shared testimonies of God's leading and faithfulness in their own lives.  As an activity to introduce this time, the participants were asked to share with a partner about a time they were impacted by another person's testimony.  There was an odd number at one of the tables, so I jumped in with a woman attending.  She knew immediately what she was going to share with me.  Thirty-two years ago, she heard a missionary, who served in Africa, speak at a church.  She described the presentation to me, giving careful attention to describe the pictures of children she saw in that presentation.  "It was something about those faces, that caught me, and I knew God was calling me to missions."  And as she shared with me, tears welled up in her eyes.  What a tender moment that must have been to bring her to tears 32 years later...  There is power when we are willing to share what the Lord has done in our lives.  When we are willing to be transparent for His glory, there is so much room for others to see His faithful character!

Our house church has been talking recently about Joseph's life.  Talk about an impacting story of the Lord being glorified through someone's life!  We read it at the hotel last Wednesday night, and our friends were so enthralled that they kept asking and asking if we could stay a little longer to read a few more chapters of Genesis to see what would happen.  Anyway, obviously there is so much in this story of God's provision and sovereignty, but what stood out to me as I was re-reading it Tuesday, was a little verse in Genesis 41:1.  Joseph had interpreted the cup-bearer's dream and asked the cup-bearer to tell Pharaoh about him.  Then, it says, "Two full years later, Pharaoh dreamed that he was standing in the bank of the Nile River."  Two full years... that's all it says.  No explanation, no description of what may have happened in the two full years to make it purposeful.  Just two full years passed and then Pharaoh had his dreams and Joseph is released from prison.  And yet, Joseph continues to honor the Lord with his words when he is brought to Pharaoh.  No record of bitterness or questioning... what's that?  Not sure if I'm communicating this well at all, but it was so convicting and challenging for me to be reminded that sometimes we won't ever know why God chooses the timing of seasons in our lives.  Sometimes,  He is so gracious to show us later what He has intended, but other times we may never know the reason for the way things are, and yet, we are still called to trust His will.  What a lot of growing I have to do.

Tuesday night, I had some sweet time with two of the young women going through training.  Sarah, who served as an intern last summer and traveled with me to Houghton, is going through training to serve with our church-planting ministry full-time, and Colleen, who I helped coach through her funding, is preparing to leave for Ireland with eXtreme Walk (our 11- to 24-month church-planting internship).  Our time together was not long enough, but it was great to hear a little about their training and how their hearts are doing in it all.  They shared with me about one of the object lessons they had earlier that day: each participant was given 30 pieces of paper that were cut into puzzle pieces.   On each piece they had to write a significant experience that has impacted who they are today, and then pray through those things and put the puzzle together... Honestly, my first thought was, I don't know if I could come up with 30 major things quickly under pressure.  But as we continued talking, the Lord sweetly reminded me that He can think of not only 30, but hundreds in my short life.  He is so purposeful in not only how He knits us together in our mother's womb, but also throughout life.  So thankful that He knows what is best.


Would you please pray over these things as God brings them to mind?


* For trust and security in God's love for us and who He says I am in Him.
* For the participants who will come to OneWeekend, Feb. 10-12
* For upcoming campus visits


Thanks to each of you who were willing to share about your lives transparently this week, to bring the Lord praise.  And thanks to each of you reading, who are doing so in your own communities.

Lovely Catalyst participants :)

Facilitating a session on calling and barriers with Paul, our director of Mobilization.

Tell of his wonderful deeds

Wednesday nights at the hotel, we meet and study the Bible.  One of our friends, Mat, just became a believer-- so exciting to see not just him, but also his wife and the couple of others that join, really hungry for God's word!  Anyway, a few weeks ago, one night when I was with them, we studied Psalm 73, how easy it is to be jealous of others, and how we must trust God.  In the end, the writer, Asaph, recognizes that the Lord is much more valuable than anything alluring the world might offer, and he commits to stay near to the Lord and tell everyone about the wonderful things God has done.  Mat and his family and I closed by talking about some of the wonderful things God had done in our lives lately and praising God for them.  Sharing of his wonderful deeds is my motivation for blogging tonight.


These last few weeks have been a beautiful picture of God's provision and how He so deeply knows us and meets us where we are.


In what tends to be a slower month in Mobilization (December), God continued to move new missionaries forward in the process!  So exciting to see God moving people to serve him in missions and to see their urgency to move forward-- whether it was Christmas season or not!  Praise God-- within just 7 days of being back in the office this week, we will have had 5 applicants complete their panel interviews to be new missionaries (two couples and one single).  It's so exciting to see God move in big ways that only he can take credit for!!!


After a busy December (actually, busy year), it was such a huge blessing to take some vacation days!  God provided for me to go visit a dear sister-friend from IU, who moved to Texas.  The time away was a great start to break, and helped me disconnect.  One of the things I'm most thankful for during this visit was the chance to just visit with Em and process some things the Lord has been doing.  What a blessing to have un-rushed time to goof off, dig into the Word, encourage each other and see some of her community.


This was followed by more great time with family, friends and supporters in Indiana.  I spent a few days in Bloomington where we celebrated baby Hazel's first Christmas and my birthday and I caught up with some more great friends.


So thankful for what God must have planned for this year. Let's tell of his wonderful deeds and trust him together.


Would you pray over these things as God brings them to mind?


* For a renewed and softened heart
* Deeper relationship with the Lord
* God to speak during the retreat we are co-facilitating for potential new church-planting missionaries this Friday and Saturday (Jan. 13-14).
* Our upcoming OneWeekend retreat February 10-12.

My health may fail, and my spirit may grow weak,

      but God remains the strength of my heart;

      he is mine forever.

 ²⁷ Those who desert him will perish,

      for you destroy those who abandon you.

 ²⁸ But as for me, how good it is to be near God!

      I have made the Sovereign Lord my shelter,

      and I will tell everyone about the wonderful things you do.

Ps. 73:26-28

Em :)

Felt like God put this on a refrigerator in Texas just for me :)  He will speak through whatever he wants!

Brooke who interned with Mobilization this summer lives near Emiliee-- was great to see her in Texas!

Barbeque!

Mom and Steve with Hazel (our cousin's baby) on her first Christmas

Update

Well, I'd say it's about time for a new title to pop up when you hit this page... Jesus is doing exciting things in our midst, and even in circumstances of loss, there can be growing and things to be thankful for.  Despite the rough start to the trip to Houghton, it was a valuable time!!  It was such a blessing to get to invest time with the women who interned this summer, as well as meet new students, talk through things with prospective new missionaries and see the ministry that our missionaries in residence, Bruce and Donna, have so invested in!  Thank you so much for praying over this time and for your emails.  It really made such a difference.  Here are a few photos from our time:

I met Alice after sharing in a Sunday School class and she invited me to this coffee house where she performed poetry she has written about human trafficking

Lauren and Sarah (above) and Jody and Megan (below) were some of our awesome interns this summer!

Boy, am I thankful for deep community.  Can I just tell you that is one of my favorite things?!  Deep conversation with others at a heart level and walking alongside each other in times of need... so valuable!!  And that was one of the ways the Lord encouraged me on this trip, was seeing Him provide some deep one-on-one convos with a few of the girls at the perfect time.  He knows!

After meeting students and sharing at a few gatherings in Houghton, Sarah and I traveled to PA and were able to have some time with some Grove City College students and visit my aunt, uncle and cousins!  This was a huge encouragement!  That Friday night, Sarah and I met with a couple of students a co-worker asked me to check in with and they were so excited about the Lord and asking the Holy Spirit to really move on their campus-- it was such an encouragement to hear their desire to see Him move.  The following morning was just as great when more than 30 students gathered for a breakfast meeting to talk about missions with us.

Grove City College Students

It was amazing to see even in the midst of a busy schedule how the Lord provided opportunities to connect with so many people between trips!  My first day back in the office after Houghton, I headed to Lousiville, KY where a teammate and I met with a pastor at Sojourn Community Church to network and brainstorm about community, church-planting and training new emerging leaders.  This was a huge blessing and it left us challenged with lots to bring back to our team.  The ideas excited me- thinking of what it will take to make the ideas a reality, challenged me.  A few days later, a young Colombian pastor named Oscar visited headquarters.  At 22 years old, he is heading up the missions department for a denomination of over 700 churches.  Although we met hoping to come alongside him, we found him pastoring us and it was great to have time with him and learn from him while he was here.  (We're praying and looking for people to send to Colombia for one year or more to serve alongside him!)  Then, before Oscar's visit was done, I was off to Chicago for Moody Bible Institute's missions conference...

God really answered prayers for open doors and effective time there.  It was great to visit this campus for the first time and it was OMS' first year to be represented among the 60 missions agencies there.  The week included main sessions, break-out sessions, intercessory prayer and lots of time with students.  I was so impressed by the unity among the student body on this campus!  Part of the conference design is that the mission reps stay in students dorm rooms.  Below are my roommates from the week, Liann and Kelsey and Kylie, another girl from our floor!  They were such sweet hosts and awesome girls to get to know.  Can't wait to see how God continues to sharpen them and what He has prepared for their next steps.

While at Moody, Jesus so graciously provided a few connections in perfect timing.  One of the main speakers for the conference is an experienced church-planter that made time to sit down with me for a couple of hours and patiently listen, process and offer mentoring to some questions I've been wrestling with.  Another night, one of the girls on our dorm floor gave up part of her evening to pray with me over  a family in need at the hotel and our church.  I am thankful that the Spirit can bond hearts quickly and provide family no matter where we are.  Thank you again for your prayers over these trips and for your faithful support and encouragement! I praise God for how He is moving and am thankful for you.

Mourning

Yesterday morning started with a call that an 18-year-old girl we knew from the hotel died unexpectedly.  She would’ve been 19 on October 8^th.  Sunday, she and Robin and I were in my car, driving to pick up her medicine from a relative’s house. And just Wednesday night, she was laughing with us, defending my driving against a friend’s jokes, and making plans to celebrate her birthday.  We met her a few weeks ago and she’d been living in the hotel since she moved in with her boyfriend two weeks ago.  He is heartbroken.  So are we.

I hurried over to the hotel Friday morning and we wept and prayed with our friends there.  As sad as this has been, it is much harder for them, because now their home is a reminder of this sad sad thing.  The staff is burdened, too.  Please pray for them, pray for the residents, pray for us… for comfort for all of our hearts, for strength and stamina, for words for our friends.  Please pray that Jesus would use this and be lifted high in some way.  Our prayer is that many of our friends who have been on the fence with the Gospel, would be compelled to accept Jesus after this tragic loss.  Pray that God continues to move and that His Gospel would penetrate broken hearts.

Wednesday night she did Bible study with us for the first time.  She was late but sat in as soon as she got home.  Afterward, she was excited to share with us that she was late because she just came from a church.  She couldn’t remember the name of the church but she said she was helping with the four and five-year-olds class.  When I asked her what they learned, she said they were learning about how God created the animals and Adam and Eve.  I couldn’t believe it because we had been studying Genesis 2 that evening, and when I asked her to share it again with Christian, he smiled and the first thing he said was “I think God really wanted you to know tonight that He made the animals.”

Yesterday, the first thing I found myself thinking to myself while Paul was telling me about her death was, “knowing God made the animals doesn’t mean she’s with Jesus…” What seemed so beautiful Wednesday night all of a sudden didn’t seem like enough yesterday morning and that is what has been so hard and sad about this… The truth is we just don’t know … We know she heard the Gospel and was prayed with and we know God is good, but this is a hard loss and many of our friends are also grieving.  Please pray.

Sarah, who has been such a sweet friend in this, adjusting our trip plans, meeting me at the hotel instead of my home and helping me finish packing, shared this verse with me on the way up to New York…

“Evening, morning and noon

I cry out in distress,

and he hears my voice.”  Psalm 55:17

** I’ve mentioned briefly in another post that we started doing church at a hotel that has become a short-term home for many people, but really it’s been much more than that…  Our prayer has been not to do church but to be the church in that community and for Jesus to show the transformational power of the Gospel. Building relationships there, praying and spending time in this community has become a major part of the Coxes’, MacKinnons’ and my life in the last three months.  It has been amazing to see what God has been doing in changing our hearts, building trust in relationships and seeing people who don’t know Jesus openly seek Him.

Strong

I just finished talking to a dear heart friend- Jen.  She and her husband and I went through Cross-training together and she is here at OMS Headquarters this week... there are many things that I just love about this couple, a few of them being: their love for the Lord, that they pray with power, their enthusiasm about Jesus and their fearlessness of what other people think (believers or not) in terms of proclaiming their identity in him.  It is also very likely that she's the only one to ever, while praying, refer to me as her "sweetest homegirl."

Anyway... deep conversations with Jen are one of my favorites and tonight was no different.  It was beautiful to hear about frustrations and joys since their return from the field while sharing some of my own.  In all of that, one of the things that came out is how deep emotional investment takes processing time.  I told her this is one of the reasons I haven't been blogging even though I have about 10 things on mind that I want to be sharing with you when I know how... She validated and encouraged me in that, before saying that when she finds herself in the same place, she realizes she has to pick just one thing to share and as God continues to grow and unravel things in her heart, then she'll share more things- but one at a time...

So tonight... the one thing I have to share is thankfulness for two things (see how I cheated there :)  1.  For your prayers.  And 2.  For God's Strength.

Thank you for being strong praying arms around me and the ministry in OMS, our house church and community.  God has been so Faithful to sustain, heal, mend, provide and stretch in these last few weeks, and it has been in large part, I know because of your faithfulness to pray, so thank YOU!

One morning this week, I found myself up at 4:30am-- not typical for this late sleeper, but God had me wide awake and I knew it was because I needed to be in the Word.  So, I found myself in Jeremiah and this is just one of the truths that blew me away...

"I will certainly bring my people back again from all the countries where I will scatter them in my fury. I will bring them back to this very city and let them live in peace and safety.  They will be my people, and I will be their God. And I will give them one heart and one purpose: to worship me forever, for their own good and for the good of all their descendants.  And I will make an everlasting covenant with them: I will never stop doing good for them. I will put a desire in their hearts to worship me, and they will never leave me.  I will find joy doing good for them and will faithfully and wholeheartedly replant them in this land."

Jeremiah 32:37-41

Do you know what good news that is???  --I will give them one heart and one purpose: to worship me forever, for their own good and for the good of their descendants... I will never stop doing good for them.  I will put a desire in their hearts to worship me, and they will never leave me.--

The first part I love about this is God is promising to create unity in His name-- HE will provide one heart and one purpose... what a beautiful promise.  I never cease to find myself with even greater gratitude or amazement when God reminds me that the same restorative and redeeming work He can do in one yucky heart like mine-- He can use to heal, rebuild and redeem a whole group of believers, family or marriage!  It is amazing!!  The power to transform one heart is amazing- but something involving lots of hearts is even more astounding and I'm thankful we can trust the Lord is strong enough to do this through His resurrection power.

Not only is He promising to give Israel one heart, but also to put a desire in their hearts to worship Him and never leave Him.  Oh, how I pray this is a promise He is giving me, too.  When I think of times with Him, I know that this is the most valuable promise of all-- to have a heart that never stops loving Him.

This morning, I was reading and came across Psalm 17:10, David is actually describing "the wicked" and his enemies, but I think I can oh too easily fit the description... is this really ever more than a couple of missteps away? He says,

"They close up their callous hearts, and their mouths speak with arrogance."

And as my eyes ran across those words, actually looking for another verse... I was struck by a deep desire to remain soft-hearted to the Lord.  I'll admit, part of this is out of self-preservation, knowing that callousness to Him leads to pain and suffering and detours, but when my heart is joined to His there is life!  But more importantly, He is worthy of a fully devoted heart and whatever Glory that can give Him.  He can do so much when our hearts are not calloused... Would you stop and pray that over me and our ministry right now?  I'm praying tonight as you read this or go about your night or day, that He will soften the calloused parts of your heart, too.

No heart is too hard for Him to break, but oh, how I want to remain tender to Him and His leading.

"We owe Him every honor that is in our power to give Him.  Our everlasting grief lies in giving Him anything less."  - A.W. Tozer

Thanks for journeying with me and praying!

Psalm 18:1-3