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

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.

We Want to See Jesus Lifted High

This is one of our house church's favorite songs... and it is the prayer in my heart right now!  Jesus is so good and faithful and in the midst of watching friends and loved ones transition and trying to transition myself, I can't help but be struck by God's faithfulness and sovereignty.  He is so gracious to let us know Him, and He really is our security!


Tuesday, we had the privilege of hearing from a few of our interns in chapel, and I'm so thankful for their boldness and willingness to share with the OMS community about what God has been teaching them this summer... whether it was His faithfulness, our frailty or His goodness in the midst of crisis, these women had open hearts and I'm so proud of them for their transparency and desire to let God grow and shape their hearts.


Thursday, we went to the Refuge, a local food and clothing shelter where the interns and I have been volunteering this summer.  It was so good!  What an encouragement to see the impact these women have made even in just this short few weeks they've had in Greenwood.  They are so great at jumping in and helping wherever and the staff at the Refuge so appreciates them.


Heather, one of the client's I met during a previous visit, dropped by to pick up some school supplies for her daughter, and I was so thankful to see her.  We talked until the staff turned the lights out on us and then we prayed.  She is a beautiful woman in need of boundaries and security in her life.  Would you pray for wisdom for her and for Jesus to open her heart to Him?  Would you pray for me that God would root me more deeply in His Gospel and that I would know and communicate His character for what it really is and not just what I want it to be?


Our house church has started meeting in a hotel that has become a home to a lot of low-income families that are without a place to live.  It has been a beautiful opportunity to get to know the people there and eat, pray and cry with them and love on their kids.  Sunday, I had the huge blessing of praying and listening while my friend Christian shared the Gospel with a sweet family, Pete, Courtney and Skyla who had just arrived at the hotel a few days ago... and I just found myself wanting to know Jesus more and be equipped more to share who He is.  Would you pray for Pete and Courtney, whom we'll be seeing again tonight?


Throughout this week, I've been thinking about old blogposts and times I've asked you to pray in the last few months for my restlessness and processing how the things God had been teaching me could fit into action here, this week was such a beautiful answer to prayer and so nourishing-- thank you for praying!


Finally, I just want to thank you so much for your prayers for our intern program.  It is only because of Jesus and your prayers that there has been fruit from this program.  Thank you for praying for them-- God is so faithful and good.  It has been hard to say goodbye to them and other dear friends this week, but I know the tears are really just an answer to our prayers for deep community during their time here.


This weekend, I'll be sharing at retreat for high school girls in Bloomington!  Would you pray over their time Friday and Saturday?  Would you pray for me as I prepare for the session I'm leading on Saturday?


We want to see Jesus lifted high!