house of prayer.

when i moved into 4814 elsby on august 28, i entered a house of prayer.

i cannot tell you how grateful i am for jen stetter and ashley marble. these women, whom i have been blessed to live with, have been used by God for my sanctification and have stirred my affections for God.

we pray alot at elsby. it has been one of the biggest blessings the Lord has given me through this.

praying out loud, in groups, presenting requests at HIS feet….this is beautiful. this is right.

i pray that our home in guatemala will be the same. i pray that your home is too.

Some of you who aren’t part of The Village might be interested in “meeting” the girls I will serve alongside in Guatemala. I am truly enjoying getting to know these girls and know the Lord will unite us deeply through our common mission.

Support team, meet Hannah.

Hannah is a kind-hearted, organized, multi-tasking fool with a sweet spirit who loves Jesus and is stirred by serving His “little” children. Hannah is not only a pre-school teacher, she also works at The Village Church in the pre-school ministry. I love Hannah’s heart to raise up young children in Truth and shepherd their young hearts. Also her desire to serve others is incredibly evident when you spend any length of time with her at all. I am excited to learn from Hannah, and be spurred toward the selfless service she models. You can follow her journey to Guatemala here.

Support team, meet Alisha.

Alisha is a fun-loving, God-seeker with a free and magnetic spirit about her. She has a passion to serve God through missions and shepherding the hearts of youth through mentoring and “doing life” with them. Alisha’s commitment to “her girls” is inspiring and paints a beautiful portrait of her service to the Lord. I love being around Alisha because she is hilarious and her “It’ll all work out” mentality will definitely keep the worrier in me grounded. Alisha is also our fitness/heath guru and I’m excited to learn from her! Follow Alisha’s journey here.

The Lord has been teaching me alot about the importance of unity, and I am praying for continued unity among the 3 of us. Please join me in praying these verses over our team.

Philippians 2:1-4
Acts 4:32

many of you have asked, “so, what will you be doing in guatemala?” so, here goes!

first off, i don’t expect any two days to look alike. what i do expect is for me to be surprised, challenged, sanctified and delighted by daily life in guatemala.

we’ve been given team objectives as well as individual objectives.

here are just a few of the things i am excited about doing:

• meeting with elders/pastor’s wives to develop women’s ministry/training
• integration of english speaking members of casa de libertad (the church we are working with) into greater casa de libertad community
• english training at fundaninos (the orphanage we’ll work with) and casa de libertad
• coordinate events for casa de libertad
• support short-term teams from The Village (my home church)
• web content management for fundaninos and casa de libertad
• singing with the worship team (they haven’t heard me yet though…this one might be short-lived!)

i am so grateful to for the opportunity to be part of casa de libertad and fundaninos. i can’t wait to begin serving with them!

touched. overwhelmed. humbled. honored. speechless.

these are just a few of the emotions i felt as i opened what will likely always be my favorite christmas present of all time.

i have 1 neice, age 10 and 3 nephews, ages 9, 5, and 3. i love these kids like my own.

when meredith (neice) handed me the envelope gift to open Christmas morning, i thought it was a cute card she had made. what fell out was simply shocking. as i opened the card, a wad of cash fell into my lap. confused, i looked at her and asked, “what on earth?”…as she pointed to the card and instructed me to read it. instead of telling you about it…read it for yourself.

now you know why it will be incredibly hard to top that gift. because it wasn’t a gift for me. it was a gift for God. those kiddos taught me alot in that moment about giving from the heart, and no matter the barriers (in their case, the fact that they had no “income” of their own), if it is for God and with God, nothing is impossible. praise God for their faith and desire to honor Him. what a tender display of selflesness that will impact my life forever.

may you, too, be stirred by the faith of a child today.

me and mer

duh.

God cares for me. I know this. But sometimes, I need Him to really reveal “simple”, yet completely complex Truth to me. This happened a few weeks ago.

I had the entire weekend alone with the Lord. Seriously. Just me and Him. I did not see another soul, except for a few strangers at the grocery store. What the Lord did that weekend was truly remarkable.

Lately, I have felt God leading me to dig into both 2 Corinthians and 1 Peter. Honestly, I don’t know what prompted that, other than the Lord leading it. That weekend, I had been struggling intensely with feeling paralyzed in the support raising process. After waiting so long for final approvals, acceptances, etc, when the green light came, I froze. That was unexpected.

I spent time in 1 Peter 5, just meditating on His Word, and it took a weekend with the Lord for Him to reveal to me the root of my sins of fear and anxiety: pride. Ick. Pride has so many ugly faces, and I needed to look in the mirror to see the one that needed to be wiped clean. But I could not do that. No. It was the Lord who reminded me that Jesus had absorbed my sin AND the wrath of God on the cross, and took on my fear, my pride, my anxiety BECAUSE HE CARES. I felt immediately un-burdened. He does not desire for us to live under the yoke of sin, and all the unhealthy life patterns we create because of them.

Praise God. He has truly changed my heart and allowed me to walk freely and confidently into support raising, and continues to teach me that it really is all about Him. All of it.

So, thank you for praying for me. And rejoice in this victory, but do not stop praying. I am not naive to think that I will never battle this one again. But, I’m thankful for a victory today, nonetheless, and praising God because He cares for me!

thanks:

i celebrated thanksgiving with my family. mom, dad, my sister, brother in law and their 4 children.

my heart is always full upon returning from time with them, but this year, i am particularly grateful. my 8 year old nephew recently became a Christian. after months of truly wrestling with spiritual questions, the Lord graciously opened his eyes to the Truth. his joy that evening was indescribable. he told me on the phone that he was just so happy, and he couldn’t explain it.

last sunday, davis was baptized.

praying that you have experienced the free gift of eternal life given through faith in Christ alone.

giving:

it made me think about the joy that i will witness in Guatemala as the Lord moves in the hearts of those who do not yet know Him. there is no greater thing to witness: the power of the Lord’s redemption. what an honor and priviledge it will be to serve as a missionary there.

the Lord is so gracious. He is the giver of LIFE, of PEACE, of true JOY, of all GOOD THINGS, despite our flawed perception.

many of you know that my pastor, matt chandler, was recently diagnosed with a brain tumor. he underwent surgery and is currently out of icu. we do not know much more, but check out this video that matt recorded before his surgery. God is GOOD, and the GIVER of life.

this past week I visited my family in Tennessee. it was, as always, full of love, fun and laughter. some of my favorite memories of visiting my family include spending time with my sister’s 4 kiddos.

every trip, i am reminded of the simple joy (and sometimes humor) in speaking truth. this trip, my 3 year old nephew cracked me up when he commented on how i looked in some jeans i was trying on.

Me: Hayden, what do you think?

Hayden: Susu, doz (those) look wee-yud (weird).

Gotta love it.

But, you know what? I appreciated it, and actually agreed (and consequently did not purchase said jeans).

Hayden reminded me that there is something simply beautiful about approaching life as a child. Child-like faith is equally beautiful and simplistic. Kids Village at my church does an amazing job of communicating deep Truths about God in simple terms. So simple, you wonder how you ever forget them.

Two weeks ago, I was blessed to teach at Kids Village about patience. Turns out I’m pretty sure the lesson was more for me than for them.

God is wise: He KNOWS what is best

God is loving: He DOES what is best

God is generous: He GIVES what is best WHEN it is best

Patience=waiting, without complaining, even when things get hard.

Simple? Yes.

Beautiful? Eternally.

Easy to live out? Not a chance.

Possible? Only through His grace and mercy.

(ok, i’ll stop interviewing myself now ).

When I began my journey into full time missions, I knew I would learn alot….about the Lord…about missions…and also about myself. I knew that I’d be stretched and molded, but I wasn’t completely prepared to stare my sin smack dab in the face daily. I suppose that is how refinement works though. You can’t be molded without being changed. You can’t be changed without recoginizing the need for change. You can’t recognize the need for change until you take a hard look at your sin. I have a feeling this is just the tip of the iceberg on this topic.

One major struggle right now is fear. You name it, and I fear it….despite countless exhortations in Scripture NOT to fear. Journaling a few weeks ago, I quickly listed 20 specific fears about walking this road to Guatemala, all of which reveal deeper issues of trust, control and patience . I have, however, found tremendous encouragement through His Word and friends who have been praying for me.

Psalm 27 has given me particular encouragement:

 ¹The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?

³Though an army encamp against me,  my heart shall not fear; though war arise against me,   yet I will be confident.

 ⁵For he will hide me in his shelter  in the day of trouble; he will conceal me under the cover of his tent;  he will lift me high upon a rock.

In the midst of actual danger, David was confident in the Lord and His provision. He was hidden in the Lord’s shelter. Why am I any different? As a child of God, my life is now hidden in Christ. I have nothing to fear.

You may be wondering about the title of this post. Well, in case you haven’t guessed it, we are finalizing my support goal right now for the  (at least) 14 monthsI will be on staff as a missionary of Great Commission Ministries on a team with The Village Church. While I don’t have an exact number right now, the range is, well, frightening.

I am confident that the Lord will gather a team of prayer and finanical supporters. He has not called me to this without the full assurance of His faithfulness. Would you please pray with me that God would be stirring the hearts of others to join me on the journey?

For any interested in beginning a financial gift, I would love to meet/talk with you personally, but if you are anxious to begin giving, you can visit www.mygcm.net and register as a donor to begin a recurring gift or give a special gift.

on thursday i got the word that i am officially a “provisional staff member” with great commission ministries.

so, what does this mean?

it means, that i am able to begin the process of building up a support team of people who will commit to supporting me throughout this journey through prayer, finances, time, references, hot cooked meals, massages, etc.  kidding about those last two…..sort of.

in reality, the Lord has really grown in me an excitement to begin this part of the journey. i look forward to asking people to join me in ministry to reach the nations for the renown and glory of Jesus Christ! of course, there are many other emotions mixed in, but mostly, i’m excited.

it is such a priviledge to be on this path….to get to be a missionary….to invite others to come along.

the Lord led me to study 2 Corinthians a few weeks ago. after spending time camped out there, it is no doubt why. the entire book is about exhorting the Corinthians to join Paul in ministry.

i am praying these verses over my future ministry team partners:

2 Corinthians 1:11,   2 Corinthians 9:10-15,   2 Corinthians 8:3-5

praising God already for what HE will do!

it’s been so unbelievably refreshing to have an actual sabbath for two saturdays in a row. sometimes life in america is a little too stressful and busy for me. sure, some of that is my own sinful nature of perfectionism and inability to let go, but also, it’s kind of bred here.

despite our culture, however, the Lord has called us to observe sabbath. to truly rest in the Lord. to sit. to process how He continues to refine and sanctify me. to soak in His nature. to enjoy fellowship. to just be.

in those moments of stillness, i am reminded of so much Truth that i have chosen to overlook throughout my busy week. in silence before the Lord, i can hear…but more importantly, i can listen.

it’s also in these moments that the Lord allows joy in my heart from simple things. maybe it’s a beautiful butterfly (ash ), or an uplifting conversation, or perhaps a glorious walk outside. or maybe, just maybe, it’s finding my way to an empty park with swings that beg me to take a ride.

i just couldn’t resist. swings just make me happy.

in the coming weeks/months, life will undoubtedly get crazy. with the start of my ministry team raising process and beginning the additional training to go overseas, it will be harder to “sabbath.” but, if i  have learned nothing else these two weeks, i have learned that it’s not going to be optional.

and, if anyone just really wants to donate a swing set to the elsby house, i wouldn’t hate that. just sayin.