Something my teammate, Cody, said this morning prompted me to write this blog.
BUT before I do, I want to apologize for the lack of blogging lately and fill you in, the short way, on what’s been going on in my life:
-spending month 4 in the States was hard
-waiting on the ability to walk and an unknown date of return was hard
-being dependent on everyone around me was hard
-coming back to the Race was hard
-going through my first drastic team change was hard
-joining an already established team was hard
-finding my identity within this team is hard
-waiting for complete healing is hard
-walking, because that’s what you do in Eastern Europe, is hard
-ignoring the lies that “I’m a burden” is hard
-learning 5 new personalities is hard
The wonderful thing about that dreary list is that refinement is never promised to be easy. Being more like Jesus isn’t an easy calling…but it’s so beautiful. It’s such a humbling honor to have the Creator of the world choose me and desire me and call me to look more like His perfect son, Jesus who experienced every hardship, plus more, in order that I might have abundant life through Him.
The other wonderful thing about this dreary list is that it’s led me to the month that I am in now: Unsung Heroes.
For those that don’t know: Unsung Heroes is a month where my team is living in Bulgaria, with no set ministry, in search of expanding our contacts to broaden the World Race’s partnership within the Bulgarian mission community. The main desire is to come along side and serve with the contacts we make and their vision in hopes of building the Kingdom together and bring the Light and Truth to the people of Bulgaria, or wherever the unsung heroes team finds themselves.
We arrived in Bulgaria just a short three days ago (well…a week and a half ago now, that I’m actually posting this…) and already the Lord is moving (I mean…He’s kind of always at move… but..anyway…). Two of my team members and I went to a small church today that meets inside an old, beautifully refurnished theatre and were immediately floored with the Lord’s presence. The Pastor was so excited about us being there and even invited us to speak.
Something we were talking about on the way to the church was how badly we needed haircuts, and how badly we needed an actual place to live instead of living at the hostel we are currently at. Random list of topics, I know, but hey – they make sense, I promise.
The first church member we met was a woman who had just come from a television interview where she was able to nationally share the Word of God, even though they asked her not to. Her response? “You can’t just ask me to talk and not expect me to talk about my Jesus.” The moment she uttered that sentence, my heart fluttered. Jesus was here. She excitedly told us of all the things to do and places to see in Bulgaria, and I felt a prompting to ask her if she knew of any good hostels or any apartments open for us to live in. So, I asked. Her response? “I have an apartment on the square that I am moving to in the summer – you can stay there for free. The only thing I want in return is for you to pray over my mission to India.” Our response? “Done.” Jesus was here! Oh, and another tidbit: she’s a salon owner. We needed haircuts. Jesus. was. there.
In this short conversation, the Lord revealed something so huge to my heart that was later put into words by my teammate, Cody.
He began to talk about how we get the privilege of just “filling in” the steps that the Lord has already placed before us. I’ve always taken great comfort in the faithful truth that the Lord has so perfectly laid out our steps, but I never considered our activeness in those steps, I’ve always seen us as passive – just followers. But we get to actively walk through and fill in these steps that the Lord has laid out and orchestrated, and when we get to see direct connections of the steps and perfect matching – there is only one answer of how it was all possible: Jesus.
Our generation is very passionate about “be the change you wish to see in the world.” and I’m in love with that. I’m in love with an active community of young people that are passionate about changing the World for the greater….what’s even better is that the change was already made when Jesus defeated death on the cross by rising again from the grave. The change was made when our Savior took on flesh, left his father to live and breathe as we live and breathe. So, to “be the change,” we get to pursue Jesus and actively fill in the steps. We get to change the world by pursuing the Creator of it.
This month has been such a special month of actively pursuing the Lord’s steps. Stepping out in faith, contacting people we’ve never met before, meeting with them, connecting with them…it has been so exciting to see the Lord’s hand in all of this. It has been so invigorating to see the contacts that don’t respond, that don’t agree to meetings, because in those disappointing times of seeing “no thanks” on an email we get to choose to have faith that that’s not the Lord’s steps for our team. We literally get a firsthand chance of visually seeing the answers of the Lord as we pursue His plan for the Bulgarian community.
His answers are so good.
We get to change the world one step behind The One that is Good.
