I am grateful:
-that I walk in a continual cloud of red dust. Sometimes I can’t see because my contacts are so dusty.
-that I sleep on the ground.
-that I am constantly covered in red dirt. When I take my shoes off it looks like a tan line.
-that I cram on to a fifteen passenger van with about twenty three other people who smell.
-that as I walk down the street there are at least five sets of filthy hands grabbing, tugging and pulling each of mine.
-that my ears are ringing when I leave ministry.
-that I have a freezing cold shower or a bucket of water.
-that I miss my family and my best friends every single day.
-that I miss my church in NYC.
-that I said goodbye to a job I really really really loved.
-that I have been in desperate need of God’s grace.
-that I met an amazing man, but had to wave goodbye knowing I wouldn’t see him for at least eight months and I’m not allowed to start a relationship anyway.
-that every day something challenges and scares me.
-that I can’t be alone, even if I want to.
-that I am not in control.
I am grateful because:
-that cloud is kicked up by the huge gaggle of smiling children skipping, jumping, and dancing with us through the streets of Africa.
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-I have a home to call my own even if it is a tent.
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-My feet get dirty walking miles and miles to ministry, where I get to share the love of Jesus, along dust red-dirt roads.
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-That van takes me and my team to villages where people have never heard the name of Jesus or the Word of God.
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-Those hands belong to the most beautiful children I have ever seen. The most beautiful.
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-My ears are ringing because Africans shout their praises to the Lord. There is no somber worship here. They make His Glory KNOWN!
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-At the end of 11 months, I will have new friends and family in over 11 countries. I look forward to the day when we will all worship the Father together in heaven.
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-I am learning that the church is so much more than a building. We are the church. And God is giving me the chance to see His body around the world…how He is moving over all the earth.
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-I learn more day by day that this is the job I was created for. My job is love..jpeg&maxwidth=640)
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-When I tell people who God is and the price Jesus paid my words aren’t empty or something I just accepted because it was the norm. I know about His grace and His mercy. I know because I needed it. I know this His promises are true. And even though parts of my story are painful, I love to tell it because it shouts of His glory. And now, because of God, memories that were once shame-inducing bring life and freedom to others.
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-I am learning patience and perseverance and trusting the Lord like I never would have otherwise.
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-I rely on the Lord’s strength and not my own.
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-I am always surrounded by a group of brothers and sisters that love me, encourage me and support me every moment of every day.
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-I am not in control. But I know who is.
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Not only am I grateful, I am honored. I have seen Jesus. I see him in the smiles of children, and the praises being raised by a room full of dancing widows. I see him in my team of sisters. I see him in the hospitality of our host who walked 20 km/3 hrs a day twice a day just to walk with us to ministry. I see him in the woman sacrificing her only food. I see him everywehre. He is real and present and very much moving in our midst. I see him in you. In your support and your encouragement. THank you for helping me meet Jesus in a whole new way.
“But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ, and be found in Him…I want to know Christ-yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.
Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me…forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” -Philippians 3:7-14
