Tomorrow is our last day in the incredible city of Oradea, Romania. Tomorrow is our last day working with Caminul Felix and the beautiful children here that have captured our hearts. Tomorrow marks the end of month two of the World Race.
Crazy.
This month has been so good, an unexpected and refreshing good. A month of rest and revelations, comforts and challenges. And to be honest, I dont really know how to describe it. So this blog will probably be a scattered mess of word vomit. Try to contain your excitement.
Ministry this month has been awesome. In the mornings we either do some manual labor or crafts with the kids. And in the afternoons we play with the kids some more, usually in the form of soccer or this hide-and-seek game that I’m convinced is rigged because I lose every time. Its been so sweet to just spend time with these kids, laughing with them, joining them in their childhood imaginations as we play games that oftentimes make absolutely no sense. And oh how it breathes such life into my soul.
Allow me to digress in order to explain how incredible this place is. This isnt your typical orphanage. Here there are ten houses, each with two parents and their one or two biological kids. Every house has 10-12 orphaned or abandoned children. So these kids get to grow up in a loving, Christian family, living in community with other kids. There’s also a farm here for sustainability, providing fresh produce and milk for the families. This place blows my mind. This ishow orphanages should be run, in my opinion. Okay, end digression.
And as I oh so subtly mentioned above, this month has been full of sweet revelations from the Lord. Considering that my last few blogs have been of a more serious nature, I hesitated as to whether I should continue that streak or write a more lighthearted blog (whatever that means). And I choose revelations, because, inthe end, thats way more exciting that writing about when I got electrocuted painting a fence (a story for another day perhaps).
About two Sundays ago, the Lord opened my eyes and my heart to this revelation He has continued to expand upon to this day (I’m hoping He will continue to for the rest of my life).
The Kingdom Reality.
It began with listening to a podcast by Graham Cooke (he’s legit) about living in dreams. And he talked about dreaming with the Lord. Connecting our thinking to His. Moving from the ordinary into the extraordinary, where we are meant to be, and not limiting ourselves to reason orlogic. And through that the Lord revealed to me this sweet picture of His Kingdom reality. He brought me to the story of Peter stepping out of the boat to walk on water with Jesus. And that He calls us, like Peter, to step out of the boat of our current reality into His holy reality. The reality of living by the Spirit as we bring the Kingdom of heaven to this earth. Where we can not only dream with Him but live out these dreams with Him. The Kingdom of love, hope, freedom, joy, grace, truth, and miracles. And as we step into this reality, we step into our divine identities as our eyes are opened to see ourselves as how God sees us – His chosen children who are created to be extraordinary and to live in the extraordinary. And as we come to embrace this Kingdom reality, His perspective becomes our perspective. We are given His eyes to see and His heart to love. And we can see trials and hardships not just as Him breaking us, but Him making us into Kingdom people, holy people walking in the light of His love, every day dying to ourselves so His life may reign in our bodies, radiating through us everywhere we go, to every person we meet. Its a reality that says the way things are is not the way things have to be, for another world is possible. His. His kingdom.
Thats the reality I want to live in. I want to live in this newness of life given to me in the New Covenant, in the resurrected life Jesus died to give me. And day by day He reveals more and more of what that looks like, speaking to me and showing me more than I could ever ask for.
Oh how this divine invitation into His Kingdom reality is gloriously overwhelming. And I couldnt be more excited for what has yet to be revealed.
I could probably go on all day about this but I feel like this blog is already too long. My bad. I appreciate your patience and grace in my rambling that is probably more scattered than coherent. Good grief.
Love to you my beloved brothers and sisters,
-Carlton
Photos taken by Jess Gasperin
