This year I will not be at “home” with my family for Christmas. And telling that to my family was one of the HARDEST conversations I have ever had in my life! But I knew God was calling me to China and with all that I am I desire to love him and to obey him. I too wanted to go to China, don’t get me wrong, but sometimes there is a ‘cost’. If you call missing Christmas a cost? But I knew loving Jesus, meant going to China!
So I will be here in lovely China for Christmas! I will be celebrating with other American’s. It will be different, but it will be cool! And it will be okay, because something God has been teaching me for over 2 years now is about what it means to be home.
During the fall of my senior semester in 2012 I remember God revealing something really profound to me. I was at church and we were singing the song “Abba, I Belong to You” by Jonathan David Helser. (If you have not heard it, it’s great, so pause…go and listen). But when I began to sing that chorus “Abba, I belong to You”, I had a split vision of me in China in January and I began to weep. And the Lord spoke so strongly to my heart saying “Chaney, you’re home is in Me and when you are far away from you know, it’s okay”. And that revelation has drastically changed my life and it continues to do so. My World Race squad was originally suppose to begin in China in the coming January, so it made sense, that I would have a vision of me in January in China. However, things changed and we began in Honduras.
A few weeks ago, I was singing “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” and in a moment I was reminded of that moment and my heart was hit with so much truth and assurance. I knew that was true! But it was not the January of 2013 that I would be in China, but the January 2015 that I will be in China. And in December for Christmas I will be home, because my home is in the Lord! And God is with me. He has continued to show this to me in some physical ways as well.
To be honest, I felt a bit alone in this voyage to China. But God has been doing so many things to show me that I am not alone. It all began when I was sitting in DC after a 6 hour drive up to pick up my visa the day before my flight. I was sitting there anxiously waiting for it to be brought to me. I was still unsure if it had been completed. As I sat there, I acknowledged the empty seat next to me, and I asked God to just come and sit with me. I felt powerless but I trusted that if anything were to go wrong, I was standing with my Father and he would not let me be put to shame. Within a few moments, my passport was brought to me ready to go!
The next day was my flight and something strange happened. I had 3 flights and every single one of them, I had an empty seat next to me. I know it sounds ridiculous and coincidental and maybe it is? But regardless, God used those empty seats to tell me he was with me. I am not alone going to China, I’m not alone in doing what I am doing; but he is with me and he will continue to be!
So here I am. I am sitting in a comfy chair in my bedroom hung with Christmas lights, listening to Christmas music drinking Gingerbread coffee full of joy and peace and love. I will celebrate the coming of Jesus in a place that has no idea of that truth or significance!
I ask for your continued prayers as I try to seek God’s heart and desire here. Pray for my family to be full of peace and joy and assurance that I am safe and I am well!
