from "Kingdom Journey's" by Seth Barnes
I have had a lot to process this week.
This past Monday (8/13), the local newspaper of Bozeman ran an article about my trip around the world.
What an incredible opportunity!
I was (and, still am) absolutely thrilled that God gave me the opportunity to tell my community of my coming adventures around the world.
I am so humbled by this opportunity (and still feel greatly inadequate), that to see the reality of my journey in the local newspaper was quite overwhelming. Thousands of people suddenly had the opportunity to hear about what God is doing in my life.
I was greatly suprised by the amount of feedback the article began to receive on the Bozeman Daily Chronicle website. Many comments came in and most of them were written with harsh and critical attitudes directed towards me and my decision to leave the country.
These comments gave me the much needed opportunity to process why I have decided to go on this trip in the first place. And, I really did not expect to receive negative feedback in the first place (maybe that was naive, of me).
For the past 4 years, I have served the high school population in the Bozeman community. I love serving high school students. There is much need in the Bozeman community, among high school students and elsewhere.
As a mentor and friend to these high school students, I have seen the need first hand. I have witnessed their brokenness and their desire for truth and change. Their brokenness has broken me.
Yes. There is need here in Bozeman. I acknowledge that and I do not diminish that.
But the need of many throughout the world exceeds anything we can imagine. We can't imagine the state that countless people live — how they eat, sleep, learn and so on.
The book "Kingdom Journey's by Seth Barnes (founder of AIM), addresses the neccessity of leaving the comforts of our culture. In abdonment, we are to leave everything we know to experience life a little more fully and abundantly. It is then, we can relate to the brokenness of others — and the brokenness our God has for His people.
"A journey is an act of leaving — a process of physical abandon that teaches us how to do the same spiritually. Perhaps, to find your true identity you need to abandon everything else."
Seth Barnes
I am leaving everything I know to help others. I want the world to know of the hope and the love of Jesus Christ.
But, I am also leaving everything I know that I might also be changed in the process. And that I would look at others and this world through the lense of love.
I want to become more like Jesus.
And I need to go on this journey to become more like Him.
I cannot imagine what my eyes will see this year.
I can't imagine what my heart will feel.
And in that, I pray that a few lives would be changed through the abandonment of one to follow the call of Jesus to the world.
And in the leaving, there will be finding.
Thank you to all who have been showering me with your love and support. I pray that you would be changed in this process as well.
"Seek the Kingdom of God above all else"
Matthew 6:33
Amen.
If you are interested in supporting me as I get ready to leave :: click here
