Sitting on a balcony in Chimaltenango drinking café con chile while thinking back to the last few days in the states.
Before leaving each world race team participates in a few days of final training called launch and for a 24-hour period the parents are invited to join us.
GET THIS…
My mom took off work and came all the way from California to Georgia to participate. SWEET RIGHT?
During our time with the parents we had one night where we spent time worshipping and praying all together. Following our time of prayer one of the staff members from Adventures went up on stage to share with us a new ministry that he had started called keys for the journey.
He told us that he had prayed over each one of us individually and asked God for a specific word. He had each word carved into a key for each of us that we would be able to take on the race and pray through during this next year.
Immediately I could not wait to see what word had been written on my key.
But, there was one catch; somewhere on the race we had to give the key away to someone else and then prompt them to pass it on as well.
After the session was over they passed out the keys and the word I was given was Dream. I knew instantly that this key was going to be significant to me because I LOVE TO DREAM, but I had no idea it would affect my whole family.
My mom expressed that she also wanted to get a key for herself and the next day at lunch I saw a key around her neck.
I reached for it and soon found that she had chosen the same word that I had on my key: Dream. I asked her why she chose the same word as me and she said that even though she is very practical and does not spend time dreaming, that she wanted to join in on the journey with me.
Even this small step seemed huge coming from my mom whom I had never known to be a dreamer.
As we said our final goodbyes we hugged and with tears in her eyes she said that she was excited to dream with me this year and how wonderful it would be for my family to come to know the love of Christ. To know the joy and reason of why we live. To know the peace we feel when we walk with Jesus. Tears filled my eyes and I knew that God was at work.
During worship the night prior the Lord laid my family on my heart. I felt him prompting me to really commit to praying for my family this year while I was away and for them to come to know the Lord.
In hugging my mom and hearing her new dream I felt like I had just gained a new teammate to fight the good fight with. The Lord not only aligned our hearts in placing the same dream within us, but he also opened my 51-year-old mother’s eyes to the idea of dreaming.
And that’s just what our God does.
He teaches the practical 51 year old to dream again.
He binds together those he has set apart to do his work.
He breathes hope into areas of life that we have forgotten hope is possible in.
He uses small things for monumental change if we choose faith.
And he is so, so good in the midst of it all.
CANNOT wait to dream with my mom this year and see what wild things the Lord does.
