Vision&Fire

These past few months, I have been spending a lot of time dreaming about the vision God has given me to help free women from the red light district. I often feel overwhelmed having such a big dream but I am not letting the size of my dream stop me from acting on it.  I am not the only one who have had these same thoughts of “who am I” and yet, the pattern I see most is vision and fire.

 

              “It is the nature of man to rise to greatness if greatness is expected
of him.” – John Steinbeck

 

Take Joseph, the dreamer. He was given a huge vision from the Lord to be a leader although he was the youngest son and had no obvious qualifications. He was thrown in a pit, became a slave and even lived years in a dungeon after being falsely accused by Potiphar’s wife of assaulting her. Yet in the midst of these trials, he continued to bless those around him and ended up becoming second in command of all of Egypt! Like David, he went from the lowest to the highest, but not without testing and character being proven first. So I ask myself, how did these young men become such great leaders with gifts that touched the nations. The answer, vision and fire.

 

Both men knew what it meant to be tested and their character was proven in fire. We were recently asked in class by our coach Mike Paschall, “Are we willing to go through some fire to get the desired fruit”? I had never connected the vision with fire before—and yet it happens to most great leaders. He continued to say “Every fire is an opportunity to grow in character” and it is the character that counts! Most people think success is like a corporate ladder, but what I am learning to embrace is that fire has a purpose and brings the character you want.  “You can’t develop character by always being in agreement with someone” so now I find myself looking at obstacles more as a chance to grown in character.  I choose excellence, patience, peace, kindness, gentleness and self control. It is character that counts!

 

Here at G42, I am learning to be the woman who God created me to be, full of confidence, vision, strength, and most importantly, excellent in all that I do, whether doing my vision or serving someone elses.  He has given me a huge vision to help women across Asia and connect them with the women of the West. I am thrilled to be spending time at G42 planning my first official vision trip to Thailand and Cambodia on behalf of my new fair trade business, Freed by Design.  The day after graduation, Dave and I will be flying to Bangkok (talk about fire) to spend time developing products made by the women who have been freed from the red light districts. Please pray for us for continued vision, finances and the right connections to be made to best help these women become truly free!

 

We were asked in class, “Is your vision worth it—for it costs too much to accomplish someone else’s vision”. I simply smiled and thought to myself, if I have to go through the fire to produce the result of freeing women from a life of slavery and injustice, then yes, I will give my life for it!

 

I share my heart with you as we step forward in faith into the unknown. The one thing I know is that the Lord has given me this heart for women and I will use every talent He has given me to help see this vision come to pass. We still need to raise another $1,000 in the next month for this “vision” trip—much like a mission trip but with long term commitments and relationships being made in order to see lasting fruit. G42 is committed to support our vision for the next year, which means you can continue to give to our support account and the money will go directly towards helping us help these women through Freed by Design. We have a lot of work to do these next few months with our travels throughout Asia to work with amazing ministries and to help design and buy products to support these women.

Make a tax deductible donation at any point by sending a check with on our behalf to:

G42
P.O. Box 130611