My life.
Wow.
I think about those two simple words and how they make up an incredibly complicated sentence. My life is crazy. My life is blessed. My life is unconventional.
It’s a dream and a huge responsibility to live as a traveling missionary. Micah looked at me the other day and said “Can you believe that this is the norm for us?”, and it really made me think about the dynamics of our day to day. Building a fence at a camp, sitting around a fire by night, Estonian churches, lunch with Finnish musicians, performing modern worship for a congregation of a traditional Baptist Church, a plane to China in 12 days… this has become the norm for us. Random, unexpected, helter-skelter life, and it is So. Stinking. Beautiful.
A View In Viljandi, Estonia where we live
For the fifth month of the world race, my new team was sent to Estonia, again. Initially I was bummed to be going to the same country for the second time, but I knew that there was a divine plan for the unexpected turn of events. Our ministry here has been very different from what I grew up thinking ministry was. For the first two weeks we lived at a summer camp in the country and worked with the caretaker and his wife all day. We painted, poured concrete and built a fence around a sewage pond. ( yummy ) I enjoyed it, but I also couldn’t help wondering what impact, if any, we were having here.
I soon realized that even if we are not seeing amazing revival or having crazy spiritual experiences, God is still steadily at work .
About 1% of the Estonian population are Christians who actually live out their lives following Jesus. Read that again, ONE PERCENT. But that one percent is ALIVE and on fire, and I now understand that our job, our ministry this month, is to encourage and love the nationals that are here in Estonia working for the Gospel. To pray with them and lift them up. To speak life over them and to refill their proverbial buckets with Joybecause sometimes life, and ministry, takes unexpected turns.
Some Internal Ministry
I have done and seen things these past four and a half months that I never thought I would be a part of. I am LEADING WORSHIP for goodness sake. Ask anyone back in Texas if they ever thought I would be doing that and I am sure it would be a surprise to them all. Don’t believe the lies that say you can’t or aren’t able to make a difference and lead a blessed life, because you can. You have the light of Christ in you, and if you don’t, all you have to do is receive it. Take that light with you everywhere and show it to people, and watch God do some really cool things in and around you. Like I said at the beginning, my life is blessed, crazy and unconventional. But more than all those things, I hope Jesus sees my life as something else… I hope He sees my life as Worship.
P.S Enjoy the Pictures!!!
Norby, the resident dog of the camp we lived at
Worship with Kimberly and Brooke
Derek, Micah and myself after a day of pouring concrete and fence building
Spending time making lego creations with the caretakers children
