God Moments in the Gulf

Our group (left to right): John, Zanosha, Kayla, Sara, Me, Tisa, Gabrielle, and Aubree.

    I just came back from my first-ever mission trip and all I can say is ‘Wow!” It was such a

great trip. I traveled with a group from BCM down to Orange Beach/Gulf Shores, Alabama, to work with a group called ‘Barefoot Believers.’ The week included serving pancake breakfasts to folks in the RV parks, beach outreach (passing out water/salvation bracelets, doing face painting/hair wraps, and walking the beach talking to people), and helping with a low income after school program in Aaronville.

Here’s a quick photo montage of some of the things we did throughout the week:

     While I could go on about all the things we did, the two biggest blessings for me probably weren’t as obvious to everyone else. God used the week to reteach me and remind me of the power of prayer and the blessing of community.

     Before we left, we were asked to find at least 3 prayer partners who would pray for us before and during the trip. We were given a list of things we should ask them to pray for (like safe travels, good health, unity, etc.), but we were also told to include any personal requests they could pray for too. Here are the exact words I sent to my prayer partners almost a month before even leaving for the trip:

My personal needs:

- Emotional/metal strength, and words! I am extremely introverted and I will need to be extroverted and willing to talk/share with people for the entire week.

- Rest/health/preparation. I am working the several nights prior to the trip and after we get back (12 hour night shifts). Pray that I am able to get rest when needed, and be packed/prepared to go on time.

Talk about answered prayer! I was able to get enough rest to keep me going, and even though we woke between 5:00am and 6:00am every morning (which would normally make me a walking zombie), I was alert and ready to go for whatever the day held. There was only one morning where I felt super tired. I might also mention that I was not only packed and ready to go on time, but arrived at the BCM house to find everyone else still waking up/getting ready to go!

As for my mental/emotional strength, it was also a prayer answered in a big way. Nowadays when I spend lots of time around people and am very busy, I feel drained by the time I’m actually able to get some ‘me’ time. I was also nervous about talking to random people - about anything, let alone approaching them and talking about spiritual things. Because of the prayers of my prayer-warriors, neither of those things was really a problem. Oh sure, I didn’t go running enthusiastically up to every person at the beach, or sit down with every person at breakfast and have deep spiritual conversations with all of them, but when I did talk to people I felt (for the most part) at ease. It was not perfect, but it went far smoother than I ever dreamed it could.
     The biggest blessing of all, though, was just having a week to hang out and fellowship with other believers, friends. Working a rotating night shift and being very introverted, it’s incredibly hard for me to develop close relationships with other people. My very closest friend lives hundreds of miles away. I’m also one of those people who tends to believe I can make it on my own; that it’s safer that way. It’s been a really, really long time since I’ve had a normal ‘friend’ relationship with anyone. So the biggest blessing of the trip actually came in all the in-between times, not just serving side by side, but talking in the van, sharing stories over dinner, laughing together, and sharing bits of my life/story (and listening to their stories too). Despite my life being very busy, it’s often a lonely one, and for a week I got to live and breathe and laugh and walk in real relationships with friends. That was the biggest blessing of all.

Christmas Shoeboxes

Some of the OCC boxes collected at BCM.

At our house we follow the rule of no-Christmas-stuff-until-the-day-after-Thanksgiving, but there is one big exception. Operation Christmas Child. click here to read more about it. Basically, you pick a gender/age group (2-4, 5-9, 10-14 & boy or girl) and fill a box with all sorts of things from hygiene items to school supplies to toys. The boxes are then collected and shipped around the world to kids in need. I think this is our 4th or 5th year participating, and we always have lots of fun with it. Mom & I usually go shopping for the boxes together and have fun picking out stuff. I enjoy it because I get to pick out school supplies (some of my favorite things!) and buy toys, which I normally don't get to do because I'm the youngest in my immediate family. There's also the fun challenge of seeing just how much stuff you can get in that one little shoebox!

All the stuff to go in the boxes! I chose to do 2 boxes: one for a boy & one for a girl, both 10-14.

With the help of Pinterest, I made up
a little fishing kit for my 10-14 yr old
boy box.

I put in a custom note for my kids.
Maybe one of them will write me back.
Find a similar template HERE.

This year I found even more ideas of what to put in the boxes thanks to Pinterest - if you search for 'Operation Christmas Child' it comes up with all kinds of stuff. I also ran across this blog Clip with a Purpose that has the motherload of ideas and info about what to put in the boxes, as well as tips for buying stuff year-round (when it's on sale) so you can get even more stuff to put in the boxes! I will definitely be doing that this coming year. Of course it's awesome to know that somewhere the box I pack is going to make some kid's day. This will be the third year I've put special tracking labels on our boxes, and I can't wait to see where they end up this year. Last year our boxes went to the Dem. Republic of Congo, and the year before that they ended up in Ukraine!

If you've never participated in Operation Christmas Child, I encourage you to do it in 2014. It's easy and super fun, and it blesses a child who really needs it!

Ready to go shoeboxes! Where will they end up?!

I've Got More Than One Home

I started writing this post a few weeks ago, then got busy and just now looked it over to finish it. 

Written 4/23/13:

Tonight was the last TNT (Tuesday Night Together) at the Baptist Collegiate Ministry (BCM) on ISU's campus. The BCM is a mostly student-led organization that meets in an old house on the edge of ISU's campus here in Terre Haute. Each week, students from all the area colleges gather for a time of praise and worship, sharing, praying, and a message. Other times during the week there are Bible studies, and all kinds of events take place throughout the school year. Roger and Rose Bear oversee it all and inspire/encourage the students.

Standing in the presence of friends tonight, singing, listening to messages through song, skits, and testimony - and watching people get pied in the face to raise money for summer missions, I am reminded of why I so deeply love this place and these people. And what an unbelievable undeserved blessing Christ has bestowed on me by allowing me to be here. This place has been my lilly pad for almost 4 years now. Let me explain:

Author Anne Lamott describes her journey to faith in her book "Traveling Mercies" like this:

"My coming to faith did not start with a leap but rather a series of staggers from what seemed like one safe place to another. Like lilly pads, round and green, these places summoned and then held me up while I grew. Each prepared me for the next leaf on which I would land, and in this way I moved across the swamp of doubt and fear. When I look back at some of these early resting places . . . I can see how flimsy and indirect a path they made. Yet each step brought me closer to the verdant pad of faith on which I somehow stay afloat today." 

I feel like our journey once we come to faith is like that too, at least it has been for me. Jumping from lilly pad to lilly pad. Sometimes I fall off, sometimes I barely hang on, sometimes they slip from underneath me and I plunge head-first into the water. I could tell my whole faith journey using this lilly pads motif, but tonight I want to focus on just one. This one has comforted me, built me up, and helped me grow in ways I never dreamed possible. (Even though it took some nudging to get me to jump to it.)

That lilly pad is BCM.

I first heard about it from some guys at my church. They kept begging me to go, but since I went to school 3 hours away, I didn't see the point. (going there for one night, then vanishing for a couple months before I'd be able to go back again). When I moved home after graduation and took a job in town, I finally worked up the courage to try it out. At first it was awkward - Andrew and Isaac were the only people I knew. But the music was great, and it reminded me of my chapels back up in Huntington. I kept going back, and before long it became a second home.

Over the last four years, I have made so many friends, found a mentor in Roger, found a passion for leading worship with the travel team (and a passion for finding new ways to express music in worship). Rose and the summer missionaries inspire me with their service mindedness. They are both holy and hilarious, these Christ filled people. And cool enough to not care that there's a 26-year-old in there midst that already finished what they're in the middle of. 

There's a Christa Wells song called "You've Got a Home" that I love. I'm not entirely sure what Christa was actually getting at when she wrote this song, but for me, it will always and forevermore remind of the BCM. Here are the lyrics:

"Mountains melt into valleys and

you suddenly find yourself in shadowlands

where all of life seems out of your hands

don't think you've got no one left

Here's the key to my front door

I got a pillow if you lost yours

you got a seat at my table

you've got a home

Here's somebody who believes you

Let truth remind you 

you've always got a place to go to

you've got a home

Rain has come for all of us

pours out a different tune for everyone

there's rhythm and rhyme inside the dissonance

we'll listen for it side by side

Here's the key to my front door

I got a pillow if you lost yours

you got a seat at my table

you've got a home

Here's somebody who believes you

Let truth remind you 

you've always got a place to go to

you've got a home"

~ lyrics from "You've Got a Home" by Christa Wells, from the album 'Frame the Clouds'

Every word of that embodies the BCM. I know that no matter what I've got a home with these people, at this place. It was a lilly pad I struggled onto and found shelter on. For the first time in my life, I feel like I'm preparing to jump. I can feel the lilly pad shifting under me. I'm scared to death - I have no idea where the next pad is. but I feel like I'm being prepared to leave. I don't know if I'll get another year here, but I intend to enjoy it as long as I'm here. And I know when I do leave, it's always a safe place I can return to. And people who will be with me and cheer me on even after I'm gone. 

Sometimes Things Click

It amazes me sometimes how God works. Like when you hear the same scripture verse multiple times in the same week, or the right song comes on the radio at the exact right moment, etc. Well, tonight one of those weird-cool God things happened to me. I go the Baptist Collegiate Ministry on ISU's campus on Tuesday nights whenever I can make it. It's been such a huge blessing in my life (another post on that later). Tonight Rose, one of the BCM leaders, spoke on "spurring one another on toward love and good deeds" (see Hebrew 10:24). Basically, on encouraging one another. One of the last points she touched on was encouraging others by sharing your own story. She challenged us all to go to www.MostImportantThing.org - a site where you can share your testimony. I've heard Roger and Rose both talk about this site before and I've always wanted to do it but haven't yet.

But here's why Rose's challenge to share your story was a God thing -

My first OLW assignment (see previous post here) was to make 12 intentions for the year. Here's my intention pages that I created back in January:

So no big deal there - but now take a closer look at my April intention: (and note that today is April 2)

Yeah. I'd call that a God thing.

So here I sit trying to type up my spiritual story. As soon as I can pare multiple pages down to 300 words (a The Most Important Thing requirement), I will post my story on there. And I hope to share the full multi-page story with some of the close people in my life. Thanks for the encouragement Rose!