Pages

03 February 2017

SHARE

So I keep reading articles like these in which missionaries wish you could see how it REALLY is, wish they could tell you the downsides, wish they could tell you about the perks and about the personal struggles.

ooops.

Apparently chatty Cathy has been a very poor missionary.

I have felt the great pressure to keep things up and surface and appearance-y.  I have.  I do.  We live and serve 100% on the voluntary support of others.  Of COURSE I want you to think we're awesome and a super investment and that we're rockstars.

But if you've been reading our blog for 2 seconds, you know we are not.  And the only thing in us worth investing in is Christ in and through us.

So I'm gonna keep risking it, and I'm gonna keep asking you to, too.

How MUCH can we learn from each other!  How much can God use us and our struggles to encourage and empower and inspire each other!  Isn't it through our hard times, our dark nights, that He most often grows us the most?  So doesn't it makes sense that by living those hard times openly, others will be able to see God?

The point of our lives as followers of Christ is that others might see Him and be reconciled to Him. 

When we share our hearts and lives with others, truly, risking it, I believe it is often then that God uses us to move in peoples lives...often in ways we have NO idea and NEVER could have created ourselves.

Be used by God...share a struggle with someone today, please.  Then they can PRAY for you.  Then they can KNOW they are not alone, either. Then they can GROW from your testimony.  Then we will have accountability.  Then we can be the body of Christ, growing and encouraging and struggling and overcoming, together.

I hate when someone is sharing a struggle with me, and then they quickly say, "But it's nothing compared to what you're going through," or "It's so stupid.  It's nothing compared to what people in Haiti are dealing with."

I hate it because we're ALL ALL just people, and God's got us all in such different places and lives and cultures and struggles and joys.  Maybe He's working on me on something He worked with you on last year.  Maybe you're dealing with a struggle He's helped me overcome.  Maybe God's helped you understand something that I have yet to.

Maybe we can all help each other, for His glory.

Keep helping me.  I love you.

Soapbox descended.

We had the most just GOOD convocation service this past Wednesday.  It was just GOOD.  The worship was fantastic. The sermon was convicting and humbling, the prayer time was powerful, praying over our first year class was beautiful.  Listening to them read their commitment to holy living and humble service and to be family...reading with our staff and students our promise to live life alongside and to minister to them and equip them and love them. It was all just GOOD.  Wish you coulda been there.


This is a special first year class.  Some of them are incredibly intelligent.  Many of them are very hardworking.  Several of them are just radiant leaders, many of them have sincere hearts for service and ministry, many of them radiate a true love for Jesus and a desire to love Him and give Him well...they're beloved men and women.
It was one of those heavenly worship days.

Do you support a student at Emmaus yet?

If you don't, please pray about coming alongside one of these men or women.  We need your help equipping and discipling and caring for them, and Christ-in-them-in-Haiti is such a powerful investment in His kingdom.
Please be praying for our first year students with us!

It was a good long week and we are pretty well beat this evening.  Carol and I almost have everything balanced in the office, intensive courses finished today, Lily and Sofie had a bunch of their friends over this afternoon, we grilled out with our visitors, and Matt and I are both getting ready to start teaching again this week!



Next post...things we think are normal, but you might not...

2 comments:

  1. Thank you. Thank you for a willing, transparent heart.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you for saying something! I love knowing someone is reading :)

      Delete