Him We Proclaim

On Sunday, I had the privileged of speaking to a group of students from Greater Atlanta Christian School (GAC) who leave on Friday for a short term missions trip to Ecuador. Of all places, they will be in the same general area where Jonathan lived when his family first moved there! I was really excited to speak to this group of students because it was 9 years ago on a missions trip to the Czech Republic with GAC that  I sensed the Lord leading me into missions. It was that trip that launched the journey of God giving me a heart for the Nations and for me to anxiously wait for where He would lead me.Presently, I am eager to be serving the students of the International Youth Group where Jonathan and I strongly feel is where the Lord desires for us to be. I shared with the students my journey into missions and challenged them to pray that the Lord would use this trip to speak to them and give them direction into the future. We talked about Ephesia...

Recently I've had very short nights of sleep. There's some inner drive that keeps me up at night working on getting to Costa Rica. When Patrick falls asleep I am able to work with much less distraction, and I guess I just go on auto pilot. All of a sudden 8:30 becomes 11:00! I think to myself, just a minute more. Next thing I know, 11:45. Oh yeah, and I have to get up at 4:30 to open at Starbucks. I'm really grateful that The Lord gives this to me. It's a much better option than being stuck in a rut and not wanting to do anything. But I have to be careful to schedule in times or days of rest. Otherwise, I get burnt out surprisingly fast. If I go a week or two without time of rest and refocus, I crash. It reminds me of my utter reliance on Christ. I can't do anything, even take a breathe, without him sustaining every moment of it. And at the same time, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. I hope I never lose sight of this. I fear that if I ever ...

It's strange to think that we started the journey to go to Cost Rica 2 years ago.  Two years ago we started seriously praying about applying to work with the AMCA youth group. We were out of school just over a year, married 11 months, Patrick wasn't born yet, and we were living a cute duplex with a roof shaped like that of a caboose.  And then we prayed. We left promising jobs. Sold our stuff. Moved in with friends (and later family).  Two years is a long time when it's 2/3rds of your life outside of school. Where does the time go? Two years spent trying to live a dream that was given to me and has become my own.  Of those 24 months, we've lived in our own place for 8. Newly married with a child. What were we thinking? Has it been worth it? Heck Yeah