Survival Run

 

 

 

I was introduced to this video yesterday and I LOVED this it!  A couple times I almost teared up because it felt so so close to reality to me!  I feel like this man’s attempt to run an impossible race blind is EXACTLY what we are doing attempting to navigate life in this fallen world.  We have absolutely no sight to see what is coming around the corner and not ability to navigate through circumstances if not for the very real presence and guidance of the Holy Spirit.  This year more than ever I have become aware of how sweet this type of daily dependence is, and yet how incredibly vulnerable it feels.  Most of the time we don’t realize that we’re blind, and so we don’t grip the Spirit the way we should and consequently we trip and fall and veer off the path constantly.  Imagine if that blind man were to let go of His sighted friend and take off on his own leaving his friend to chase after him and do whatever he could to get the guy back on course??  So often that has been me.

I loved the way the two men were so practiced at running together that they knew the importance of constant two-way communication, they knew how to change positions at a moment’s notice to minimize the weaknesses of the blind man and maximize the strengths of the friend, and they paced themselves focusing on the task at hand.  Oh that I would be this attuned to the Spirit’s leading in my life!

- Laura

Sanctification and the Disciplines of Grace

 I've been asked to sub in for someone on a panel at one of MTW's Living In Grace conferences next week.  I was looking over the list of potential questions, and I really am excited to get to hear the other panelists responses!  I'm also really encouraged to know that the new missionaries in training who attend this retreat are getting to grapple with these kinds of ideas!  The questions are so good, I felt drawn to spend some time mulling over my own thoughts about each of them.  They're such challenging things to think about. 

Sanctification and Disciplines of Grace/Suggested panel questions

 

1. What do you see as the relationship between personal holiness and self-discipline? Someone said, “Before you can advance in personal holiness you must have self-discipline.” What you think about that statement?

 

It’s been observed about humanity that 99.9% of what we do, is done out of habit. I think God made us this way, and it’s a beautiful thing because as long as we are intentional and disciplined about forming habits that sanctify us, the growth will continue to continue by default. Things like praying all day long, recognizing all interruptions as from Him, and celebrating His attentiveness to us become second nature once we’ve cultivated them as habits. The cool thing is that because of the mysterious way that the Holy Spirit works in our lives, prompting us toward growth, motivating us to work at it, and then empowering us to follow through, the whole process of sanctification is initiated by Him and continues by Him. Our role is merely to respond in faith, taking the next step toward obedience to the Spirit, even if we don’t see where the motivation or empowerment will come from for the following one.

 

2. What then is the role of the law for Christians? 

It helps me to think about the law as wedding vows. When I stood before my husband I voluntarily committed to show my love for Him through doing x, y, and z. I continue to demonstrate my love for my husband both to him and before the watching world through fulfilling those vows. My fulfillment of those vows are not what make me married to my husband, but they are how I proclaim my marriage in practice. My husband knew me to be a sinner when he married me, and by God’s grace I trust that he would remain married to me even if I were to break my vow to him—though it would certainly put a serious strain on our relationship and my repentance would be absolutely vital.

When I accepted Jesus Christ as the Lord of my life, I was effectively committing to submit to Him in all things. By submitting to Him in all things I both demonstrate my love to Him personally and also demonstrate my love for Him to the world. My obedience to the law is not the basis on which I am betrothed to Christ, but it is the way I proclaim my love and commitment to the relationship in practice. When my divine groom chose me, He knew me to be a sinner, and knew that I would repeatedly demonstrate disloyalty to Him by breaking the law, so He preemptively atoned for my infidelity and also gave me the gift of the Holy Spirit so that I am empowered to keep running back to Him and slowly become more and more faithful.

3. What practices have you found personally helpful in helping to keep you faithful and consistent in your walk with Christ.

Many years ago I cultivated two habits that have stuck with me: spending time in God’s word and prayer first thing in the morning, and also talking with God as I fall asleep at night. I think though my growth has been very slow at times, these practices have kept me aware of my need of Him. Another practice that I began as a teenager is journaling. For me, journaling has become a really spiritual and sanctifying thing. When I write, I discover truths about myself and about the ways God is working on me. I talk to God in my writing and He speaks back in my thoughts, putting scriptures on my mind. This practice really helps me refocus my heart and be intentional about the growth God is nudging me toward.

In the past couple of years by God’s grace I’ve worked to cultivate some other practices that have greatly bolstered my faith and daily delight in God. I do a weekly prayer run in which I worship and pray while I go for a run outdoors. This practice started as an effort to get in shape after having my daughter, but it quickly turned into my most joyous 20 minutes of the week and it as instigated a lot more awareness of God's affection and intention toward me.

Also I’ve been working to cultivate a more constant awareness of God’s presence throughout the day and constant conversation with Him as I go about my daily tasks. This is something that I’m still working on and because it isn’t as cut and dry as going for a run on Mondays I think it’s been a slower, more gradual habit for me to form. I’ve seen so much progress, though—it’s really cool!

Lastly, our family has been working to cultivate the habit of worshiping together. We’ve just started this this year—Covid has been so good for us in so many ways. We learn a new song each month and come up with hand motions for it together. We have a little devotional book we read together, and then we talk about how we’ve seen God during the day. This has been a really special time and it really has grown our delight in God together. 

4. What tools have you found helpful? 

I love the PrayerMate App for praying strategically. I always have my prayer list with me in my phone, and it makes it easy to keep notes about how to pray for each item as well as scripture verses to pray for each one.

The Getty Family Worship videos helped us get going and develop a simple model for family worship, though at this point we have made it our own and no longer use their videos.

Earbuds—one of my all-time favorite inventions. When I run, I’m able to participate with all of creation in the worship that my ears can’t otherwise pick up on. It’s really enrapturing!

 

5. We are to bring every thought, word, and deed captive to the obedience of Christ. How do you do that exactly?

I think learning to practice God’s presence every moment of the day is a big step in the right direction—constant prayer. I also think that clinging outlandishly to our theology and choosing to receive all things as part of God’s good plan—refusing to consider any inconvenience or hardship as a mere happenstance--can position us to respond correctly more often to the various forces that might otherwise trigger us to sin.

 

6. Have you ever been in a situation, or season of your life where you found yourself seeking personal holiness through the sheer exercise of your own will? What resulted from that, and what did you learn from that?

Since I was a little girl I’ve been told that pride was one of my besetting sins. I’ve always wrestled with the idea that being more spiritually oriented is a two-sided coin because with each spiritual victory I become aware of my own victory and thus solidify my own pride even more. For a very long time I sought to counteract this by minimizing my victories and refusing to speak about them with others. At every opportunity I was quick to confess my sin and struggles, but I was much slower to share personal growth with others because I didn’t want to become more prideful myself in sharing it.

Then one day I shared all of this with one of my mentors, and she made the observation that this practice must make it hard for me to celebrate my own victories. I realized that I probably needed to grow in my understanding of pride and humility, so I began praying about this, asking God to reveal truth to me about pride and humility. I listened to sermons and asked a few people close to me to pray for my growth in and better understanding of humility. And God answered my prayers! He did this through a variety of ways—partially through a group Bible study, partially through a Disney movie, and partially through giving me such deep delight in God’s attentiveness to me that I couldn’t bear not to share it.

My biggest take away from the experience is that if you feel like you’re running up against a wall in your walk with the Lord, don’t accept defeat, and don’t keep running at it the same way if that way isn’t working. Ask boldly for what you want and ask others to pray for growth too, and then expect God to respond and look for His answer. 

 

7. Sometimes we have a sense that we are in a good place in terms of moving forward in our sanctification. Other times we are aware that something is off. What do you look for in your own life when you make that assessment?

I think our emotions are one of the most apparent ways God attempts to get our attention. He may not speak audibly to us to say that something’s up, but He’s created us to become sad, mad, frustrated, and apprehensive when something isn’t as it should be within us. When I’m feeling frustrated or generally discontent, I know that I need to spend some time with God to figure out what’s going on. For me, writing really helps me to get to the bottom of what is triggering my emotions, and then I’m able to look at how God’s word addresses my situation, and prayerfully seek repentance if it's needed, or seek empowerment and boldness to do whatever needs to be done in order to return to peace, joy, and right standing before God.

 

8. What consequences have you observed in your fields of ministry when there hasn’t been significant growth in sanctification? Is there anything you might do differently that might’ve been helpful in those situations?

When you aren’t being intentional about growth in your walk with God, you’ll quickly find yourself running after your idols. Just as a body of water is only pure and life-giving as long as it is ultimately running toward the sea but stagnant pools quickly become filthy and poisonous, Christians are made for growth and without growing we will never be satisfied.

I think for a lot of us in full time ministry this general dissatisfaction due to stagnation can make us look to our ministries for fulfillment. This often leads us to work harder and harder to accomplish or produce ministry fruit in our own power. Ministry success is a huge idol that cannot satisfy us like intimacy with God can. Sanctification must be more important to us than our ministries.

I think sometimes God allows us to be frustrated in our ministry so that we will recognize when we’re trying to find our joy there rather than in Him. Sometimes God even completely removes us from ministry one way or another in order to remind us where true fulfillment lies. In my own life God has used pregnancy to do this for an extended season. God’s commitment to each one of us is so deep that He’s completely willing to sacrifice our ministries for our own good if that’s what it will take to make us find our identity and fulfillment in Him. We must also be willing to make sacrifices for the sake of pursuing sanctification.

 

- Laura

The Greatest Adventure There Is

 

It’s such a sweet and mysterious thing to venture into faith—to feel entirely vulnerable, yet entirely protected at the same time.  Like living in two simultaneous realities but trusting that the invisible one secretly trumps the visible one every time.  And I, a naïve and whimsical child of the visible, dance around leaping from precipices into the mist of the unseen—too foolish to trust in common sense over dreams and miracles.

 

 

- Laura

A Prayer of Lament

Father in Heaven, so many are hurting right now.

So many hearts are heavy with the brokenness of this world.

 

Our souls cry out, “How long?”  

So easily they betray the hope our lips profess, 

fighting back in protest one moment and sinking in anguish the next.  

Make it stop!  Make it right!   

Oh, Lord, may this longing bear witness to us of our home in another dimension.    

 

Convince us, Father, of the beauty You are growing just beyond our field of vision. 

Speak to our hearts of Your power amplified in our weakness!   

Oh, take this clay and make it worthy of that power! 

 

For the sake of your name, God, enter our mess and turn it around.   

May Your kingdom come.   

May You reign here. 

 

Let this hurt persuade us all the more of the glory to be revealed.   

Set our hearts at rest in Your presence.   

When our hearts condemn us, flood our minds with assurance of Your victory over our hearts.

 

Satisfy us, Jesus, with the sweetness of Your attentiveness moment by moment.  

 

 

The Key to Experienceing All Moments as Key Moments

 I just listened to a wonderful sermon by Tyler Staton:  https://open.spotify.com/episode/0IjK6yMUXMZ9ah8zuTxxV8?si=_QW8yoZ6TOK-P_JLlg3PAg

A few quotes I resonate with strongly:

"In the place of prayer, belief becomes knowledge"

 

"Without prayer, belief becomes agonizing.  Prayer is meant to be the hydration of the spiritual life...  Spiritual knowledge has to be inhabited.  'Belief' is buying into a theory.  'Knowing' is to personally, vulnerably trust the theory that you already believe in."

 

"It's not enough to believe in the love of God.  We have to allow God to love us exactly as we are, naked and unashamed, and the way that we let that love in, is prayer.  As we pray the blinding light of God's love seeps into every crack in our inner world and the Spirit opens our eyes to discover ourselves as we really are, fixed in the firm gaze of God.  That's the invitation of prayer.  I believe in the love of the Father--prayer is the experience of that love.  I believe in the friendship of the son--prayer is the experience of that friendship.  I believe in the supernatural power of the Spirit--prayer is the experience of that power."

“What if the hour you spend in the prayer room is when you refocus on Jesus so that you can carry His presence with you into the other 23 hours of the day with a heightened awareness that He is with you, that He likes you, that He is for you, that He hears your thoughts.  You start to pray in real time.  You instinctually lift situations to the Lord in the actual moment that you experience them…. You’re no longer deferring all of your prayers to some later holier moment, because your whole life is becoming that holier moment.” – Brennan Manning

 

 

These are realities I have begun to know rather than merely believe, and it is pure joy.  The delight that accompanies the realization of how incredibly attentive the God of the universe is to you, personally, is astonishing and exhilarating.  One day perhaps I will detail what this journey has been like for me. 

- Laura

An Open letter to my Missionary Kid Friends

Dear TCK friend (you know who you are),

Every time one of you moves back to the US after having served with your family overseas, I feel a mixture of emotions for you.  I feel excited about the new adventure on which you are embarking, and the unique experience overseas that you carry back with you.  But I also feel a little bit sad for you, knowing that just as our society will never truly go back to the way it was before Covid-19 (though we may long to), your life will never truly go back to what you remember before your time overseas (though you may wish it would). 

You’ve experienced life in a way most people in your home country cannot relate to.  You’ve been forced to discover who you really are when your friends, belongings, culture, and language are all stripped away.  You’ve balanced two worlds at once while discovering your own identity between them.  Your experiences overseas have broadened your understanding of humanity and of God.  Finding others who share your perspective will be rare.

When I was young, my family frequently moved from one place to another—one school to another—one church to another—I always felt like I didn’t fit in.  I always felt I was missing some crucial common group experiences or prerequisite interests in order to truly be one of the group.  I have often let these feelings push me toward pride, imagining that I’ve become more open-minded or more aware of the world because of my travel and interaction with different peoples.

I often assumed that my peers who had spent the majority of their lives in one place were more comfortable in their skin and had a stronger sense of belonging than I.  However, the older I get and the more I interact with people and the brokenness of this world, the more I realize that very often that just isn’t true.  My peers may have been more practiced at appearing to belong than I was, but that in no way implies that they truly felt known and understood.

To be human very often means to be misunderstood by everyone but your heavenly Father.  You have grappled with this profoundly overseas.  You will continue to do so wherever you go.  As you do, I hope it will push you toward compassion for those around you, because each one of us on this planet is truly a fish out of water, created for a much better world than the one we find ourselves in now. 

I hope that on the days when you grieve over the life you wanted to have (that you may have thought you’d have), you will remember that you do not grieve alone.  All of creation groans with you.

For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed….  We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.  Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. (Romans 8:19-23)

I hope that when you encounter people who seem to have the social life you long for, that you will cast your gaze upon eternity, and remember…

 what great love the Father has lavished on [YOU], that [YOU] should be called [a child] of God! And that is what [YOU] are! The reason the world does not know [YOU] is that it did not know Him…. What [YOU] will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, [YOU] shall be like Him!  (1 John 3:1-2)

I have been so incredibly blessed to know you.  I cherish the times we studied the Bible together, learned American history, anatomy, earth science, and English composition together, and took outings to Chilis and Pinkberry together.  I have been so honored by the way you loved on my children like they were your own younger siblings.  When I was figuring out how to lead Sunday School in Spanish, you were there to help me with the little ones and interpret their words that I could not understand.  When I needed help decorating and preparing crafts for VBS, you were the first to volunteer.  When I was struggling with morning sickness you brought me notes of encouragement.  You have blessed me immeasurably, and in that I rejoice.  But none of that compares with the way the God of the Universe rejoices over you.  The one who knows you fully loves you more fiercely than humanity has ever loved. 

He has appointed you for greatness and equipped you for a mission only you can do, and only you can fully discover.  Remember that very often the greatest victories for God’s kingdom come about in subtle ways, unrecognized by most.  Lean into the approval and delight only you and your Father can together experience for these victories.  Live each moment for Him, as your audience of one, and one day soon the rest of us will rejoice with you at the glory and honor with which He has crowned you!

Sincerely,

Miss Laura

George Floyd and the Kingdom of God

The brutal killing of George Floyd last month was heart wrenching for me.  I hesitate to include the words, “for me,” in that sentence, because I don’t want to trivialize the tragedy by only speaking about it in the context of my own personal experience.  But I think that one small way God is redeeming the horrific manslaughter of His image bearer, George Floyd, is in the way video footage has allowed and even called each individual to FEEL the brutality and OWN the grief personally. 

As I watched the minute by minute account of George Floyd’s murder, I accepted the waves of heartache and anger which are the natural response God has put in each of us to such perversion of His plan for humanity.  In the days that followed, God led me to NOT distract myself from lament, but to take time to cry out to Him and beg for things to be made right in the world.  I felt overcome by the heaviness of pain in the world as I walked with Peter out onto deep water sustained only by the gaze of my loving savior who stood before me in it.  God assured me that taking on that kind of grief and continuing on is only possible until we look away from Him (Matthew 14:27-31).

As the Psalmists so often remind us, however, while we grieve and bear the weight of all that is wrong in our world, we must also look for the light of how God is moving in the world.  Though the darkness continues to grow darker, we are called also to look for evidences of His kingdom, for Jesus says, “The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field.  It is the smallest of seeds, but when it has grown it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.” (Matthew 13:31-32)

Take heart, brothers and sisters, HIS KINGDOM IS COMING!

“In this world you will have trouble.  But take heart!  I have overcome the world.”  John 16:33

The evil one may have gained a great victory in downtown Minneapolis on May 25, but look at what God started doing there 20 YEARS AGO!  God planted a beacon of hope just down the street from the site of that homicide.  I’m not even going to try to summarize it because this video is SO powerful:  

Lives are being changed, hope is growing, and the kingdom is coming!!

On the very evening that riots in Minneapolis were devolving into chaos and mass destruction was growing all around the Phillips neighborhood, the faculty of Hope Academy were pronouncing blessings over each of their 2020 graduates and commissioning them to be agents of change in their city, washing their feet, and then passing the towels to them, to go and do likewise.

Look at this beautiful song that the faculty were putting together for their seniors the week of George’s death:

“I remain confident of this:
    I will see the goodness of the Lord
    in the land of the living.
Wait for the Lord;
    be strong and take heart
    and wait for the Lord.”

Psalm 27:13-14

- Laura

Consistent yet Original

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the countless ways that God, in creation, expresses His simultaneously faithful consistency and creative originality. 

In Isaiah 43 (as in many other passages) God reminds His children of His faithful, dependable love for them and goodness toward them with statements like,

 “Fear not, for I have redeemed you,”

“I will be with you,”

 “I am your Savior,”

“I give Egypt as your ransom, Cush and Seba in exchange for you,”

“you are precious in my eyes,”

“I love you.” 

And then He makes this statement:

“Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?  I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.” – Isaiah 43:19

In the creation of music, one of the most captivating and emotive phenomena in human experience, God speaks to us about His consistent character yet continual originality.  Music, a sequence of notes performed in rhythm, must always maintain an established tempo and musical key, yet within that tempo and key the notes may be spaced and sequenced in any variety of ways to create a unique and original piece.  Unless a composition includes both a consistent and unchanging beat as well as a creative and varied arrangement of notes, the result is mere noise.  When the constancy and originality are harmoniously paired together, however, the product can, as Plato put it, “give soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and life to everything.”

Visual art reflects a similar dynamic.  Our eyes are drawn to shades of paint on a canvas because of the simultaneous order and variance present when a harmonious palette of colors (harmonious because of their precise spacing from one another on the visible spectrum) is arranged in a completely new and original way before us. 

He is good.  

He is loving. 

He brings beauty out of chaos. 

We can count on it. 

Yet He is always expressing these attributes in new and creative ways.

He is faithful and unchanging, yet His scope of expression is as infinite as the frequencies within a musical key.  As boundless as the potential arrangements of color from a palette.

I’m so excited to see what God will do next!

- Laura

Applauding God in Quarantine

I just want to publicly applaud my Father’s amazing goodness to me.  I have seen so many ways in which He prepared and called me to this time in the states right now—even though it wasn’t part of my agenda.

At the beginning of 2020 I spent some time seeking the Lord regarding the new year and felt Him leading me to search my heart for the desires He was putting there.  Instead of making resolutions about what I wanted to accomplish, He led me to express and pray about desires He had laid on my heart.

Prayer

One of these desires was that God would grow my prayer life.  He had already given me a greater appreciation for the importance of prayer, and grown my desire to participate in kingdom advancing prayer, put I wanted to go deeper and learn to listen and respond to God’s communication to me.  He started answering that prayer immediately through a wonderful book on prayer, “Hearing God in Conversation,” by Samuel C. Williamson.  Additionally, he began to draw my attention to the ways He was speaking to me through circumstances and unexpected moments in my life.   

By the end of February I was so encouraged by my victories in this area that I had a growing desire to convey it or share it somehow with others.  God impressed on me the incredible impact that is made on a place when God’s people earnestly seek Him and proclaim His Lordship.  I began to pray that God would raise up prayer warriors.  I was burdened not only for prayer to grow in Cusco, but also within the US church.  I had a deep longing to do something to help the US church grow in passion for the Lord through passionate prayer.  I prayed toward this end, but I wasn’t sure what else I could do from Cusco and given my busy schedule of responsibilities there.

Since I’ve been back in the US my burden for the church here continues to grow and the Lord is slowly giving me opportunity after opportunity to speak about this burden with different people and groups. As I run in the mornings and pray earnestly for the homes and churches in this area, God has impressed on me the truth that an earnest prayer warrior will undoubtedly make a difference in the place where he prays.  Oh, may I not go unnoticed by the enemy in Birmingham!  For the previous year God had me praying earnestly for Cusco, and while I continue to do that from afar, He has now moved me to join the spiritual battle in a new place.  And, I trust, He is raising up other prayer warriors in Cusco through the strict quarantine that now relegates God’s people to their homes there. 

Intentionality as a Mother

Another desire I expressed to God at the beginning of the year was to become more intentional about building positive character traits in my children.  I found myself so busy in Cusco that my interactions with my children were rarely premeditated.  This is another area in which I have so much room for growth, but I’m thankful for the way in which quarantine in the US has slowed me down enough to see little bits of growth there. 

Vision for Christian Education in Cusco

For a couple years now God has been pressing this need on my heart and the hearts of others on our team and so we’ve formed a school board and have been praying and laying plans for a Christian school.  At the beginning of February I suddenly began to feel uneasy about some aspects of our plans and timeline, however, and so I began to pray and consult others, and sincerely ask the Lord for guidance.  This is an area I’m not ready to expound a lot on just yet on this platform, but God has masterfully been directing my heart and the hearts of others as well regarding all this.  We don’t have it all figured out yet, but as in so many areas of life, God is using Covid-19 to provide direction and unity—and I stand in awe, because it’s just perfect. 

Curriculum Development

Related to the school initiative, I asked God at the beginning of the year to provide time for me to work on curriculum development for a future school.  This was something I felt a need for, but just was not seeing when I’d ever have time to do it.  Enter Covid-19.  Our entire schedule and workload has been shuffled and changed and we’re still figuring out how to prioritize our time each week, but I’ve already been blessed to be able to help a Peruvian mother from afar with finding homeschool activities that align with Peruvian curriculum standards.  And, due to everyone in the country suddenly becoming homeschoolers, she’s beginning to help me think for how to help other families with this effort as well.  It looks different than I expected, but it’s perfect. 

Mobilize US Churches for Cusco

I spoke with God in January about my desire to really cast a vision to US churches for the work in Cusco.  I felt like God is doing and calling our team to so much, and I just wished I could convey the passion I feel for what He’s doing there to others in the US.  It’s always so hard to do that while you’re overseas, but I was excited about the opportunity to travel briefly to the US in March and share about the work in Cusco.  Now, finding ourselves stuck in the US for the time being, it’s been exciting to be able to speak with many different churches and groups about the work of the gospel in Cusco.  Many churches are desiring to help care for the church in other parts of the world who are affected greatly by the pandemic in one way or another.  Others are seeking to find creative ways to engage their congregations in global missions due to having to postpone summer missions trips.  It’s so exciting to see some of the ways God is working through all that is going on--and what a joy to be part of it!

To Grow in Patience, Wonder, and Humility

These are some attributes that I asked God to grow in me at the beginning of 2020.  I have desired to be in a posture of watching, learning, and rejoicing in the things God is doing around me—not that I don’t want to participate in the work of the gospel, but I want to be patient enough to see what God is doing and calling me into on His timetable--to be caught up in the wonder of His goodness, and better understand my own humble existence so that I might serve in meekness and sincerity.  Still I have so much room for growth, but it has been so exciting to see God slow me down during this time, force me to watch, and then amaze me with His goodness.  Being stuck at home away from my home and normal routine has made every week feel like a surprise and each opportunity for growth and ministry has been so obviously from God and not of my own doing.  God is so good.

And there’s more, though I won't share it all now.  I’m so thankful and amazed at the way God is answering my prayers from earlier in the year.  He’s so intentional and perfect in everything He does!

Join us at Link!

Next month Derek and I will have the opportunity to speak at Link, a three-day event at Mission To the World’s Atlanta office designed to help people explore what it would look like to become a missionary—an event that Derek and I attended ourselves, eight years ago.


In 2012 we had been married for three years, were actively involved in our church, hoping to start a family soon, and passionate about global missions.  Since the beginning of our marriage, missionary service had been something we’d talked about, and it seemed like the time to start investigating further what God might have for us in that regard.  We knew what our own skill sets were, but we didn’t have a particular sense of where in the world God might be calling us or even what missionary agency we should connect with.  We weren’t sure what the process of becoming missionaries would look like aside from the understanding that we’d probably have to raise some funds.


We reached out to several different missionary agencies and learned everything that we could about the process, how the agencies operated, etc.  We attended a couple different informational events, and browsed a lot of different websites.  In many ways all of this was reminiscent of university shopping.  We were assigned recruiters and added to mailing lists.  It was all quite exciting but also a bit confusing.  Since we were members at a PCA church, it made sense to reach out to Mission To the World (MTW) among other agencies, and we soon found out about Link. 


When we attended Link it was the first time that we really began to be able to envision what our lives might look like serving overseas.  In addition to hearing from MTW’s leadership and members of the home-office support crew, we heard and interacted with actual, current MTW missionaries.  Men and women of different ages and stages (some closer to our age and others older) shared about their experience as missionaries in different parts of the world.  They shared about the needs on their fields, and then they took time to sit and eat with us, get to know us, and answer our questions. 


There were question and answer sessions where we and others like us were able to ask about the nitty-gritty details of missionary service and about MTW in particular.  Hearing the questions and concerns of others attending the event helped us to think through aspects of missionary service that we hadn’t thought about.  We also got to interact a little bit with some who were just beginning their journey with MTW, going through orientation to begin their support-raising journey.  Link often happens simultaneously with MTW’s new missionary orientation, making this type of interaction possible.


As a result of attending Link we were able to connect with a couple different missionary teams in different countries and also spent some face to face time with our recruiter who discussed other potential fields that could be a good fit for us.  We began having conversations over Skype with several different team leaders.  After 6 months or so we had received an invitation to visit a field and get to know the team and ministries in Cusco, Peru.  We sensed God continuing to propel us forward and so in the spring of 2013 we spent 10 days in the city that we now call home. 


Our missionary journey has had its ups and downs, as all journeys do, but looking back it’s so reaffirming to see how God has led us gently every step of the way.  The path to becoming missionaries was methodical and required gradually increasing steps of faith.  I can honestly say that the years since we took that first step have been some of the fullest and best of my life, and I’m so thankful to be caught up in God’s plan to bring His kingdom to Cusco, Peru.  I’m also quite excited about being able to come alongside others at Link and share some of this amazing journey with brothers and sisters in Christ who are seeking God’s path for them regarding missionary service!


“Faith never knows where it is being led, but it loves and knows the One who is leading.”  – Oswald Chambers

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A Prayer

I can't not pray and envision the spectacular coming kingdom when I hear this song...

I close my eyes and I can see
The world that's calling out to me
That I call my own
Through the clouds, beyond the war
Through where many have gone before
It’s my future home.

They can say, they can say it all sounds crazy
They can say, they can say I've lost my mind
I don't care, I don't care, so call me crazy
I can live in a world that You’ve designed

'Cause every night I lie in bed
The brightest colors fill my head
A million dreams are keeping me awake
I think of what the world will be
A vision of the one I see
A million prayers is all it's gonna take
A million prayers for the world You’re gonna make

There’s a house You have built
Every room inside is filled
With saints from long ago
Family, friends, now long gone,
Standing there to urge me on
On a rainy day

They can say, they can say it all sounds crazy
They can say, they can say I’ve lost my mind
I don't care, I don't care if they call me crazy
Runaway to a world that You design

Every night I lie in bed
The brightest colors fill my head
A million dreams are keeping me awake
I think of what the world will be
A vision of the one I see
A million prayers is all it's gonna take
A million prayers for the world You’re gonna make

However big, however small
Let me be part of it all
Share Your dreams with me
I may be right, I may be wrong
But say that you'll bring me along
To the world You see
To the world I close my eyes to see
I close my eyes to see

Every night I lie in bed
The brightest colors fill my head
A million dreams are keeping me awake
A million dreams, a million dreams

I think of what the world will be
A vision of the one I see
A million prayers is all it's gonna take
A million prayers for the world You’re gonna make

For the world You’re gonna make

A Passion for Cusco

On our last furlough we asked prayer partners to pray that the Lord would burden our hearts for Cusco and the people there.  We knew God wanted us serving here, but a love for the people wasn’t automatic.  We still need prayer for a deeper love, however I can say confidently that God has already begun to answer those prayers.

For the past year I have been doing weekly prayer runs around my neighborhood, and it has produced a passion and faith in me like nothing before.  When I spend these times out in the city with the Lord I sense Him drawing praise and proclamations of His kingship here from my heart and mind and I know deeply that I am part of something much bigger—something unseen and shockingly spectacular. 

During these prayer times with the Lord I can see (in my mind’s eye) heaven’s warriors of light joining me in my offensive against the powers of darkness.  I sense the King of the universe gradually claiming dominion over the city from His throne on high.  Like the Israelite's’ march around Jericho I claim this neighborhood for the Lord and His people.  I pray blessing on the homes, ministry sites, and preschool where my teammates and their children spend time.  I beg the Lord to cause His people in this neighborhood to rise up in prayer alongside me.  I pray that fear and discouragement would be cast out and that the children of the king would see the victory being handed to them through prayer. 

While I pray and worship I sense inhibition and fear melting away as boldness and thankfulness rise within me.  The Lord speaks to me at times about small ways He is calling me to participate in the advancement of the kingdom—areas of repentance needed in my life, things to pray for, text messages to send, conversations to have.  But mostly He confirms that this weekly prayer time for my city is His idea, His beautiful battle plan for involving me in the decent of His kingdom on Cusco. 

God has used these prayer runs to light in me a passion for His kingdom here.  I have been moved to dream big about what the Lord could do here.  I am learning to pray as though there were no barriers.  I’m rejoicing to see God reveal His reign little by little, proclaiming Himself king of this city.  I’m discovering faith in a whole new way.

Does your soul long for the kingdom of God to descend on your city?  Do your heart and flesh sing for joy over the glimpses of His kingdom taking root?  Do you believe that your prayers and proclamations of truth and praise cause the enemy to scatter from before you? 

I challenge you to take a prayer walk (or run) in your neighborhood.  Choose some praise music that causes you to fix your eyes not on what is seen but what is unseen, and then proclaim Christ’s Lordship over your neighborhood.  When you see people or animals along the street let it remind you of the unseen spiritual beings who are there as well, rejoicing with you in the advancement of the kingdom resulting from your prayers.  When the sun shines on your face let it remind you of the intense light of God’s favor that would overwhelm you, could you perceive it accurately.  When you pass a construction site let it draw your attention to the unobservable creation of spiritual strongholds fortifying God’s kingdom through the prayers of the saints.  And if it’s a cloudy day let it remind you of the veiled paradise that is just beyond your line of sight waiting to burst through and consume your world with glory. 

Ask God to give you a passion for the growth of His kingdom in your city, and then step up to the battle alongside the great crowd of witnesses who have gone before.  Throw off the fear that so easily entangles and run with perseverance.  Claim the victory that has already been won, and run with your eyes on the King.  Whether you perceive it immediately or not, believe that your neighborhood will never be the same.  Prayer changes things.  It’s a fact. 

Worship and intercession must go together, the one is impossible without the other. Intercession means that we rouse ourselves up to get the mind of Christ about the one for whom we pray. — Oswald Chambers


There is no way that Christians, in private capacity, can do so much to promote the work of God and advance the kingdom of Christ as by prayer.  - Jonathan Edwards

As well could you expect a plant to grow without air and water as to expect your heart to grow without prayer and faith….  I would rather teach one man to pray than ten men to preach.  – Charles Spurgeon

We cannot know what prayer is for until we know that life is war. – John Piper

Sometimes I like to think that praying without ceasing is having a hymn on your heart. I often like to start the day with a song and today it was … There’s within my heart a melody, Jesus whispers sweet and low … and I love singing because all throughout the day as I’m humming a hymn and letting the words course through my mind and memory, it’s a way of praying. It’s a way of praising God. It’s a way of worshipping Him in the Spirit. – Joni Eareckson Tada


[What is the essence of real Christianity?] It is to have our minds really exercised with delight about heavenly things, the things that are above, especially Christ himself as at the right hand of God." - John Owen