I’m not sure I ever realized how vast the learning curve is in life. That no matter how old you get, if you bet everything on the reality of Jesus, you actually are amazed like a child over and over, and in awe of the hearts of the people he draws into your life. As we wander into the unknown waters of fundraising, and preparing to leave the U.S. in 9 months, it’s safe to say the most uncertain of times has been the richest. In this place of humility and surrender, Jesus is carrying us every step, and we see with clearer eyes, and hear his words with different ears. And we fall deeper in love every day.
Rarely in my life have I experienced a lack of words, although there have been a few. Sitting in a room in Africa, listening to a girl rescued from sex trafficking do her best to tell her story, experiencing the courage of a special needs kid in Costa Rica, or the moment I embraced a witch doctor after they had just heard about a man named Jesus. These moments when emotions are new, foreign, and full of the Spirit of God, and you know that nothing you say will fully represent the experience. While these happen every day, all around us, I don’t always see it.
This season for us, brings us again to places of seeing God work in mighty ways and we are surprised, overwhelmed, and filled with a gratitude that an ocean could not contain. But words are so hard to find. This is true with our beautiful friends and family that have joined us in this journey in prayer, in the many talks over coffee, tears, laughter and now as they open their lives and alter their own way of life by giving financially to us. It’s a deeper sense of community and love than we’ve ever experienced. ‘A new understanding of humility.’
What exactly do you say to those that feel the Lord telling them to give? The families that have had to re-evaluate their own budgets and adjust to give to us, the family that gave up cable to be able to free up funds, or the family in need of money themselves for an upcoming adoption telling you that God wants you to have a portion of what they have? There is no shelf to put that on, and as you extend your hand and take that check, there’s a bond of humility, love, gratitude, and a deeper understanding of how eternity might be. That as we, in our surrender ask for help, there’s a community surrounding us that is also surrendering and sacrificing as God calls them to give.
“Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of others.” Philippians 2:3-4
If someone had told me that this season would include a deep connectedness with people’s hearts and lives in a way that would teach us more about the heart of God, I’m not sure I would have gotten it. But we are starting to get it now.
The stories of lives with which we are now joined, we would have otherwise missed. Like the widow that sends us a check each month and has so little to give. The tears of my grade school Sunday school teacher after telling her how she helped shape me, and how she now gets to be part of something new with us. The excitement of certain friends that will sit and listen and dream big with us about all the great things we could watch God do together. And finally, the families that we know will visit us upon our arrival, sleep on our couch and endure our tears, our childrens’ tears, language barriers, culture shock, and all that comes with what is ahead.
Knowing you are out there makes us love Jesus more and we thank Him for you. We love how he shines through you. And we are confident that deep joy, hope and laughter will follow what is difficult.
When we look over and consider our finances in preparation for Costa Rica, it could go a number of ways. If it seems impossible, we remember all the impossible things we’ve seen God do. If it feels too vulnerable or uncomfortable, we consider that in God’s economy, that’s probably a good thing. And then as we get to pray over the families of each of our donors, we know and are reminded that God is the one that has brought and will bring those to join us. Just as he decides whether we wake up each day, he determines the steps ahead for us all.
“I lie down and sleep; I wake again because the Lord sustains me.” Psalm 3:5
Today, I have vivid memories of standing hand in hand with girls in other countries, and here, listening to their prayers thanking God, not man, for their rescue. They believe with their hearts that while man showed up, it was God that moved, not man.
“For it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.” Philippians 2:13
Beloved donors and future donors, with all our hearts we can speak 2nd Corinthians 9:12 about your gifts, that because of your service of generosity, God will be praised. We pray that all who give, would sincerely seek the Lord first and then enjoy being part of all he wants to do.
“This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of the Lord’s people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God.”
Thank you sweet friends and family as you venture out on this cliff with us. We pray newness for you. That just as you aren’t who you used to be, that you will not remain who you are today. That you will grow and learn new things as if planted by “living water.” And that we together will all keep faith and hope as we wait for what is to come.
“He will lead them to springs of living water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” -Revelation 7:17