Take my hand, help me on my way.

"By faith Abraham..."

I don't think anyone can understand this passage until they truly live only on faith. These ancients did some incredibly crazy things in faith. Noah built a massive ship on completely dry land. Sarah had a child when she was 90 years old (doesn't that sound like something you read on the front of National Enquirer?) Moses lead a group of slaves out from under a rule of a great and mighty nation, without a fight (well, not a war).

"Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.  This is what the ancients were commended for."

I have never had to live on faith. I like to think I do, but I don't. I am the plan B planner, the overpacker, the what-iffer. Somewhere between pricing out flights to Hyderabad and measuring my couch for storage I had to stop and shake my head and say "This is completely crazy." (I like to think that Noah had the same thought as he was measuring gofer wood.)

"Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful."

But this, this calling, has changed things. I have no Plan B. I'm not sure I even have a Plan A. For the first time I feel like I beginning to experience what it means to live completely on faith in God's plan. And while I still struggle with freak out moments, there is something freeing about not asking "What if?".  

"God had planned something better for us..."

In those moments of struggle God has proved His faithfulness to me over and over again. He has given me a new contact in India who is super prompt and is patient with all my questions. He provided me with an American girl to rent an apartment with in Ongole. He surrounded me with prayer warriors and people to encourage me.

"Look at the birds, free and unfettered,...,careless in the care of God. And you count far more to him than birds."

The concept of letting Go and letting God is a new (and sometimes scary) one for me. But ever so slowly I am claiming in faith that where God guides, He provides.

This Kingdom Journey Part 1: What I know.

WHAT:
A Kingdom Journey. A literal, physical pilgrimage to follow in the footsteps of Christ into the world, proclaiming Christ and His kingdom.  It is the call and the process of moving and living out the commandment to GO! in Matthew 28.


WHERE/WHEN:

Lord willing, in June 2013 I will be moving to Ongole, India for a year. I will be working at Sarah's Covenant Homes (SCH) which is an orphanage (although most of the kids have been abandoned not orphaned) full of 105 beautiful special needs kids.  I will be going as a nurse to serve these kids and young adults in any way that I can. It might mean spending the day doing physical therapy or sitting bedside at a local hospital or a day full of paperwork. I have simply no idea. Scary? Yup. Crazy? Quite possibly. Faith building? Definitely. Exciting? Ohmygoodness yes!

WHY:

Because I have to. It is a call, a passion, a need for me to follow Christ in this way. It is something I have tried to ignore because it is different and scary. But in the end when Christ says, "Follow me" there is not a fiber in my being (no matter how badly I may want to) that can say no. I believe that I was created "For such a time as this". To be the hands, feet and face or love to God's special children in India. I wish I could explain it better but the feeling is so strong I don't have words. You are going to have to watch me live it out.


To learn more about SCH and to fall in love with these kids as I have, click on the link on the right sidebar under More Info.
   

 

New blog = New name

This is a new adventure in my life and one that I believes warrants a new blog. Here are a few of the particulars. 

The blog address name comes from:
This song...
All these victims/ Stand in line for/The crumbs that fall from the table/Just enough to get by/All the while/Your invitation/ Wake on up from your slumber/  Come on open up your eyes
~ "Slumber" Needtobreathe
This song...
Wake up child/ It's your time to shine/You were born for such a time as this
~ "The Anthem" Jesus Culture

This verse...
 And do this, understanding the present time: The hour has already come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed.  The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.
~Romans 13:11-12

The explanation..
I have come to the realization that as a child of God my life has a divine purpose. A purpose specifically designed for me, to serve Christ and His Kingdom.  

The blog title comes from:

"...And they'd go to a rabbi, and they'd apply to that rabbi to become one of that rabbi's disciples. Now, when we use the word "disciple" we often mean "student," but we generally mean somebody who knows what the teacher knows. But a disciple is something far deeper. A disciple just doesn't want to know what the rabbi knows. A disciple wants to be like the rabbi and wants to learn to do what the rabbi does,... if the rabbi thinks, "This kids has got it, this kid, I think this kid could do what I do," the rabbi would say to the kid, "Come. Follow me." So you would leave...your family, your friends, your synagogue, your village, and you would devote your entire life to being like your rabbi, learning to do what your rabbi does... So, a rabbi comes to town. A powerful rabbi, and he's got, like, his little pack of disciples with  him, and they're doing everything they can to keep up with him 'cause they've devoted their lives to doing what their rabbi does. So if you're a disciple, by the end of the day with your rabbi, traveling on these hot, dusty, dirty roads, you've got whatever your rabbi stepped in just caked all over the front of you. So, this saying developed among the wise men and the sages. You would say to a disciple: "May you be covered in the dust of your rabbi"."

~ Nooma: Dust by Rob Bell* 

The blog subtitle (Part I):
I am daily learning what it means to be a follower of the Teacher (Rabbi means teacher in Hebrew) Jesus. The next lesson for me is a Kingdom Journey. And what is that? To be continued in Part II...

I have never been covered in more dust, literally, then in Uganda. Every night we would come home caked in red dust. We called it our Ugandan sun tan :-)

*This is in no way a promotion of Rob Bell or his beliefs. The blog title is based in Biblical/Jewish history and I think he explains it well.