Guess What Happened Next?

It was a normal Sunday afternoon as my husband and I walked through the store.  I had been praying this idea through for months but I didn't know how to broach the subject.  So in my outside-only-voice, cranked to 11, I just blurted it out.  

"One day, I would like to sponsor a child with Mission of Mercy!"

Terry's response?  "I have wanted to do that too!"

Guess what happened next?

We hurried through the store, drove home, popped up our laptop and chose a child at the Mission of Mercy website.  It was that easy.  God had prepared both of our hearts to offer compassion to little Eskarlin, who lives in the Dominican Republic.  

Me & Eskarlin

Guess what happened next? 

God blessed me with an opportunity to go on a mission trip with Mission of Mercy to travel to the DR and and I had the pleasure of meeting Eskarlin.  You will not believe it when I tell you that this chic with the "outside" voice got real silent and overwhelmed with emotion.  With Mission of Mercy mission trips, you get to meet your sponsored.  It's one of the most incredible experiences ever.  

Guess what happened next?

Nhondudozo, me, and Nomphilo

God lead me to sponsor two more little precious girls in Swaziland, Nomphilo and Nhondudozo.  And then God opened the door for me to travel to Swaziland and feed them.  Again I got to meet them both and I got to share lunch with them.  One of the most humbling experiences ever.  God melted our hearts together and I pray for all my girls daily.  

Guess what happened next?  

This loud talker is praying for more opportunities to give the Mission of Mercy kids a voice.  You can make an eternal investment right now with your sponsorship and you can be a voice for a child too.  Your sponsorship speaks so loud into their lives, your support of $34 a month, spans the miles that separate.  But mostly God will increase your heart to make them a part of your loving family. 

Guess what happens next?  

Pray about how you can be involved with sponsorship with Mission of Mercy, and then act on what God has shown you.  I am praying for you and hope you will choose a child of your own!   

It's one way to live compassion.  It is that easy.  One.Child.Matters.

This Is Mission Trip Season

Hope Smiles

When preparing for a mission trip, I start praying towards the destination the day I understand that I am supposed to go. My list of prayers covers a variety of topics from safe travel, to providing enough funding, to bringing the right team together, and to being used by God. There are so many details that need to be in place before one steps foot out the door. 

The one of the biggest prayer circles I present before the Father is to accomplish His work in my heart. I don't want to wait until I get on foreign soil for Him to prepare it.

God always brings back my first mission trip experience in the Dominican Republic.  It was a hot day, on that little hill, when God burned the call of missions on my heart.  It was an unforgettably tender moment when He showed me His hope spoken by the hopeless.  He also showed me how my life was filled with distractions in the worldly life I was living.  That trip was a game-changer. 


My American dream was quickly cast aside when it collided with wide-spread poverty, and buried with the disadvantaged. That message was life-changing, not only for me but for most my team members.

I believe there are lessons that can only be taught on the mission field outside the church pew.  God always prepares you as you pray to prepare.

If you ask, He will move you  
to see their needs...
to humbly serve...
to love them as He loves.

Isn't that the point of going and being Christ to the nations?  

It's in missions that I can see my-God purpose.  

Once I see His heart...how can I say no?

True Grit

 

One day I uncovered this keepsake.  The gray gritty block of rock is from my mission trip to the Dominican Republic.  It was given to each team member as a reminder of the work that we did that week by our trip leader Mitch Hildebrant.  


In the DR they don't have sandpaper, or convenient Western sanders.  The don't have sophisticated carpentry tools at all.  In fact we hauled water by a bucket and a heavy rope up to the second floor level where we mixed concrete by hand.  Their tools are very rudimentary.  We mixed the mortar with a rake, a shovel and a wheelbarrow.  Since the walls were concrete too we had to smooth off the rough places with this sanding stone before we could primer and paint it.  It was very rough, dirty work.  We worked hard as a team and at the end of the day, there was a thin layer of fine dust that rested on our exposed skin and clothes.  


There are some rough edges of my heart places where God has been digging into.  Rough places of faith as He is making them stronger.  Sometimes it feels like He is taking his sanding block and scraping against the grain in the walls of my heart to make them smooth.  Kind of like scraping in an open wound that won't heal.  It stings a little.  It's somewhat gritty and dusty, this sanding process, but I know God is smoothing my heart's rough edges.    


When using the sanding block in the DR, we would sand and then run our hands over the sanded parts to see if there were any remaining rough places.  The next step was a beautiful coat of paint.  God has his righteous right hand over me with the work He is doing.  As a Master planner watching over his work, He is overseeing this refining process through to the end to bring His glorious reveal.  

"I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us." Romans 8:18

What rough places is God smoothing in you?

Please pray for my friend Mitch!