Month: October 2011

WHAT A WEEK!    LOVED IT!

Mom and dad came down on Tuesday! It’s the first time my dad has been here since we moved! It was so much fun showing them my ministry and sharing my dreams! The staff – both from St. Louis and from the Mole –  were  SO excited to see them! Dad will preach on Sunday before they head back on Monday.

This morning we had a special program put on by Gabe & the girls! Miss Beth has been working with the kids over the last few weeks so they could perform for Papaw and Nana! The program was 25 minutes  – full of pledges, scriptures, and songs! Below is a very small snap-shot of the program!

After the kids put on their program – Papaw, Nana, Momma Gigi, Mme Nene, Jocelyn, Pierre, & Kenson also performed! TOO FUNNY!

This afternoon we ALL carved pumpkins! Miss Beth’s pumpkin is the big one on the left side and Jocelyn/Pierre’s is the big one on the right side of the picture. Then Gabe, Mikela, Rosie, & Malaya carved the little ones!  On Sunday we’re having our first Pumpkin Party!  20 kids will have a fun-filled afternoon – with games, crafts, candy, face painting, dinner & a movie! We started decorating today and will add the final touches on Sunday! All week the kids have been talking about the party! I love that we are able to provide a little something special for so many precious children!

Well – it’s been 3 weeks and I’m still on fire from that amazing conference I attended! I’ve been wanting to share little by little as I continue to absorb – reflect  – and change my way of thinking!

Priscilla Shirer hit it out of the park and I wanted to share with you today what I took home from this amazing sermon!

She began by telling this story: Priscilla was asked to clean out  the attic at her parent’s house. While she was there she found some of her old journals. As she was reading through them she kept seeing the words – “I can’t wait until…” or “I wish….”

Things like: I can’t wait until I’m old enough to drive. I can’t wait until I’m old enough to date. I wish I was married. I can’t wait until I’m married. I wish we had kids. I can’t wait until we have kids. I wish the kids were out of diapers. I can’t wait until I have some money and I no longer have to cook chicken every single night! I can’t wait until the kids are older. I wish the kids could bathe themselves.

Priscilla began to  realize that she slept through whole seasons of her life. She kept on wishing her life away – wanting to get to the next season. Hurrying through every single season. Never being present where she was or with what she was experiencing.

SO here is the ultimate question – – Are you sleepwalking through whole seasons of your life?

I have been thinking about that question for the last few weeks. I am someone who likes to journal. I should say – every year I have seasons of journaling! I was looking through a journal I wrote when Jose and I first got married. From the moment we said “I DO” I wanted children. I wanted children and I wanted a lot of them! We had trouble conceiving on our own. My journals are filled with “I wish” and “I can’t wait”. I sort of missed out on the season of just being married. Seven kids later – I wished I would have been more present then! Once you have kids you can’t go back! God blessed me with many Haitian children – 3 of which we call our own –  and as I think back to that time there were still a lot of other “wishes” and “can’t waits”.  It’s like as soon as we get what we wished for – we wish for something else!  I feel a little robbed – and I was the one stealing from myself.

I think a lot about starting this new campus. I’m always wishing for the time when we have the money to do what we want to do – both personally and in our ministry. I can’t wait until – – we have our own home – – the babies stay in their beds & are out of diapers – – I have a real clinic (not just my office) – the church functions without my help – the fishing villages sustain themselves – the community is on fire for Christ!

But some of the most exciting things are LIVING through all those wishes! I know one day they will all come true – but I don’t want to miss out on the adventure of today because I’m daydreaming of tomorrow. I don’t want to miss out on the gifts that God has for me in my current season of life – – because I’m trying to rush through it to get to the next!

There are several places in Scripture where people were completely unaware of God’s presence with them in the here and now.

• Jacob wrestling with Jesus –  yet woke up and said –  “Surely God was in this place.” Yet he missed Him.
• There are places in scripture where people walked with Jesus – yet were unaware that they experienced God.
• Mary missed Jesus at the tomb.

Many of us have experienced a life that has been totally interrupted! But it’s designed that way so we can experience God in our current place.

Secrets for Sleepwalkers

In Luke 24 there were two men walking from Jerusalem back home to Emmaus. They were distraught because their faith had been interrupted. They hung all their hopes on Jesus but became disappointed and disillusioned –  because Jesus had been crucified. Their life had been completely interrupted – and yet were getting ready to experience God in that place.

1. There is a Secret in Beholding.

“Behold” is an important marker in Scripture. Authors used it to get people’s attention. It becomes a pivot point where what happened before is about to make a sharp right turn. Behold is a sign that God was getting ready to invade their situation despite their disappointment and disillusionment.

These people were in the midst of a “behold” moment. Their story was about to change, yet they didn’t know it. Even though scriptures 1-12 were true, they were unaware that God was going to show up in the discouragement in a behold moment.

2. There is a Secret in Going Home.

The pinnacle of your Christian experience isn’t just going to conferences – but going home and living/working out what you experienced on the mountaintops. The pinnacle of our Christian experience isn’t being gathered together with the masses – it’s when we take everything we’ve learned and it hits the pavement of our everyday lives. It’s when you take what you learned and apply it to everyday circumstances.

In the midst of our life interrupted – we can have a testimony! It’s not of the God we “heard” about –  but the God we’ve experienced in our lives. The Holy Spirit was given so we could experience Him. He wants us to know Him and walk with Him!

Take what you learn and apply it in your everyday circumstances. Just look at the scriptures:

In Genesis, He is the Seed of the woman.
In Exodus, He’s the Passover Lamb.
In Leviticus, He is the atoning Sacrifice.
In Numbers, He is the bronze Serpent.
In Deuteronomy, He’s the promised Prophet.
In Joshua, He is the unseen Captain.
In Judges, He is my Deliverer.
In Ruth, He’s my heavenly Kinsman.
In Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles, He is the promised King.
In Ezra and Nehemiah, He’s the Restorer of the nation.
In Esther, He is my Advocate.
In Job, He is my Redeemer.
In Psalms, He is my All in All.
In Proverbs, He’s my Pattern.
In Ecclesiastes, He’s my Goal.
In Song of Solomon, He’s my Beloved.
In the prophets, He is the coming Prince of Peace.
In Matthew, He is the King.
In Mark, He is the Servant.
In Luke, He is the Son of Man.
In John, He is the Son of God.
In Acts, He is risen, seated, and sending.
In the letters, He is indwelling and filling.
And in Revelation, He is returning and reigning.

This Word is meant for more than just being heard!! It’s meant to be lived in the hands and hearts of those who hear it.

3. The Secret of Silence.

And they were talking with each other about all these things which had taken place. While they were talking and discussing, Jesus Himself approached and  began traveling with them. But their eyes were prevented from recognizing Him. (Luke 24:14-16 NASB)

Their eyes weren’t working – but their mouths sure were!  All they could do was talk and talk. When Jesus does speak, He asks them, “What are these words that are coming out of your mouth? What are you talking about?”

Something is wrong when you are with God – and YOU are doing all the talking! If God is with you – you should be quiet! You should want to listen to what He has to say! These two guys are remembering and rehashing the past. Don’t rehash the past. Be alert. Be present. Remember that God is doing something new – RIGHT NOW!

There is power associated with your words!! So control the words that come out of your mouth! What are you saying about your life? Your ministry? Your family?  Your circumstance?

***

Have you ever seen the Michael Jackson video – Billie Jean? There was an interview asking how was it that those squares lit up when Michael danced on them. ‘The answer was simple. The director went before him and pre-lit the path. And although he could have danced all around that studio – he simply needed to step on the pre-lit squares.

Stay on the path God has already set before you! He will place His light on it. He has gone before you to pre-light the path. If your path isn’t lighting up, maybe you are following the wrong path. God has gone before us so we can walk in the future He has for us.

WAKE-UP!! NO MORE SLEEPWALKING!

I love Francis Chan’s passion. He’s one of my favorite pastors. This past week He spoke about God’s presence and again – I felt really encouraged and challenged in my walk with Christ!

Have you ever tried to have a conversation with someone that isn’t really there? That isn’t really present? When dealing with church disputes in Haiti – I always gather all the parties involved. If I agree with what they’re saying – then they listen really closely. But if I tell them things they don’t want to hear- they begin to “check-out”!

Sometimes I think that’s what happens to us. We begin talking to God and somewhere between the “Dear God” and “Amen” we begin to “check-out” of the conversation. l can only imagine how frustrating that is to God – much like it’s frustrating to me!

I’ve learned a lot this past week about what Being Present means. I’ve also learned a lot about what His Presence means! Chan said that His Topic – “His Presence Matters” is the understatement of the year. The question really is  – does anything else matter? If God made His presence known right now – right where you are – isn’t that all that would matter?

When God’s presence is here – AMAZING things happen! The day of Haiti’s earthquake there was a church service going on across the street. The church was packed and people were praying out-loud together. The church began to SHAKE and everyone clapped and raised their hands to the Lord! They knew He was making His presence known.  A missionary came into the church and told them it was an earthquake and to get out of there. We soon found out about that devastating quake – but in that moment – all of the church believed – God was answering their prayers by making His presence known in a way they could physically see!

I love that! I love it that when amazing things happen here – God undoubtedly gets the credit! I wish I had their faith. How humbling it would have been to be in that crowd of church people – praying loudly and faithfully to the Lord! Then in response- feeling the earth shake around you – and knowing that God was making himself known – simply because you prayed for Him to do it in that moment. Gives me chills!

Psalm 27:4
One thing I ask from the LORD, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the LORD and to seek him in his temple. 

I have thought a lot about my prayer life. About the things that I pray for every day. About the things I’ve prayed for over the last month. If being present means to dwell in Him – I’m in trouble! I talk often to others about being the face of Jesus! What I sometimes forget – is that I still need to seek His face personally so that I can continue to reflect it! I should be asking for it every day! Yes -there’s no denying I’m alway asking for something – but I don’t think that is in my top 5!

“The Spirit gives life…the flesh is no help at all.” John 6:63 

“Whoever abides in Me and I in Him, He will bear much fruit. Apart from Me you can do nothing”.  SO – The one who abides will bear much fruit; if you don’t abide with Him you won’t. One way we can abide in Him is to continually pray for Him to make Himself known every single day!

*****

1 Samuel 30: 1-6 (Message Translation)

David’s Strength Was in His God

 ^1-3 Three days later, David and his men arrived back in Ziklag. Amalekites had raided the Negev and Ziklag. They tore Ziklag to pieces and then burned it down. They captured all the women, young and old. They didn’t kill anyone, but drove them like a herd of cattle. By the time David and his men entered the village, it had been burned to the ground, and their wives, sons, and daughters all taken prisoner.

 ^4-6 David and his men burst out in loud wails—wept and wept until they were exhausted with weeping. David’s two wives, Ahinoam of Jezreel and Abigail widow of Nabal of Carmel, had been taken prisoner along with the rest. And suddenly David was in even worse trouble. There was talk among the men, bitter over the loss of their families, of stoning him.

 ^6-7 David strengthened himself with trust in his God. 

Is that how you would respond? You just find out your house was burned to the ground,  your family was taken hostage, and everyone is blaming you!  I don’t know about you but if something like that happened to me – I don’t think my first response would be to strengthen myself in the Lord. I think in that moment I’d honestly be blaming God and perhaps not speaking to Him at all.

If you could get a transcript of your prayers over the last month – what would be the one thing you kept praying for? Was it to dwell in the House of the Lord? I’m not sure how anything could be worse that what David faced and yet he strengthened himself in the Lord. How encouraging to know that in my weakest moment – when I’m full of despair – if I would simply seek the presence of the Lord – I could strengthen myself  in Him.

I think this is why the devil works so hard to keep us distracted. We already know he distracts us in our daily life. We know he causes us to have fear and doubt. What I never thought about is – he may even cause to pray with doubt  – which is very unpleasing to the Lord. Duh! How simple and yet profound! Satan finds ways to distract us even in our prayer life.

Hebrews 5:7 – Jesus was heard because of His reverence.

I need to pray with reverence and not with half-heartedness. I need to stop satan from distracting me during my quiet time with the Lord. I need to stop checking out because I’m not getting the response from Him that “I” want.  I need to re-evaluate how I pray – what is it that I’m truly seeking?

AND – I need the #1 thing I pray for  – the #1 thing I seek – the #1 thing I cling onto in my times of trouble – the #1 thing to strengthen myself – my #1 focus should be- – to dwell in His presence. …..Because you see – His Presence is the only thing that matters!

What a powerful week! I’m sure you know by now from all my tweets and Facebook posts that Jose and I are in the states and just attended the Catalyst Conference. This is a conference where 13,000 Christian leaders come together for fellowship – sharing ideas – and learning new ways of thinking! What that means for me is taking LOTS AND LOTS of notes from some of the top leaders in the ministry. And let me just tell you my notebook is COMPLETELY FULL!

For those of you who read my blog faithfully – it’s been pretty evident that we’ve been going through some personal struggles. I’m a pretty straight forward person – sometimes to my detriment. When your mind is full of other things – it’s hard sometimes to sit down and blog as if everything is rainbows.  The last few months I have had a hard time even forcing myself to sit down and write. Yet I know that God uses me to reach others and I often do that through my writings.

Right now I feel like I could blog for about 5 days straight! God has used this entire week to really speak to Jose and I. We’ve enjoyed the silence . I think we forgot what that’s like when you have 7 kids!  But more than that – we’ve had time to grieve together, laugh together, be silent together, and play together! 🙂

Not only is my notebook full – but my heart and my mind are as well!  When I flew out of Haiti last week – my glass wasn’t just half-full. It was empty – nearly shattered – and missing most days.  Yet I’m flying back into Haiti tomorrow with an overflowing stainless steel pitcher of God’s love  –  grace  – and mercy.

As I said before – I could blog for days but I want to take some time to absorb and read-through all of those notes that I took! I do however want to share about the Catalyst theme. The theme was – BE PRESENT. Now that seems really simple and straight forward. But just like anything else – there are many layers to what Being Present really means. I just want to share a a few of those layers today.

So the conference opened with a few short speeches about – Being Present. What does that really look like? They had a little pendulum that swung back and forth representing the time. And so often we are thinking of the next thing or the last thing – that we miss what’s going on during the current swing (of the pendulum).

The speaker asked us to  – BE PRESENT. TO BE THERE. TO BE FULLY ENGAGED. To be Present in our communities.  To be Present in our daily lives. To be Present in our families. To be Present in what is happening around us. To stop tweeting about what just happened or taking a picture of what is before us. Those things are actually distracting us from being Present right now. No – for the next few moments we need to get off the computer  – off the phone –  off Twitter – off Facebook  – and “BE THERE IN THE MOMENT”.

***

I was really shocked to see SO MANY team members at this conference. It’s crazy to think that we literally live in different worlds – or at least different countries – and yet here we randomly meet in Atlanta! Of course I’ve learned that nothing is ever random! 🙂

So – after the first break we met up with several short-term missionaries (people who’ve been to Haiti with the mission). Actually EVERY break we met up with people.  Anyways one of the leaders said to Jose and I – “I guess you could tune-out that first part of the session. I just wished we could be as Present as you are”. It was hard for me to respond to that because as soon as it was said another team member started talking to me.

We walked back to our seats and sat down and just looked at each other. Seriously?  Are you kidding? People want to be as “Present” as we are? Believe me. No they don’t. I listened to the same opening speakers and felt REALLY convicted. I thought why aren’t I doing more? Why aren’t I PRESENT instead of worrying about things I can’t change. Or thinking about the future of the Mole and the mission.  Or wishing I could change something of the past.

There are moments where the needs outside my door are too much and I just want to hide. When someone asks if they can speak to me – I know that what they want to share with me is too much for me to hear. On those days – I am definitely not PRESENT.

There are also days when I am so caught up in the ministry – in all the things I need to do that day – – that I have no time for these beautiful kids God gave me. I will hear the twins knocking on my office door and Mme Nene telling them that mommy is busy. I have heard Malaya tell strangers/group members that my mommy spends all her time working.

As I begin to reflect – I can see how my children in some ways are like those little kids on the street. They attach whole-heartedly to teams and are truly sad when they leave. Groups not only feel a void for the Haitian children –  but often they feel a void for mine.

Not because I’m up to no good.  Not because I don’t love them or try to make family time. No. You see I feel convicted to help those with no voice. I have neighbors with child-slaves. I have villagers consumed with evil. I have teens who believe they don’t matter and it’s too late for them to be pure again. I have towns who’ve never heard of the Messiah. I am dealing with “poisoned” watermelon – frustrated church leaders –  and corrupt politicians.  I’m doing the “Lord’s work”.  What I sometimes neglect to see or am unaware of – is that sometimes those with no voice live in the same house as me and THEY need me to be Present!

So you see – – I am afraid there are days that I’m not very “PRESENT” in one way or another. I share that with you because I think for most of us in the ministry  – we believe by default – we’re “there”. Our work is His and nothing is more important. And what I’m afraid is happening is while we are planning tomorrow and thinking of what could have gone better yesterday – all those things  – are keeping us from today’s swing!