Overseas Glory

It's crazy to think I started the "10 day" countdown for our Summer Project Mission over a week ago. On Friday, this week, I will head to Dallas for a 'briefing' collecting last minute details, finally establishing exactly what city/ies I'll be in for the majority of the summer & spending the night in a comfy Hilton Garden Suite Hotel bed before the international dorm life engulfs us. I'm not sure exactly what briefing will look like but I know as soon as I walk in, my access to the Internet or cellular device will be omitted, which I'm not bothered by at all. I'm glad to have a break from distractions. I'm glad to have the communication barriers taken out of the equation to just go, experience the culture first-hand & ultimately, get to live life with those around me. I love to spend quality time with people. I love to love on people in person, I'd choose that any day.


I'm not an advocate for cell phones and texting at all, the more I think about it. I've most enjoyed my summers without them, outside, throwing out the static to really be still before and hear from God. I'm looking forward to that. Maybe I'll be less dependent on mine when I return, I'm looking forward to that as well.

In the wee hours of Monday morning I will be flying halfway across the world. I'm not nervous, really. I'm excited. I'm encouraged. I can't believe this is real.

I love my team. They say we will be family upon our return but in certain ways I already feel strong ties with them. We have already been through trials and hardship, joy and overwhelming happiness, we have grown together spiritually, ate some really great BBQ & prayed hours together. It's almost as though we can foresee the ways God is going to change our lives this summer and know coming out of it that to fully understand it is to have experienced it, that mutual experience under our belts will change us, grow us, establish some firm, unbreakable ties.

As the countdown turns to single digit numbers, I am also reminded of some things we will face that will not be easy. Language barriers. I really hope that everyone we meet can understand enough English to grasp what we are trying to show them. I pray against any confusion or misunderstanding. I pray nobody gets by without hearing the Truth, that it isn't because of language variances that we can not communicate.

There are other things as well: safety, traveling, jet-lag, cultural adjustment, the hearts of those we will meet, ...so much. Be praying, please.

This entire process, thus far has truly brought to light many flaws in my character. Pride, selfishness and ignorance. I am confident, however, that God makes all things new & that from the ashes of my life, he will bring treasure. Through this summer project, through the people He has selected to go, to serve Him in this context, there will come light & Truth & salvation.

& to Him will be the glory.

Fullness of Christ

Frederick Beuchner writes, 

"The place God calls us to be is the place where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet."

I leave in a little over a week to fly to the opposite side of the world to one of the most unevangelized places in the world to spread some Truth about the gospel, possibly even talk about it for the very first time in someone's life. 

I don't know what to say but that my eyes have already been opened through our various mission trainings, getting to commune with students who have gone before, and ultimately having the Lord working on my heart in preparation for what is to come. I have a deep desire to just speak love and tenderness into the darkness of people's lives. I can't wait to find out what makes them really joyful and relate that back to the Maker who loves them. Or tell them they are valued and that God transforms us and makes us completely new, even in the midst of our lowest valleys. I cannot wait to tell someone they don't have to do it all alone & that when it feels overwhelming all they have to do is be still and know God is there with them, not to fear. I want to witness change & beauty & redemption.

I may not be going to a place where people are starving or impoverished but I am going to Asia, where people are hungry for something they might not even know will sustain them, an everlasting God. I want to see a mouth say for the very first time that they believe what I am sharing with them and that they are made glad in this news. 

I pray that God will transform lives overseas this summer but also that He will renew mine. I want my life to look radically different after serving Him in this context. I pray that the anxious excitement that is bubbling up inside of me about this trip will only be the beginning of what is still in store. 

I want to feel deep gladness made complete in a hungry place & I hope that in the process we will leave it a little less empty.