Speechless...

Simply unbelievable...this video totally destroys my heart! Tom Davis and Children's Hope Chest are doing some amazing things. Check them out!! Seriously, is God pulling at any of your hearts as deeply as he pulls on mine through the eyes of these children! It's nearly unbearable.

http://www.hopechest.org/

Compelled by Love

I'm reading Heidi Baker's newest book "Compelled by Love". Somehow the Lord just speaks to me through her words and her books and so I'm addicted to whatever materials the Baker's produce! I just wanted to share with you all a superb paragraph from the foreword of this book written by Bill Johnson, who is another guy that can write a darn good book! Anyway, these words summed up something so phenomenal to me, I had to share. I just can't find words to describe my seemingly long struggle to transition back into "normal" life AFTER Africa and this guy's story gives me great comfort that at least I'm not the only one!

A friend of mine went to Mozambique, Africa, to spend a couple of weeks helping the Bakers in their ministry. When he returned home, he found himself breaking down and weeping for no apparent reason. He then realized he was crying because he "missed Jesus." His days of being with Heidi and her ministry were so overwhelmingly like the days when Jesus walked on the earth that he was forever ruined for any other lifestyle. The realization that he was no longer in that atmosphere made him weep for what he was missing. Oh, that there would be more tears of desperation for what could be.

This paragraph speaks volumes to me on many levels but I won't bore you with every detail. I love that I've finally found words to my unexplainable weeping and longing for all things Africa. It's because while in Africa, Jesus showed His face to me and ruined me for any other lifestyle! I have a hard time understanding so many things that changed inside me. It is crazy what happens when you find that desperation in your soul for something "more" and that heart cry is answered by GOD HIMSELF. The presence of His overflowing love is not easily understood by our small little brains and certainly not easy to consume or contain! Which is His plan all along ~ to fill you to overflowing so you have no choice but to spill His love all over the place! Quite frankly, what I've learned is this, God's touch...ruins you. It is the most beautiful way to live; ruined, wrecked, a mess, every minute of every day...fluttering about in chaos not having one desire for control, longing desperately for the constant presence of Jesus Christ in your life, your heart and your soul. This is how I find myself living now and I've never enjoyed my life more. This is how God wants each of us to live, in Him and forever with Him. If we'd just slide outta the driver's seat for but a minute to invite him to take the wheel...my how the view would be different from the passenger's side, the drive would become a journey to embrace and not control. The sights would be indescribable and the joy in your heart would be immeasurable.

Toss Him the keys, He's just waiting for the invite...what would one joyride hurt? I promise you'll never wanna drive again!

City Sweep

I am a world shaker
you are my strength
I will take it to the streets
and the lost will be saved

I will to sing to the one
seated to the right
and You will come down
oh what a glorious sight!

These are the words the Lord has given me as my strength, my hope, my courage and my power to sing to life His joy as He leads me on a journey far greater than anything I could accomplish of my own will. In all actuality the circumstances I've "fallen into" are a bit terrifying if I don't remain focused on God and trust blindly knowing He is leading me. I'm finally learning for myself this "loving the lost" is a messy but gloriously beautiful job! Praise God for all the people who loved me when I was lost!! Have I said this enough yet "I feel so lucky to be me!" God is awesome and I'm His world shaker!!!

The depths of gratitude?

How deep can one well run? It feels as though there is no possible way to hit the bottom of this well I've tapped overflowing with an abundant lifetime supply of one of the soul's richest resources...gratitude.

When God is at work weaving lives together the gift that becomes two-fold is a relationship built from the depths of gratitude ~ supernatural gratitude! A reciprocal honor of one another's life blooming through each soul's immeasurable love for Jesus Christ. Seriously! C'mon now...are you getting this?! [my favorite Joyce Meyer line when she's preaching a good message!]

This is larger than the possibility of our limited human capacity to understand! Here we have this beautiful divinely orchestrated phenomenon being born between a couple of nobodies in Minnesota and a few dozen forgotten lives in the streets of Rwanda and what I'm trying to tell you all is the fundamental level here is you just have to know in your mind, heart & soul beyond doubt all the glory goes to God!!! This is our BIG GOD people, shining vibrant and very much alive! Oh how He answers the pleas for more of HIM and less of me!! Whatever door that opens, light that shines, dollar that saves, relationship that blossoms and miracle that unfolds, it's only because of our graciously humbling, miraculously huge Almighty One. This welling up of gratitude to a point of overflowing comes from my love for God and His amazing ability to use my small life for His greater purpose! I feel like I could shout "I am so lucky to be me!" Oh thank you Lord that you have chosen to use my life to make a greater difference ~ one so impossible for me to imagine that I can only lean on you Lord and trust solely in your supernatural plans. Of my own power I would be destined to fail these 50+ helpless lives, but because of YOU GOD, we will all succeed as family, as servants and your WILL...will be done, these children will have a hope and a future as You have promised!


To my surprise, gratitude on a "God level" comes with a free gift ~ returned gratitude, from both God and the lives He compels you to touch. If it's not enough to overwhelm me just knowing God is using my life for good, try imaging what it feels like to know God is using another to share His loving gratitude for you just desiring to serve Him and His people. The Lord continually explodes my heart time and again through the irreplaceable words of a young man named Jean Claude who's gratitude for "knowing me" is far beyond any gift I ever deserved to receive.

The Lord recently opened another door for the Best Family, the HUGEST answered prayer yet, granting them a donation large enough to purchase computer equipment so our dream of a website (to reach, recrute and blend our family with all of YOU) can begin to take form. I have to confess I thought this opportunity was a long shot so I did not invest all my hope in this avenue to save myself from dissapointment and discouragement (since this one avenue was the ONLY card I held in my pocket) and God came through in a mighty way to show me yet again ~ my small faith can not limit Him nor box Him in!! This is God's plans unfolding for the Best Family, not mine. It never had anything to do with me except for the simple fact that once upon a time I asked the loaded question "God, can I have more of You?" and He threw me on a plane destined for Africa to show me His love for me and more importantly what His love might look like THROUGH ME when He answers my plea for more of Him. So I praise God for this donation that is the foundation of our new beginning, the launching pad of a big, bright future for children so dear to Jesus my heart can barely stretch fast enough to hold all the love. Their faith and dependence upon Him has born miracles beyond their wildest imagination!

I had the privilege of sharing this monumental news with Jean Claude which is a gift all in itself to be able to be God's messenger! So here's that gratitude I've been gifted to receive in it's true form from the heart of God filtering through the words of Jean Claude. The saying that God knows how to love his beloved is so very true as I've never felt more loved by both God and the Best Family than through words as beautiful as these;

Maria! Hello! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!

ooooh, My GOD, hallowed be your Name and Glory, Power be yours forever.
I don't think so, it's DREAMS, it feels as DREAMS (I'm really dreaming).
We are going see a LAPTOP? and WEB-SITE?
GOD is really good.
The GOD' s works are not like the People works'
and the GOD' s power is not like the People power.
And what are impossible to the People, become possible before GOD.

Maria, I thank you so much, as I always do. I don't know how or what I may do for you But what's the Best before all, I always ask my GOD to Bless you in all people and in your all activities and plans.You are second good person in my life after my Mother who did and will do every thing she can for her Children.

I'm going to do all you need for children and member founders, in generally all Best Family to do the needed Website. Maria, we already took you like our mother we have been given by our Father(GOD). We pray for you so that you will come again to see us, or we will come to see you, if god wishes. Your children see you soon, their heart wishes.

Be blessed so much.
your old child', Claude.

Thank you Jesus for this gift, these tears I cry are happy tears, You know this.

On my heart

It is amazing how small this world can be! Long ago, I found this blog (sorry, I haven't mastered the skill for posting links the way everyone else seems to be able to):


http://jobsdaughters.blogspot.com/


I have watched, okay STALKED this family for a LONG TIME as they deeply inspire me on a God-level, a family-level, a mom-level and an adoption-level. Don't tell Donny I secretly desire to be a BIG-OLE family like theirs one day. But anyway, their story about their journey to Ethiopia to pick up their child and how God placed them right where He needed them to be for HIS CAUSE one afternoon is remarkable and inspires me in a way that overloads my senses with goosebumps. They visited a place called Kolfe Orphanage and they have been forever changed since that day. I have been changed too just from watching God work through their hearts & lives. Not to mention my obsessive reading of their stories on their blog about this forgotten group of boys and one special gem named Solomon that has earned a long-distance home in their hearts as another son in their family. It's amazing how our giant God can reach into one's heart drawing me love this Kolfe Orphanage simply through following another's story.

So it comes with great excitement that I share this news from one of my missionary hero's Tom Davis' blog. He recently returned from Ethiopia from a visionary trip for Children's HopeChest. Funny little thing God had planned ~ For Tom to become the voice Kolfe Orphanage has been desperately needing! Here's a re-cap of Tom's post:


Sponsorship of Kolfe Orphanage in Ethiopia
Kolfe orphanage is an incredible place filled with 130 boys outside Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. After spending just a few hours with the young men there, I was struck by how polite, engaging and smart they are. They are so conversational I almost didn't realize that this orphanage is situated on a dumping ground. Every window is broken out of every building except the office and the only thing more prominent than garbage and glass on the ground is the red dust that covers every square inch of this horrible place. I see two possible roads for these boys. Down the first I see future husbands, fathers, and leaders of Ethiopia. Down the second I see death. I will occasionally use hyperbole to make a point but be clear that this not one of those times.

What They Need
Family. The boys of Kolfe need a church family with a heart for seeing boys become men. They need role models and mentors. They need someone to see their potential and walk with them through life to help them realize it. Here's an overview of Children's HopeChest's orphanage sponsorship program. Thanks to Sam Henry at Red Letters Campaign for the post.

The Basics. Serving these boys begins with meeting their basic needs for survival. Today and tonight they are exposed to the elements living in dormitories that are in shambles. Their food is meager and mean non-existent. Children's Hopechest needs to raise $25K immediately to repair housing facilities, provide beds, and buy books while we find a church sponsor. If you would like to GIVE click here and mark Kolfe orphanage as the recipient.

Help. We are hiring in-country staff to oversee and manage these Sponsorship programs and to identify additional sponsorship opportunities. The field teams' role is threefold: 1) Point of continuity, trust, and fun to the kids throughout the year. 2) Point of financial accountability for orphanage leadership. 3) Facilitate connections between the sponsoring church and children in the orphanage.

If you are interested in recruiting a church or community to sponsor Kolfe, please contact me immediately at tdavis@hopechest.org. We already have 3 sponsorships in process since returning last week!

I am beyond excited that an online community is able to rally around these special children until God's plans unfold for their future!! Oh how the love of Jesus is about to radically affect the lives of those who have been over-looked, ignored and forgotten for far too long!! It is my honor and privilege to say I had the opportunity to share my portion with these deserving boys!



And to directly relate all this right back to me, I must tell you the revelation I have recently come to. As I have watched the Mestas family(the very first blog link at the top of this post) and followed their journey, I had a secret desire on my heart that my life would be touched in a similar way as Eileen's was at Kolfe while I embarked upon my first mission trip to Africa. I believe I even copied portions of Solomon's letters to his "mom" Eileen and passed them on to my family because of the depth of my inspiration by this relationship that God had nurtured into existence. I remember telling my family some random day back in June "I hope my life can affect someone as tremendously as Eileen's has while in Ethiopia. I want to continue to touch someone's life when I come home ~ forever changed ~ as in NEVER THE SAME AGAIN!". Little did I know my story would begin to unfold in such a similar manner to Eileen's...and it's not until just recently that I have realized that desire on my heart "way back in June", was heard by the Lord and He is delivering my wish in His divine plan for me through the the lives of the beautiful Best Family! If you take the time to read about the Mestas' journey, check out their blog, their experience at Kolfe orphanage (the forgotten boys posts) and their relationship with a young man named Solomon you will see how inspiring their story is, but what's even more crazy is how my role with the Best Family is unfolding in such a similar manner to Eileen's relationship to the Kolfe children. I think it's just beautiful that the Lord used this family, their journey and the Kolfe Orphanage to plant a seed in my heart that would blossom into such a beautiful flower ~ my beloved Best Family. Simply AMAZING how the Lord leads if you let Him be your guide!