Snippets

On days like today, when I've gone to bed in full freak out mode and awoke, still panicking, the next day, I take some time to look through a book that's become my "anti-panic attack" book. It's a journal my friend Hannah gave me for my birthday this year, and I've begun to fill it with pictures and quotes that help me refocus and slow my heart down. In the interest of helping me do that this afternoon, I decided to type up a few selections from my book:

CYIA Committee Starting in Western Wisconsin

As a matter fact, they've already had two meetings!

I'm tremendously excited about this opportunity to get Christian Youth in Action® peeps involved in decisions for this area. It gives them the chance to exercise leadership with their peers, disciple other teens, plan and take part in recruitment for CYIA, plan get-togethers for fellowship and find ways to encourage their fellow workers in ministry.

It also makes my job much easier, hearing what they want to see in the future for ministry opportunities and get-togethers. This is how I know we're on the same page in our aims for Western Wisconsin's CYIA.

Five days at headquarters

Driving through Iowa is more fun than most people realize. There's a great deal of sky that you don't see when you live in a river valley, and if you drive over half the state in one day, you get to see the sky a variety of colors. I passed an Amish event (the farmyard looked like a sale lot for carriages), I got stuck behind the slowest Missouri driver I've ever seen, and I saw a set of crosses with an empty, open tomb below; a statue of Jesus standing in front of it with his hands raised to heaven. This was in southern Iowa, arguably the top of the Bible belt.

I feel blessed to drive through Iowa on my way to and from Missouri this week, and not just for the beautiful sunlight and scenery. I got to visit my grandmother on the way down, and she seems to be doing well, despite the health difficulties and chemotherapy treatments. My grandfather I didn't get to see. He's back in the hospital and I don't know if he'll be out for Thanksgiving. It's starting to hit home for me that their days on earth are not long, and what they have left is going to be difficult for them and all the family around them. I cried much of the way to headquarters after that visit, which means that (yay for pale skin!) my eyelids are STILL puffy and darkly circular three days later.

Admittedly, it wasn't the best way to start my week at missionary candidate school, but the first official day was still excellent. I met a couple of my fellow candidates at breakfast, and we got to chat during prayer card photos. I've seen our former state director at meals (she now works at headquarters), and a couple of friends who are working here now have stopped to talk with me in the halls.

Thoughts on "The Indomitable Mr. O", by Norman Rohrer

    Life is hard when a person denies love; when they can't accept grace and insist on being enough by themselves. This seems to be a theme in the story of J. Irvin Overholtzer; he refused his parents' help and love (even when he desperately needed it), he doubted his salvation was “perfect” enough since it relied on his deeds, and he doubted whether he should even seek converts since “the best I had to offer them was to... start working for their salvation as I was doing” (The Indomitable Mr. O, pg. 57). I think that to begin (and continue) a relationship with Christ means admitting brokenness and a personal inability to face life's challenges. But even more painful is knowing that love is just around the corner, and still choosing to stay right where you are. Mr. O learned that the hard way.

For God's Global Mission

   Over Christmas break last year (2013 already -- I know right?), I was privileged to go to St. Louis for Intervarsity Christian Fellowship's mission conference, URBANA '12.   It was similar to being a drop of paint, fallen into a bucket of swirled colors: a little overwhelming and incredibly bright, but invigorating, inspiring... and humbling.

   One of the first things Calisto Odede, the keynote speaker, spoke on, was Jesus' mission statement in Luke 4. Jesus had come to zoom in on the real problems of individuals, and to change their lives completely. It made people upset, however, that he addressed problems other than the ones they brought to him. They didn't recognize him for who he was, but instead of changing their view, they blamed him for not being what they expected. 

   This wonderful sermon gave me a goal for the conference: to not expect God to be what I wanted him to be, but expect him to do his work his way for his glory. I didn't meet the goal with any sort of ease, however; nor did I meet it with a large measure of success...but that you shall see later on. 

   The first morning we spent in St. Louis, I wrote in my notebook: God has things for me here that aren't what I came for. I had told myself I was willing to follow him whatever he asked, but I assumed (in big things and small, hardly significant decisions) that I knew already what he wanted from me. Urbana has God's word has shaken me up quite a bit. 

The stadium, filling with IV students and future missionaries

Myself and my bff Hannah, fresh off a 6+ hour car ride