Germany 2009

If you would like to read a brief artical about our trip to Germany, you may click on this link: http://www.gatewaysbeyond.org/resources/articles.php?article=91. It was such an incredible trip, and I am still processing all that the Lord did. You can also read my trip blog for more details: http://www.herrnhut2009.blogspot.com/.

What's a church to do?

I believe most of you reading this are members of Shady Grove Church, and this blog is for you.
At church on Sunday morning it was announced that Nathan and Courtney and their family will be moving to Brussels, Belgium in the spring. I am sure there were many who were very surprised, but also many of us were excited to hear the news officially announced. Jonathan and Destiny are also moving to Brussels, only much sooner. This got me thinking about the many leaders in Shady Grove that have been sent forth into the nations, and this got me thinking about different leaders and members who I see a calling on for the nations. And the common question is, with so many leaders being sent out, what's a church to do?
I understand the challenges of restructuring. I understand the tension between being excited for people stepping out in faith to follow God's call and feeling somewhat bewildered as to who will take their place or what will happen when they leave. I understand these challenges, but I have to admit that the challenges make me excited. Call me an enthusiast if you will, but my faith is stirred.
You see, I just spent a month and a half in a small village in eastern Germany called Herrnhut. We have been talking about Herrnhut lately at the Grove. When God's Spirit fell in Herrnhut in the 1700s, not only was a 24/7 prayer movement begun that lasted over 100 years, but also this little village of refugees became a missions sending community that birthed the modern day missions movement. At one point, Count Zizendorf was exiled from the country for 10 years. When he returned, there were only a handful of people he knew because so many had been sent out on the mission field!
Now I am sure this constant turnover of people being discipled and then being sent out was difficult and challenging; nevertheless, the people chose to live this life, to sacrifice those who were probably great leaders to reach the uttermost ends of the earth with the Good News. This inspires me. I am so grateful for the different leaders at Shady Grove. And I have watched as some have faithfully stayed to support the church even though they felt that their portion was in the nations. And what I am suggesting is that our gratefulness transfer into generosity in releasing those who feel called to go. It takes courage to go and it takes courage to stay, and I believe that there are people who are called to go and people who are called to stay. But I do think that as a church, we are called to send. Let us rise up in courage and complete dependence on the Lord. And as we send people out, let us rise up and say, "Here I am Lord, use me." One benefit of being a sending church is that people who perhaps never thought of themselves as leaders are brought to the place where they can stand up, where they can serve, where they can lead. I don't think that Shady Grove will ever be the "comfortable" place, but I believe this church is called to be a family, a community, of those who will say, "all for Christ!" "We will sacrifice, we will give, we will send, we will serve, we will pray, we will worship, we will look to You for our sustanance, we will fear not but will hide ourselves in the shelter of the Almighty."
I know that it might sound funny for me to say all of this since I myself have been sent out; nevertheless, Shady Grove is still my home, still my family. But I believe I speak for many missionaries when I say that I still care deeply for everything God is doing back home. And so much of the strength I feel is from the support back home. I may have physically left, but I have not abandoned. And just as I am encouraged by your support, I want to encourage you with what I see that God is doing.

Light and Beauty

I have been spending a lot of time on my other blog about my time in Germany with the Gateways team. Being in charge of the team blog, I have been put in a situation where I have to be faithful with writing. And it has been such an amazing experience. Writing about things really helps me to process what God is doing, and it is also a way of declaring those things and encouraging others. Posting pictures and telling stories helps me to remember--life changing moments and moments as trivial as what I had for lunch. All this to say, I would really like to endeaver this same faithfulness with my own personal writing. I created this blog for two reasons. First, I wanted a way to begin to cultivate the habbit of writing. My desire is to be a missionary and a writer, and I realize that to be a writer I must write. The second reason I created this blog is because I had a cry in my heart to see people cast off the limitations they have lived under, and discover their beautiful destiny and life in Yeshua. It is interesting because this is very similar to the theme of my other blog and our time in Germany--"Forgotten Seed: Unveiling the Treasures of our Inheritance." So, through this blog, "Hidden Royalty," and my Germany blog, "Field of Pearls," I want to release my gifting in writing to call others to break forth into theirs. Let us allow the light and beauty God has placed in each of us to be revealed today.

Maranatha!

It is so easy in our doing to lose sight of our motivation—our calling—our vocation. Throughout the world, God has created men and women with a myriad of differing gifts and talents, and not all are meant to perform the same function; on the contrary, our diversity is what makes us beautiful and serviceable as the Body of Christ: “For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into one Spirit” (I Corinthians 12:12-13). God’s heart is not for division—neither is it for all to be the exact same. If you look up into the sky on a brilliant, cloudy day, it isn’t simply the clouds that take your breath away, but the host of shades, shadows, textures, and colors. What makes a family so special is the common likeness intermingled with the individual personalities and characteristics. Our Creator God made no two snowflakes the same; no two people the same and no culture the same. So often, we give way to the secret villain of arrogance that creeps in so cunningly. In our desire to fashion our lives after Christ, we begin to think that our measure of revelation must be the fullness, and we find no room in our theology for different expressions. Yet this is not the heart of our Messiah. We have a picture of God’s heart because we know whom He will draw to Himself: Revelation 7:9-10 tells us, “After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, saying, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!’” To help hasten the soon coming of our Lord, we must seek unity with our brothers and sisters; for Jesus is coming back to one Church, for one Bride. We must also allow diversity amongst our family in the Lord, for God is worthy of a complete, beautiful, and radiant Bride; and He is worthy to have every feature of His Creation to be turned back to His praise. Let us not rob God of the glory due His name by attempting to mold His Bride into our own image. Let us rather seek to see every nation, tongue, and tribe be transformed into His likeness and bring to the Body of Christ the beauty and gifts that God has placed within them. “If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where would be the smelling? But now God has set the members, each one of them in the body just as He pleased” (I Cor. 12:17-18). Let us love one another, “For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men?” (I Cor. 3:3). It is so important that we come together as the Bride of Christ, and with all of our differing gifts and callings, lend our voices in unison to agree with the Spirit and cry out, “Come, Lord Jesus!” This is our motivation—our calling—our vocation: to devote our lives to preparing the way for the Lord’s return.

Greatest thing since sliced bread? really?

I am currently in Germany, and enjoying the country emensly. One side effect of my time here is that I have come to discover that a certain cliche I have heard my entire life is, in fact, erroneous. Whoever came up with the phrase, "the greatest thing since sliced bread," has obviously not spent much time in Saxony, wherein one may stop by the local bakery and purchase various rolls and loaves of fresh-baked bread, then go home to one's own kitchen where he or she indubitably has an electric bread slicer to cut just the right amount of slices the right side for whatever meal was at hand. So, after experiencing the pleasure of personally slicing my fresh and wholesome bread, I pose this query: is it really the greatest thing since sliced bread, or is it perhaps the saddest thing since sliced bread?

New Blog!

Hello from Germany!

I wanted to let you know that I am now writing a blog about our trip here in Germany. We will be here until the end of August. Check out my blog at this link: http://herrnhut.blogspot.com. The link is also posted on this blog in the links section.

Ethiopia