Category: WorldVenture

Decisions That Keep You Awake

Decisions That Keep You Awake…

“Don’t go in there,” my husband begged in text as I stood outside the pet shop. “Run!”

A couple of days later, we went home with a ball of fur because he couldn’t say no to his wife. His wife (me) couldn’t say no to amber eyes and a playful spirit. We lost our own cat several months prior and the house felt too empty. I knew our next resident would not be like our last cat. Just like our former dog wasn’t like our last dog. Each animal has their own strengths and weaknesses.

Even as I write this, I have taken two Excedrin as our cat kept us up most of the night. But other things kept my mind awake, too. When you take on new responsibility, you feel it.

  • Did I respond to that person right?
  • Should I have said no (or yes)?
  • What is God up to?
  • Slow down. Don’t share in haste. Don’t post in haste. Be thoughtful in everything.

And lastly, just plain old excitement for the future. Old fears battle fresh joy, and I find new courage each day to face daily challenges.  The weight of people that believe in what I do sits on my heart, but not in a way that is a burden; it is a reminder that God has entrusted me with more because I think I became trusted with little (Luke 16:10).

Breaking new ground is hard work, but I need my team around me. Their experience in places I have not seen will make this new ground fertile. I will make a lot more decisions and I am praying I make wise ones. Surrounded by true friends and a supportive husband, I can’t help but feel some confidence as I look toward the future. Just like I am confident that one day, our new resident will find her “normal” and settle into a predictable behavioral pattern (sigh).

Meanwhile, how could I say no to this girl?

P.S. WorldVenture published an important blog post. Go here to view it on their Facebook page. Be sure to share your thoughts afterwards on their Facebook page. This is an important conversation to have between organizations.

How to Never Give Up #MotivationMonday

Journaling with Monday Motivation here. 

“Jesus was telling them a parable about their need to pray continuously and not to be discouraged.” – Luke 18:1

A thousand times I repent of my previous words, spoken in haste and without understanding, of what an international worker goes through and really does with their time until I became one. All our journeys are different with WorldVenture. Some are learning new cultures, experiencing a loss of roots, and learning to adapt to a new normal, and here I am, pioneering a new way, meeting doubt head on, and completely growing in faith.

In today’s Bible reading (Genesis 44-46), I learned about Joseph and his brothers. Joseph was betrayed by his brothers and sent to Egypt. Genesis 44-46 talks about Joseph reuniting with his brothers. Joseph is one of my favorite Bible narratives. After much trial, he stands in a position of power to help his family and the countries around him going through famine. Joseph kept his faith. In Luke 18, we learn about Jesus’ encounters and a parable, starting and ending with the theme of praying continuously and living in obedience. The blind man asked Jesus twice to heal him. A rich man was asked to give up his wealth. The faith of a broken man is compared to that of a prideful one. The glaring theme of this chapter felt like, “Keep pestering God. Don’t cling to the world. Keep looking up to the Father.” How do you never give up when a future is uncertain, even unwritten?

  • Refresh your spirit in the Words of the Bible.
  • Find joy and hope in today and hold on to those memories for tougher and more impassable roads.
  • Keep your eyes on the bigger picture. It’s the bigger picture that matters. God doesn’t think small. Neither should you!
  • Keep wise counsel around you (Proverbs 15:22)
  • Understand better the Christian faith through the narratives of the Old and New Testament. Bear your cross well.

Meanwhile, I look ahead with eagerness and walk the road I am on now with determination fueled by a growing faith.

How are you today? Can I pray with you? You can email me at mentoring4lifewv@gmail.com or leave a comment. 

 

TRC Magazine Publishing! #Christian

After the pie, when all the dishes are cleaned, and life returns to normal portions, my mind returns to pressing needs like TRC Magazine’s next edition. It’s the last edition of 2017. It’s been a fruitful year.

December means our Intern is coordinating the social media for TRC Magazine in honor of Advent. We’ll see devotionals and maybe some interviews. Renee, our volunteer, will compliment our intern’s social media with her art.

TRC Magazine is not an ordinary ezine. We publish stories to influence and make a difference. We also teach our volunteers and intern to engage with our readers. Our readers are global. They come from a variety of backgrounds. Not all are believers. Our vision is not to chase the stories everyone else is chasing. It’s a creative way to empower the church to serve online.

Read last edition by clicking here. 

Interested in supporting this work and other works, give a monthly donation by clicking here. 

3 Ways to Start a Movement

Several years ago, I stood dangerously close to never walking into church again. I couldn’t pray in church. I couldn’t worship in church. I shut down the moment I walked in. The hurt was real. I kept wondering, “Are we alive? What is church supposed to be? Who am I supposed to be?” Part of my problem was being in the wrong place. God was asking me to start a movement, and that meant leaving the comfortable to become acutely uncomfortable.

So, here I am in a healthier place, loving the fellowship with other believers, and enjoying worship in church again. I’m in line with God’s will in my life and I have peace about it. But my memory of the question, “Are we alive?,” continues to drive me. How can I tap into the different talents and gifts of the church body to inspire them to serve online? How can I make these dry bones come alive? That’s when my movement (singular) became movements (plural).

Movements are ideas curated on Social Media to create online communities around a brand or hobby. The idea is to encourage conversation between people that build relationships; relationships that lead to Gospel conversations. I realized the way to begin positive change is not only through prayer and the heavy reliance on the Holy Spirit, but also to tap into the congregation–a resource rarely used by pastors to even market their own church.

It sounds easy. Set up a Facebook group, invite people, and post often to encourage participation. In all honesty, serving this way can be brutal. Social Media means bringing the unpredictable into your life. People are from different cultures, backgrounds, and are dysfunctional. Think of a family reunion and that crazy Aunt, and you have chaos coming through as notifications on your phone. Running a successful group means being the moderator.

The moderator is always the enemy–a heartless person always censoring people’s posts. What our society lacks is boundaries and when you set boundaries, they lash out. So, when you begin a movement to inspire a different way of living or thinking, or to encourage deeper prayer lives, don’t look for instant results. You’ll have to go through deep valleys and climb high mountains. You’ll have periods of, “Am I a failure?” You are not a failure. It takes time for a movement to capture people’s hearts.

Movements are ideas that take root and inspire a church body to act. How do you start a movement?

  1. Open a Facebook group about a hobby you like to do.
  2. Start a small group from a blog you write to encourage people. If you write for single again women, start a single again small group that meets at a coffee shop. The small group can be online or in person.
  3. Your status updates, Instagram posts, or Twitter updates should all be around your own personal mission statement for your movement.

The key is to tap into those in the church body who are open to use their favorite hobby, their educational backgrounds, or (fill in the blank) and train them on social media to build up that movement so people are inspired by them to be different. When we create community, we are being the church.  When we are alive as a church body, people can’t help but notice God first. When we are sharing hope through relationship, God will use you to point them to Him.

Let those dry bones come alive! 

 

 

Putting Together Puzzles

 

Ever do puzzles? 

For a very short period in my life, I liked puzzles. My grandmother would tell me, “Start in the corners.” I believe she also said to do the sides first so you can figure out which blue piece is the sky. Without the corners and sides, it was nearly impossible to finish a puzzle. I talk about putting together a puzzle because it is like creating a social media ministry.

Social Media employs my creativity, my love of story telling, reading, art, and it gives me boundless freedom to find new ways to frame the Gospel and help others follow Him and help Christians serve Him. Mike Duran, an author, often talks about the church’s uneasy relationship with art. Yet, it is the visual story that is gaining ground versus the literal story. Our world is becoming more secondary oral than literal and writers and Christian artists must find new vehicles in which to share the Gospel. To see all the pieces of how I serve, you must attend a presentation, even if you never intend to support me financially. How can you pray if you don’t understand what I do? 

Everything I do online is a different frame in which a Christian can use their abilities and time to serve and share the Gospel in more strategic and authentically engaging ways. Our pastor at Grace Baptist Church said on Sunday that our society is feeling more hopeless, more anxious. We can blame that on technology, North Korea, or (fill in the blank); or we can get involved and share hope with them through our every day activity online.

I ran across this quote from someone I don’t know anything about, but he makes a point:

“Social media websites are no longer performing an envisaged function of creating a positive communication link among friends, family and professionals. It is a veritable battleground, where insults fly from the human quiver, damaging lives, destroying self-esteem and a person’s sense of self-worth.” (Anthony Carmona)

In my newsletter, you see one or two pieces of what I do. You may have come to some correct or incorrect conclusions about what you think I do online.

Would you like to meet for coffee sometime to see the whole picture?

Just let me know. 

Pray for TRC Magazine

TRC Magazine gathers online on October 28, 2017 to discuss Christmas. We aim to engage in authentic community, especially after so much tragedy.

What does this mean? Unlike other ezines, TRC Magazine’s mission is for writers to engage in meaningful online conversation with readers, and to publish stories that may not always bring in lots of website traffic, but are God’s stories. Stories we publish reflect the diversity of the biblical Christian belief. We are united from different denominations to share Christ with the world and to talk about what it means to live as a Christian. The meeting with our volunteers and intern will need your prayers as we plan our social media strategy.

People will be missing their loved ones this year, and we want to walk with them through that grief.

Pray for…

  • Volunteers and Interns not to be too busy, too flustered, or weighed down so that they are kept from serving with us.
  • Pray for our intern who, not only assists in managing the website, writes articles, and learns social media marketing as ministry, but he is a family man with a day job.
  • Pray for God’s protection on all of us as we serve online.
  • Pray for some of us to water and some of us to harvest.

Why Rush The Journey?

Weeks like this week make me say, “Lord, will you please hurry this support process?!”

I work in two mentally stimulating jobs that challenge my comfort zone–a Day Job and my position with WorldVenture. Time management is an important tool in my belt.

This week, I came home drained from so much mental stimulation. Don’t tell God you are bored, because He will give you something to do. Ministry is exploding and I am swept away in it while facing the reality of a lack of time. The need for churches (individually and corporately) to learn the proper use of Social Media, to not be afraid of it, or to put aside their prejudices against it is huge. The demand on my time is hard and strangely joyful.

Yet, I am comforted by what the Lord is doing in my life, too. I don’t know what next year will bring, only that I have chosen to live this way with the expectation that God will deliver me. We will get to 100% support and it will be a story of His glory.

So, why cheat the process? Why ask God to hurry what He has deemed an important part of my journey? Every time I fall down, God picks me up again. Every time, I hear rejection, God remakes my heart so that I am stronger and better. God is even remaking our marriage. Every day, we are growing together in the same direction, applying what we are learning in the Bible and in life to our lives.

We are at 29% support. Would you consider a monthly support of $25, $35, or whatever God puts on your heart?

Click Here to Learn More

What Did You Learn This Morning?

Even though my hours have changed, I still get up at 5:30 a.m. to make time to read a chapter in the Bible. My body is already used to rising early after 11 years as a church secretary with Solid Rock Christian Fellowship that continuing this habit wasn’t so difficult. The hours at my former employer were too early for morning devotionals, but my new job allows me an extra half hour Monday through Wednesday that I can get in some quality time with the Lord. In thinking about this, I recall what my friend shared with me the other day.

Her pastor asked her, “What did you learn in your morning devotions?” This challenges her to think about what she is reading in context. I challenge myself the same way. Reading the Bible should not be a check mark on your day, but an immersing experience. It’s quality time with my Father before the day gets crazy. I read the chapter and work all day on focusing on what I read. How can I apply it to myself? What is God trying to teach me this morning? What does it mean? Are there rabbit trails to discover? Sometimes, I’m dead tired from a week that never ends or raising support leaves me barely able to think.

“In the same way, the Spirit comes to help our weakness. We don’t know what we should pray, but the Spirit himself pleads our case with unexpressed groans. The one who searches hearts knows how the Spirit thinks, because he pleads for the saints, consistent with God’s will. (Romans 8:26-27)” 

Spending time with God is more than just a feel-good exercise, but a desire to stay, “…consistent with God’s will.” I love what He is doing in my life, though it can be painful at times. This life has not left me bereft of joy from all the effort, but excited for what God has planned for my future. It does have its challenges, but I know when to rest. I know when to step away and stop doing and just be.

Continue to pray with me as I raise 100% support. My desire is for the church to reawaken from its slumber and become intentional with its social media uses and understand what God is doing in the world with technology. 

 

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