Love is the Mission

I used to believe that the things I did on earth were simply to get me to Heaven, to His Kingdom.  As a child I feared hell so I desperately wanted God to live in my heart and did what was right because of my childish thoughts. The joy I have now is because I know we are living in His Kingdom now.  We have the ability to talk with God, hear His voice, be His hands and feet.  We not only hear stories from the past but are living them every day of our lives.  How amazing is that? I know our daily lives can seem very ordinary.  We go to work to pay our bills.  We get groceries to feed our family.  We do laundry, clean our homes, wash our cars, mow our lawn.  It all can at times take the wind out of our sails.  But what if our outlook changed?  We go to work to invest in those we work beside, we pray for them, love on them, invest in them.   We get groceries at a store where we care for those that check us out.  We do the daily...

     The last year of our family's lives have been all the things: new, scary, terrifying, fun, unsettling, but also amazing.  Everyone of us has transitioned in some way or another:      The marriage of our daughter and gaining a new son.      Moving to a smaller home in the country.      Adding bees and chickens to our little settlement.      Skin cancer diagnoses.      Surgeries.      Moving our elderly mom with Alzheimers in with us permanently.      Starting an Airbnb.      Having our grown children move in with us for several months while in      transition to Sweden.      Our son and his wife moving to Sweden.      Hearing the call of God on Village to Village and moving forward with      some huge unknowns.      Hosting the largest event in five years th...

This is Chalito.   He was born with many disabilities and has lived most of his life in a home for special needs kids.   He is in his twenties in these pictures and can not do anything by himself.   In spite of this hard life he has a love for Jesus that is huge!   Insisting on being carried to church on Sundays because he simply wants to worship.   He smiles ALL the time.   Though he can not communicate like we do, you know the minute you see him he has Joy.   I can learn so much from his life.   I struggle with joy and am healthy, have a home, family, a job that I love, food on my table and everything I need.   Chalito is one of my heroes.   He is no longer on this earth which means he is no longer suffering but is with the God that he loves so deeply.   I can’t wait to see him again one day.

Could you live on $2 a day? You are probably laughing at such a ridiculous question but half the global population do just that.   If you make $35,000 a year you are in the top 4 percent of the worlds wealthiest people.   And we seem to go in debt living on that and more.   How do we impact those that live on $2 a day   and change our lifestyle so that we live on what we make?      We do not buy into our country’s consumerism mind set.                 Choose to buy only what we need.                 Shop smarter.                 Do not use credit cards.                 Create a new mind set.   When I am wanting items I do not need I have begun to think about the child in the village I met on my last trip that did not have shoes, cl...

Today is quiet, unusually quiet.   The last few weeks have been filled with fittings, appointments,   weddings, fundraisers, launches of new ministries and lots of people.   I am an introvert so it’s all been a bit stressful.   To many people cause me to want to shut down.   I should be cherishing a quiet day yet my heart is unsettled.   God has always come through for our family and for Village to Village.   Always.   Yet I can not get away from fear.   Fundraising is hard, speaking is hard, planning is time consuming yet the mission is always the same.   Love.   Why do I fear Love?   Because I am not releasing it to God.   Parts of it I am, parts of it are easy to give to Him but when it comes to financial things at times I think I know what is best.   I want the answer now.   I want the growth now.   But growth does not come immediately.   It’s like a child learning to walk. ...

        Reading is one of the ways to settle my spirit.   I love learning from others.   One of my favorite books is Chasing Slow by Erin Loechner, her view of the burdens we carry is this: It only takes one visit to a third world country to understand how far I’ve gone off course. It takes only one glimpse of the happy sparkle in the eyes of a chocolate woman laughing as she dyes fabric with calloused hands to know I do not understand joy. It takes only one visit to a roomful of sex trafficking survivors singing, dancing as they chop avocados for guacamole to know I do not understand gratitude. It takes only one peek at a child’s singular toy, a helicopter made from a trashed cell phone minutes card and a lollipop stick, to know I do not understand creativity. We are clothed.   We are fed. We are sheltered. We are stressed? We are weary.   We have burdened ourselves with an inordinate amount of possessions, pack...

Do you ever wonder if God really hears your prayers.  I have no doubt He hears, sometime His answers are not what we expect though.  I have learned to pray very specific prayers over very specific dreams, I keep a journal and write them all down.  I never want to forget that He always answers.      We may never understand His answers or His timing but just knowing they are His is enough.    I have circled my marriage, my children, our home, our finances, our jobs and our health for years.  There have been failed businesses , major sicknesses, broken hearts, financial loss, deaths and more even in the midst of the prayers.   But an amazing thing happens when you pray.  God gets you through it and grows you in the process.  I would not take one heartbreak I have had out of my life, because I have become a better person, more understanding, patient, willing to do the hard things, have the hard conversations, because of the...