Tag Archives: ministry

Travel Is The Best Medicine

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Sometimes travel is the best medicine.  New places bring new perspectives and airport layovers provide great think space.  Besides having a blast with my family in Spokane, I also had a much needed Ah-Ha moment and two solid gold hangout sessions with two of my oldest and dearest friends.

My trip was only five days altogether, but it was just the right amount of time.  I had to leave Jon behind, but he got along just fine by upgrading our kitchen spice racks and experimenting with a few new cooking challenges he received via Jamie Oliver’s old cooking show.  He also managed to glue together and paint an old rocking chair that a friend gave me a couple months back.  Go Jon!


Red boxy shelves from Target.  Natural wood shelf from Ikea.
Cute and inexpensive glass spice jars from World Market.  Magnetic
canisters from Bed Bath & Beyond.  


I began and ended my time in Spokane with two of my best friends from high school:  Jessica S. and Jessica C.  Our first chance to meet up happened at the Rockwood Bakery on Spokane’s South Hill.  Jessica S. brought along her adorable, almost six month old son, Daniel.  I brought my baby bump.  And Jessica C., although she isn’t headed towards BabyLand quite yet, brought along her baby interest and knowledge as a nurse, doula and infant photographer.  So we got to talk a lot about babies and all the incredibleness and crazyness that comes along with them.

But possibly the most refreshing part of the entire conversation was the honesty of it all.  We casually joked about about how sometimes our actions as wives are just slightly less than “godly” towards our husbands and in all seriousness and sincerity we shared how those same actions are difficult to deal with and learn from.

It was refreshing because you can’t build friendships like that in a day and the level of trust and honesty we experienced was in great part due to nearly nine years of friendship forming moments and experiences.  And then, because we’d all had such a good time together, we decided to do it again one more time on Monday morning before I had to catch my flight back to San Luis Obispo.  The Jessicas dropped me off at the airport and I’m already looking forward to next time.

Almost 5 months along, but still hardly showing it

 

Cutie pie baby Daniel

I also had a great time with my family while in Spokane.  It was mid-90s all week and perfect weather to go to the lake.  So we did.  We got bags full of penny candy on the way from the hardware store at Loon Lake and did a family swim out to the ski dock before BBQing at the cabin and watching Soul Surfer.

Dad in his 1980s beach chair

Little brother Blake rockin’ the shades

Dad’s house with the most lovely view to wake up to

Then once at my mom’s we did our fair share of deck sitting and my mom threw together the freshest Caprese salad I’ve ever tasted from the basil and Cougar-Red tomatoes growing in her planter boxes.  Of course we did some shopping too between going out to Greenbluff to pick fresh raspberries and then to Arbor Crest winery where a big band orchestra played live music while people danced and drank wine in their lawn chairs.

Dripping sweat after picking raspberries in 98 degree weather

We ate vanilla ice cream with raspberries and hot fudge after dinner.  Mmmmm!

 

We picked up Pete’s Pizza calazones and brought them with us to Arbor Crest.  They are hands down thee best calazones in the world!  And even food critic Jon Kidwell agrees.

I also got to spend some time with all three sets of my grandparents along the way, something I am really grateful for.

My travel experience back to San Luis Obispo proved to be more event-filled than I would usually expect.  On my first flight I sat next to a girl my age named Sugar.  She was up in Spokane visiting one of her four boyfriends.  The 40 year old one in Spokane doesn’t know about other 40 year old in San Diego or the 21 year old in Arizona.  Yikes!  We talked about relationships and family and about how she keeps feeling like she should go back to church, but she doesn’t know why.

During my layover I bought a trash magazine to find out about how Bachelorette Ashley and fiance JP are doing.  But as I sat down to read it, I decided to take advantage of my mom club membership and strike up a conversation with a woman holding her one and half year old daughter.  Turns out she was traveling with the youngest of her six kids.  So I got to hear six separate incredible labor and delivery stories.  And since I’d been reading from The Birth Book on the flight to Spokane I knew exactly what all the different terms she used meant.  Points for me!

Then, on the last leg of my flight, I sat down next to a friendly, talkative guy from Texas who told me how he was fed up with the games girls play.  I thought to myself that it’s a good thing he didn’t meet Sugar.

The Ah-Ha moment I mentioned, happened at the airport before the whole magazine, birth story scenario happened.  I was on the phone talking with Jon when I suddenly starting saying things out loud about how I was feeling that actually made sense.  Ever have that happen?  It’s the coolest.  I think the clarity was a culmination of a conversation I had with my mom, the time I spent with the Jessicas and probably some other things as well.

If you keep up on my blog you may know that for a while now, I’d say about a year, I’ve been struggling in my faith and my relationship with the Lord.  Not in a “I don’t know what I believe” kind of way, but more of a “Why? Why? Why?” kind of way.  ”Why do I not feel peace?  Why do I not feel good about my relationship with God?  Why is it difficult for me to want to read the Bible?  Why do I feel unmotivated to do much about it except for short bursts that die out fast?  Why?”

It’s made for a long year spiritually speaking where I’ve spent more time complaining about things than conquering them.  And the added pressure of feeling like by the time I have a child I need to be the most amazingly-positive, faith filled woman on the planet hasn’t really helped either.  Although Jessica S. assured me that the feeling was normal, but untrue all at the same time.

So anyway, in the roundabout way I’m choosing to talk about this, my airport revelation was this: the past three years have been a whirlwind of great changes in my life.  I moved to California, met Jon, started dating Jon, got engaged, got married and am now preparing to have a baby.  So my life has had a lot of transition relationally, practically and spiritually speaking.

Relationship wise, whenever one of these big shifts occur it means that all your relationships with your family, friends and yourself shift along with it.  So sometimes good friends fall into the category of good acquaintances and new friendships emerge with your new-found relationship status.

Practically speaking, everything is different.  I share a house with a man.  I’m consumed with learning to cook and I consider cleaning to be a hobby because I care about making my husband happy.  I schedule girl time rather than coming home to it.  All good things.  All different than it used to be.

Spiritually, I think things were supposed to shift here too, but the fact that they haven’t is, I think, the source for much of my angst.  Before I got married and got pregnant, most of my spiritual energy (other than reading the Bible and praying) went towards activities and strangers that I hoped would become more than that.  I think I based a lot of how I was doing with God on how successfully I was reaching out to people around me – and in college with 20,000 peers with similar interests, that felt easy.  Also, before marriage it felt easy to be be at anything and everything  and therefore feel involved.  However, a problem arose…

When I got married, unfortunately I forgot to shift my thinking.  Marriage brought with it a whole new lifestyle: new responsibilities, new use of time, a new focus… The Bible touches on this here:

An unmarried man is concerned about the Lord’s affairs—how he can please the Lord. 33 But a married man is concerned about the affairs of this world—how he can please his wife— 34 and his interests are divided. An unmarried woman or virgin is concerned about the Lord’s affairs: Her aim is to be devoted to the Lord in both body and spirit. But a married woman is concerned about the affairs of this world—how she can please her husband. 35 I am saying this for your own good, not to restrict you, but that you may live in a right way in undivided devotion to the Lord. (1 Corinthians 7:32-35)

So even though my circumstances had changed, I still viewed success as the amount of time I spent doing “other” things unrelated to my marriage.  As I began spending more time focusing on my marital duties, naturally my involvement in “other” things declined and I started to feel bad and like I was failing.  I felt like, “How can I ever possibly do as much and be as involved as I was before marriage?”  And now with a baby on the way, the feeling has only grown.  ”How can I ever possibly do as much and be as involved after I have the baby?”

Well, the truth is that I can’t.  Not that I want to become so consumed with my own life and my own family that I forget about the rest of the world- that is not my heart at all.  But what I realized at the airport is this:  When I become a mom, 90-95 % of my daily spiritual energy will go into my child and my husband – and that is a good thing.  I can still pray for opportunities along the way and that God would use my little life in the world around me, but the “other” part will not be the main focus or the priority anymore.  My family will be the focus and the priority and I’ll pray hard that God wouldn’t let the investment in my family go to waste.

This is probably a very simple revelation, but it’s been one that I’ve been struggling to get for a long time now.  I think maybe I’ve just needed someone to come along in my life and let me know that, “Hey, you don’t have to be at everything to be important to God.  You don’t have to be a missionary to prove your faith.  You just need to be genuine and loving where ever He’s put you right now.”  I don’t really know if I would have been so open to hearing that from someone until now, so I can’t really blame anyone or anything for the fact that I’ve been going through all this.  I’ve had a specific picture of what serving God and living a full Christian life has looked like for a while now and I’m finding that it’s tough to change my mind and let some things go.  But I need to.  Because if I don’t, I’m going to miss out on embracing and enjoying some really special years ahead with my children.

So now what?  I don’t really know.  I think it probably starts with going back to a more simple faith where I somehow get myself to spend time in the Word consistently whether I feel like it or not.  That always seems to be the first step.  From there, I don’t really know how to embrace everything I need to.  I think spending time around other young moms like Jessica S. would help a lot too.  It was helpful to hear about how it’s a struggle to adapt your faith and your life when you go through transition because it made me feel like I’m not the only one.

To everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven.   Ecclesiates 3:1-2

Do Not Despise These Small Beginnings

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Last night was the launch date for New Images, the support group/Bible study focused on helping women at Cal Poly overcome issues of body image and eating disorders.  I showed up, but unfortunately nobody else did. 

I really didn’t know what to expect going into last night.  I was prepared to lead a group, but wondered who would have the guts to respond to the flyers.  It’s a quite a large leap for someone to admit to themselves that they need help and then even more of a leap to want to share that realization with other people; especially people you’ve never met before.  Hmm…should have taken that into consideration beforehand? 

So all in all, last night was a starting point, I believe.  Hopefully just a launching pad for new approaches. 

In fact, I think  I already have a new approach that includes developing a website over the summer and instead of inviting people to come to a group, the flyers would encourage people to visit the website.  From there, people could find all sorts of content, local resources and could choose to contact me if they wanted to personally meet up up to talk.  That might be a more comfortable road for people to walk. 

Anyway, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t sad that no one came.  There are so many people that I know would benefit from this, even just statistically speaking; people who are craving freedom from the burdens they carry.  However, last night  I was reminded of a scripture that proved reassuring,

Do not despise these small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin, (Zechariah 4:10)

So I won’t argue with that.

New Everything

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Week one of Jon-goes-back-to-school is quickly coming to a close.  He likes Cal Poly.  Cal Poly likes him.  It’s all good.

I have spent my week working odd hours during the radio station’s semi-annual fundraising drive.  I wake up at 4:30am, head to work by 5:30, take a four hour lunch break in the middle of the day, and then head back to work until 6:30pm.  Afterwards, I head home to watch an epidsode of Lost to relax.  Well, kind of of, because I’m only on episode 5 and so far Lost is awesome, but it isn’t the most relaxing show.  Then once the clock strikes 9:00pm I try to convince my body that it’s really midnight so that I can go to sleep.  So since nothing feels normal this week I suppose it makes it easier to embrace all the changes happening.

However, the four hour lunch breaks couldn’t have come at a better time.  I have been using them as my opportunity to also make my way over to Cal Poly.  Why?  Because speaking of “new,” I am starting a new group called New Images.  It’s something God put on my heart last year, but it took me a while to follow through with my plans.  Why again?  Because I didn’t know if anyone would come…and that scared me.  And then I mustered up a little bit of faith and I became afraid that too many people would come…and that also scared me.  And now I don’t know what to expect, but I do know that God has prompted me to do this.  So I’m gonna ”walk the pipeline.”

One of my all-time favorite sermons is called Rescue The Dying and it’s by a man named Ron Hutchcraft.  I’ve never been able to find it online, but I do have an mp3 version of it so if you would like me to email it to you,  just let me know.  In short, he talks about how in order to reach the best “views” or high points with God, we must take risks, face our fears and basically “walk the pipeline”, which is a beam that stretches across a dangerous crevass.  He also illustrates how as Christians we are in a metaphorical lifeboat (gotta love Titanic references) and we must go back for those who are still in the water.

And that’s what I’m attempting to do.  God has brought me through a lot, and yet I need to remember those who still may be struggling.  After embracing my life, my security in Christ, and my healing, I need to turn my lifeboat around and go back to fill it with souls.

I had a great revelation yesterday, by the way.  I read chapter  5 in Radical.  I felt silly and relieved.  I wished I would have read chapter 5 sooner.  But regardless, I was relieved because I was reminded of the simplicity of what God is really asking me to do: regardless of where I live, whether I work or I’m a full-time mom, and whatever my life circumstances, as a follower of Jesus my job is to make disciples of all nations.  How?  By giving away my life, my love, my time, my money, my friendship, and the Word of God to those around me.  Simple.  Well, impossible in my own strength and efforts, but simple and possible with the Holy Spirit.

I don’t need a fancy approach.  I don’t need a new strategy all the time.  Because there’s nothing new under the sun.  I just need to live out the simple truths that I know.  Sometimes I think I get consumed with what I need to do for God, rather than living a rich life, full of love and with room for other people.  Six years ago I got the word “Grace” tatooed on my left wrist, and a lot of times it serves as a reminder to chill out, embrace where God has me right now, and search for that ever-so-precious state: contentment.

So anyway, with this New Images group I’m praying: Lord, please run this group.  Do what you want with it.  I’ll show up, but let this come out of a place in my heart that isn’t full of anxiety or approval,  just love for you and other people.   

So, like I mentioned,  I’ve been showing up to campus to pass out flyers in hopes that they might fall into the right hands.  And when I’m done, I’ve been meeting up with my cute husband in the UU so that I can drive him across town to work.  I recently bought him some new clothes.  I think they make him look young, hip and like every other guy walking around campus.  I didn’t want him to look married and 27, but in my opinion he’s sportin’ married and 23…okay maybe 24.

Answering To The Call

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***This photo is of Kevin & Kristi Kneeshaw of Campus Crusade for Christ and their family.

This morning I had the opportunity to sit in on a meeting and devotional time with the President of HCJB Global, Wayne Peterson.  I’ve been hearing a lot obout this worldwide ministry lately seeing as after reading the book Radical by David Platt, my boss at the radio station, the Executive Director, decided to lay down his role here at K-LIFE FM to move to Colorado Springs to work for HCJB.  So I will be getting a new person to report to and my boss and his wife will be helping plant Gospel-preaching Christian radio stations all around the world, specifically in places where less than 2% of the populatoin is Christian.     

This morning at the meeting, Wayne shared a few stories about what’s happening around the world in places like Nepal, Indonesia, Central Asia, Northern Africa and the like.  I was captivated by what he was saying as he explained the present condition of specific locations, but also the fact that the Church is growing below the radar in many areas.

Then I got to work, sat down at my desk and heard my phone chime over and over as thirteen new Twitter update texts poured in from Paul Washer, who is currently overseas preaching the Gospel. (If you would like to get Paul’s tweets sent to your phone you can choose to follow him on Twitter and then click the little phone icon just to the right of the “Follow” button.)   Paul happens to be in one of the places I heard about this morning and his updates did a funny thing to my heart that I’m still trying to decipher. 

I don’t know about you, but doesn’t the mission of Jesus to “seek and save the lost” (Luke 19:10) and to “go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation” (Mark16:15) twist your heart up so tight that you can barely breathe?  Doesn’t that call make you sick to your stomach as you plan your next trip to Disneyland?  Doesn’t it cause your life to flash before your eyes as you imagine yourself actually considering your life worth nothing, heading out into the wilderness and climbing to the heighest heights with God for His glory?

Jon and I had a tearful conversation a couple weeks ago.  It was a Saturday morning before we headed out for Adopt-A-Block and I was reading a chapter in Radical in the big chair in our living room while Jon was skimming the paper.  And it hit me.  I was reading about how this one retired couple decided to use their retirement to feed hungry people in Africa versus moving into a gated community and playing golf every afternoon.  And like I said, it hit me.  Because it was cool that that specific couple had decided to sacrifice their comfort in retirement to serve others, but the thought that struck me was:

I hope it doesn’t take me until I’m retired to sacrifice everything to serve Him.

That’s a scary thought, right?  That maybe forty years from now I will finally detach myself enough from my stuff, my ambitions, my life-securing, life-building tactics in order to answer to the call, so to speak.

I keep wrestling with this topic lately, if you couldn’t tell, because I’m excited about what God is doing in my life in the here and now and I can feel Him growing me in deep, meaningful ways.  Yet in my heart of hearts I’m seeking to know, really know, whether I am truly living out the call of Jesus in my life as fully as God would have me to.  It’s scary.  Because contrary to popular new-age belief, we only get one life to use to make much of Him.  That’s it.  And when it’s all said and done we will stand before the King of all Kings to give him a report about our lives.  What did we do with all that he gave us?  (Matthew 25) 

Anyhow, I’m not sure how and where God will direct my steps in the coming days and years.  I’m not sure if I will continue to serve Him here in the US, somewhere else, or both.  But I am praying today that He would do whatever necessary to help me to embrace his Word, build my life upon it and make me ready to respond at any moment to his call; whether it be reaching out in friendship to my neighbor a few doors down or whether it means buying a one-way ticket to Nepal or a similarly remote place that I cant locate on a map.

Below are Paul Washer’s tweets from this morning.  I hope you like them.  Or better yet, I hope the Holy Spirit speaks to your heart through them like He did to mine.         

“I was in Lucknow India last week and in Nepal this week.  Right now I am in Pokhara, Nepal.  Tomorrow we head to Kathmadu. 

The conference in Lucknow was a blessing.  I preached eleven times to many hungry missionaries.  God seemed to help and I was filled with joy. 

God has given me a heart for India & Nepal.  I am also burdened for Tibet, China and Mongolia.  We must reach these peoples with the Gospel. 

After Lucknow, we met with our new missionaries in Nepal  What a joy!  Some are mountain men.  They remind me of my beloved Peruvians. 

I preached 12 times in Nepal and the men were very receptive. More explanation and illustration was needed, but God was faithful in helping.

In both places, I preached on the Gospel, true conversion, biblical assurance, and the minister’s family. 

Yesterday, Matt and I went looking for tigers on an elephant.  It was an adventure.  I am both disappointed and glad that we found no tigers.

I witnessed to a Sikh this evening.  I had no idea how he would respond, but he listened until another came into the room.

I wish I was 20 years old and could throw my life away in these mountains.  I pray that God might raise up young preachers to go forth. 

Why do so many young men spend time blogging about theological nuances while the world dies without the Gospel?  Why?

The kingdom needs men who rely upon only a few simple weapons: Bold preaching of the Gospel, intercessory prayer, and sacrificial love.

Please pray about Asia, the Middle East, and the 10/40 Window.  They present an opportunity to live and die for something eternal.” 

I beg you to pray about going to the places where there is no Gospel witness, but only if you have a Gospel witness.”

 Side note: I’m not opposed to Disney Land.  I don’t think it’s bad.  I just think God is trying to get through to me lately about certain things.  Please enjoy fun times at Disney Land as you see fit.  :)

The New Look For Saturday Mornings

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For a while now Saturday mornings have been the kind where we sleep in, sip our coffee a little slower, Jon does some paper reading while I do some coupon clipping and we simply enjoy the fact that have nowhere to rush off to.  I love this about Saturday mornings, but I also love the new agenda for them that began this weekend. 

To make a long story short I go to a church called Mercy Church in San Luis Obispo, California.  It’s great.  I have great friends there and it seems like people are always ready and willing to try something new in hopes that we might be able to show some people God’s love.  

So this weekend we began something new called Adopt-A-Block, a ministry idea that we adopted from a church serving L.A. called the Dream Center.  To put it very simply this activity consists of going to a specific block, but in our case a low-income apartment complex full of families and some student housing that is the temporary home to Cal Poly University students, knocking on their doors and then offering some ways that we can make their lives a little easier. 

In L.A. the Dream Center does everything from providing free babysitting, food and useful things like cribs or toothbrushes and they do it on a massive scale because at this point the city so appreciates what they’re doing for families that businesses all over town give stuff to the Dream Center so that they can continue to give it away to people in need.  Awesome. 

As for us in San Luis Obispo we are starting a bit smaller, this week offering a free bag of food to the families and some home-made cookies and scantrons to the college students.  But the challenge and the key to this ministry is that the point is to go back to that same block every single Saturday, knock on the same doors and continue to meet whatever needs we can while also continuing to build relationships with those people.  The commitment is long term. 

And it’s cool because in my heart this all lines up with the things God has been teaching me lately: Mostly that sometimes the things that feel like sacrifice, like giving up a relaxing Saturday morning in order to get out of my house and out of my comfort zone and into some people’s lives, isn’t really sacrifice at all but rather it’s the very purpose for which the Lord saved me.  It’s been a vast reality that I’ve been facing lately.  You know, trying to pull my head out of my own little life and troubles and worries and start living like I picture Jesus would want me to. 

So I think this is just the start.  And I’m excited to be sharing some of the great stories that emerge from these Saturday mornings.

Meet Brother Paul

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About six months ago my husband introduced me to a man named Paul Washer.  It was an informal meeting and actually it was in my car.  Paul talked and I intently listened to what he had to say.  I found him refreshingly straightforward and knowledgeable about the Word of God.  And he was intense!  Like a coach before the championship game, he preached as if everything was riding on this final sermon.

Soon after that first meeting I hung out with Paul again where he preached to a youth conference (and to me) about what real Christianity was meant to look like, and it hurt.  It hurt really bad.  And that’s when I decided that me and Paul, we were going to be great friends.

During that time Paul attacked my interests, my motives, my lifestyle and basically he attacked me.  Which is why I was so grateful.

Brother Paul preaches a message that is widely dismissed by American Christianity but that others like Francis Chan, David Platt and I believe George Mueller if he were still alive today, stand up for as being the true gospel.  A gospel that states that we are wretched and He is the only source of good.  We are God-haters and yet He desires to save us for his purposes.  Versus that increasingly popular teaching about positive self thinking and living your best life now that draws thousands of Americans to a fancy church every Sunday to hear a motivational speech with a Bible verse tagged onto it for credibility.

When Jesus preached it hurt.  People walked away.  And he didn’t apologize for it.  Of course those who were truly hungry for the truth and for purity stayed and were blessed, but those who were just “checking him out” quickly realized the dire price to pay to follow him simply wasn’t worth it.

Now, I’m not a masochist.  I don’t enjoy enduring pain or criticism or someone telling me that I’m wrong.  But the Bible says that “the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart (Hebrews 4:12). Meaning that the Word of God will offend us, cut us and basically hit us where it hurts as it seeks to put to death the desires of the flesh and make us more pure and righteous so we can embrace the Holy Spirit.

The Bible also states that “Wounds from a friend can be trusted, but an enemy multiplies kisses,” (Proverbs 27:6).  God is merciful and gracious and He gives us what we do not deserve: a new life in Jesus Christ.  Because he loves us,  in his own timing, he will continue to expose our darkest places so that as we experience a greater measure our wretchedness and sin, we experience a greater measure of his goodness all the more.

So I respect Paul Washer and the people who are preaching a message that isn’t popular.  Men who are not trying to draw a crowd but who seek Christ above all else and fervently pray that His Kingdom would come.

It’s convicting to even write this actually.  Makes me think I need to spend some time today in a closet with God getting some things in order.  But that’s what good preaching will do.  It will drive you into a secret place with God.  It will make you realize your utter inability to please God by anything you do in your own strength.  It will not kiss you all over and tell you you’re lovely and that you need not burden yourself with the responsibility of the Kingdom.

If you’re not sure you’re ready to dive into a whole hour with Paul, here’s his testimony.  It’s amazing.  It’s only fifteen minutes long.

Paul was saved in college and ministered as a missionary in Peru for 10 years, during which time he founded the HeartCry Missionary Society to support Peruvian church planters. HeartCry’s work now supports over 100 indigenous missionaries in over 20 countries throughout Eastern Europe, South America, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East.  And like George Mueller, HeartCry has never asked for a penny of support.  They believe that every need of their ministry will be obtained through prayer.  And it has.

But I suggest you jump into a few sessions with Paul every now and then as a means to examine yourself according to the scriptures.  That’s what I’m going to do today.  Especially today, because Japan doesn’t need our sympathy.  The world needs praying, God-believing, followers of Jesus Christ who are ready to show his love and compassion and the glorious truth to anyone in need.

Visit Sermon Audio to view the archive of Paul Washer sermons.