learning to end lifes journeys with a comma...

i see things with such limited vision.  

a year ago december, God wrote a book with my hand.  

i know your thinking "oh what a cheesy thing to say!" but, i really mean it.  

i am not a writer, nor do i aspire to be.

but 13 months ago on a two week trip to kenya, 

God wrote an entire 150 page book, i just watched on the front row.

yep, all of it in two weeks.  i couldn't claim it if i wanted... all Him.

quickly after returning home we boarded a plane to go get our girls 

and bring them home from Brazil, so it sat in a notebook.

after we returned home 6 weeks later, life got crazy... adjustment to 7 kids in the house

has a way of becoming necessity... so everything else stopped!

 

eventually the book came up over tea with a friend.

so she joined in to help with where God would have us take it.  

so today in God's perfect timing it was time to finalize the editing process,

chapters 30-36 were to be edited, so the project could be completed and we could

journey to the next phase.

but instead of editing the ending of a story, God rewrote it with the truth of the journey.

i chuckled out loud as God showed me the stupidity of my ways.

i had ended the book with my own words, closed it with finality,

but that is not at all where He was headed.  

i like closure, i try to handle everything with a period.  i want to see the end.

know the fruit of the labor, and that is not what He intended..

He intended for us to learn as we endure, to grow in understanding of who He is as we live, 

for each adventure to be a continuation of growth and surrender to His will.

today sick with a cold and heartbroken over a young ukrainian that now has returned home:

i thought God and i were editing the ending of a book,
but that's not at all what we were doing.

instead God allowed me to sit and watch as He continues His story...
not with a period but with commas.  

to see the open ended way each journey has everything to do with the next. 

i am absolutely convinced that our obedience today

has everything to do with our storyline tomorrow!

i shutter to think of all the story lines i missed because of my

 determination to put a period, how about you?

Is it really 2014?

i have been absent from blogger world for a really long time...

but not absent from Kingdom work... we have been on the go!

Our December was full, just like yours.

Scott and a group of guys from our small group returned the beginning of December 

from a construction trip to Haiti...

we moved into our office space (we had some work to do :) 

our new location is at 919 Willowbrook drive, suite b.

Yulia arrived from the Ukraine... for the Christmas holiday.

we had the MOST amazing

Love One Christmas Day at Manna House!

check out the video at www.forlifeministries.org

we made so much food and then went delivering while we 

sang Christmas songs...

we enjoyed friends and friendships....

we had amazing discussions and devotions about Jesus;

we had sweet prayer times and truthful Q and A's. 

although crazy and chaotic... i wouldn't change any piece of it!

God is good all the time!  He is present at all times!

And even in the chaos, He alone brings calm!

Our surrender to the call to care for orphans has absolutely changed how we do life,

 but can i tell you it has also changed our hearts!

the ability to give more, love more, invest more...

that is a gift from God!

with a new year, always comes new beginnings...

as you ponder what that means for you in your neck of the woods...

i wonder if you would courageously ask the question:

what is it that God is asking me to surrender to this new 2014 season?

with great blessings, come great responsibilities...

and we are a blessed people!

For us 2014 brings us to season full of Kingdom building... 

a surrender of our time for a higher purpose!

how about you?