Missions: His Caring Place

One month ago I moved into a home for young women who are pregnant but do not have the support and resources to care for themselves and their children. I serve as an RA and when I say that people ask "what does that entail?" Well the house I live in is more of a discipleship house, the girls are not required to be Christians, but the house is run by a Christian organization and all of the staff are Christians. My "work" is every other weekend all day, but we are truly "always on". When I interviewed they made this seem like such a daunting task, but the Words God has spoken to me in this last month give me peace and rest in this. He says be ready in season and out of season, basically everyone of us is "ALWAYS ON", but sometimes we forget who our audience is. See if I was trying to please my boss or the girls I now live with this new task would be overwhelming. Never being off would be stressful, but the truth is for the last 15 years of my life I have been living to LOVE JESUS. This love spills over as actions, but I don't walk around worried about what someone else may think of me. The only question I ever have to ask is "Is this an expression of Love to my Lord and savior?" Now this may still seem overwhelming to think that we are always on, but if we draw our strength from God our helper and we take on the the yoke that Jesus refers to in Matthew 11 then we begin to live in the freedom of grace and provision instead of working to please. Think LOVE, what does it look like, we love because he first loved us. His love is perfect, he does not want you to follow a list of rules, he wants you to live to LOVE him. When we recognize this we no longer have to change how we live depending on the circumstance we find ourselves. If we continue to focus on our first true love, JESUS Christ, we will be provided all we need in the circumstance. 

I think the more we are in the same "mission field" and circumstances do not follow our dreams or our plans we allow our fire to diminish and start to think "where is God leading me NEXT?" Here. Thats where he is leading you. Where is that? Where you are and the next step you will take. Look around for those that you can love and never stop. Jesus led you there because he is pursuing those around you through you. He has chosen to use YOU, but love is long suffering. It does not stop when you get frustrated or when those around you do not receive it. You must love those that Jesus loves (which is everyone) sacrificially. One song that brought me into this job and God has used to prepare me for what it will take is Hillsong United "Love is War." The writers were speaking about where the lyrics came from and he said that it is about us surrendering our life, our desires, our pride for the LOVE of Christ knowing that he has triumphed. The love of Christ is saying not my will but Yours. I knew coming into this job that the girls were not going to thank me everyday for being the RA, for making them follow the rules, do their chores, or even help them with something. They expect it, it is my job. But what they do not expect because they do not understand is that I will tell them and show them that I love them no matter what they say or how they act out. Not because I am a good person, or because they are just perfect angels, but because Jesus is pursuing them. Jesus will never stop loving them, so I commit to never stop loving them from the overflow of love He has given me. So what does this look like for you? It is not your future. It is your present. Yes God has greater things to come, but he wants us to be faithful in the things he has for us now. If you see him working in the now you will continue the good work. It does not show up all the sudden. Faith is built by God being faithful, but you can not see his faithfulness if you do not step out of the comfort of the predictable. 

I left for college almost 6 years ago with faith that God had called me to Florida, however I will admit that I had not been living in faith much before that. I mean yes I had accepted Christ by faith, but my life day by day was not lived in faith. I loved Jesus, but I had not spent the time investing in his faithfulness, so when I got here I began to questioned if I had made the correct decision. I allowed the doubt from the Devil to shut me in, convincing me that I was not in the right place and since I had come to the wrong place I could not be used. I am so glad that I had parents and a church growing up that mentored me in the Word. I turned there, not to a church or a friend, I turned to the Bible, God's promises in my life. I read and immersed myself in it and began to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit. Yes it was hard, but in the previous years he had been preparing me for it, it was his plan and he had led me there. He built my faith through His Word even though I did not have the support system I so earnestly desired. He had to pull me out of the comfort of my family, church, and friends for me to realize that I was not in reliance on him. I was merely living off the faith of others. Now their faith and seeing what He had brought others through did allow me to know that He was real, but by calling me out to a truly personal relationship he began to build my faith in Him. That faith has grown slowly over the last 5 years, but has much maturing to do. I hear him as He leads and the fact that I don't know exactly where He is leading next provides no anxiety for me because I KNOW he will lead. It frees me to live intentional about where I am now instead of having to split my attention between the present and future. I also see how my past has led to my present so I know that what I am encountering now, both good and bad, my struggles, my hurts, my joys, are all part of his plan. Not just for my life, but more importantly to Glorify HIS name. 

So in response to "What are you doing here?" I would say Loving Jesus, Glorifying the Father, and Loving those He has called me to. "What does that look like?" Well it is leaving daily at 6:15 (when I use to wake up at 7:30) to go to class and showing them that a woman of God is not just a pastor's wife. A woman of God can be a student. It is coming home dead tired but sacrificing my time to eat dinner with them, sit in on a Bible study, help them with home work, mentor them through a situation in their life, or just talk. It is trusting that God called me to do this work and that he will provide the time and the energy to pass my classes as well as invest in their lives. It is giving up studying, being lazy, going to the beach, or whatever else every other weekend to be "on the job." Most importantly it is not forgetting my first love, because without the desire to know my savior, his love, and all the other characteristics of Him I will never be able to accomplish any of the above task. Operating in my weakness and His strength is the only possible answer to this job, not only at His Caring Place, but as a Christian in general. So where do you feel weak? Embrace it and ask God to work right there so that you can experience His characteristic of faithfulness.

Live Foolishly, 

Rachel Woodson  

Power to Love

I get the opportunity every Friday to volunteer alongside the High School ministry with a governmental housing neighborhood called Golden Acres (GA). I am going to be real honest... it is a dark place. It is the hardest thing I have EVER done emotionally. The very first time I went there was a child, about 8-years old, holding a flyer with a naked girl on it and "touching" her. I got so frazzled, I took it from him ripped it and stuck it in my pocket to throw away later. When I got home and took it out of my pocket to throw away I started to cry. Why would an 8-year old boy even have the ability to see these things? Why are the parents allowing him to experience this? Why, Why, Why... I started to get really angry at these parents, guardians, older guys that are influencing him to be like this. And then God just spoke into my spirit reminding me that those men, where once this boy. They were the boys being encouraged to view and touch girls in this way, they were the boys that were laughed at if they hugged someone, they were the boys that were told "your no good", "you are going to end up like everyone else, you can't get out." They were the boys that were written off by society and they were the boys that the church was too scared to go into their neighborhood and bring Jesus with them.

You see every time we step into the neighborhood we bring the Power of Jesus Christ with us. Today one of my friends shared from Colossians 1:29 with all the volunteers before we left for GA. It says "To this end I also labor, striving according to His (Jesus) working which works in me mightly" and then he was just explaining how although we are a small group going into a big neighborhood, there is a BIG JESUS working through us. It seems so hopeless sometimes, and it seems like we are doing so little, and I know sometimes we feel like it is going all wrong. But here is what I know, every week there are about 10 kids that coming RUNNING to our cars when we get there and another 10-20 that come out to play with us. I know that for the next 2-3 hours those kids get hugs and thrown in the air, and jump rope, and play basketball, and they are loved by everyone there. And with our hearts humbled knowing we are not going to change those kids or that neighborhood we go as we are called and pray that Jesus will SHINE and overtake that neighborhood. We pray for the kids, we invite the teens to church, and we try to engage in conversations with the parents. But we can't do it. The 10-15 of us that go (even if there were a 1,000 of us) don't have the ability to change it, but we have began to see the fruits of our co-labor with Christ. From last I heard 3 of the HS students have accepted Christ in the last few months.

It is sometimes hard watching from the outside, knowing that these kids don't need to head the way they are heading, but it is an opportunity to see Christ. I see the volunteers (HSers and leaders alike) getting frustrated that it's not running smoothly and I think of Jesus and his birth. Probably not what Mary would consider "smooth". I see the kids fighting each other, or whining about not getting a second cookie, or not getting the ball enough, or not getting a piggyback ride. When I step back I see Jesus looking at Christians fighting or whining about God not obeying their will. I see these kids following bad examples, taking the wrong road, and I get frustrated that I can just change their direction. I see Jesus watching me walk away from him. Over and over and over again. And yet whether it is how he came to redeem you and I, watching us fight and whine, or watching us walk away in either ignorance or disobedience with love he looks at His father, our father and says "I died for that. Forgive them for they know not what they have done" And so all I pray is that I can love these kids unconditionally, even when they are kicking me, cursing at me, whining, or talking while we try to do small group and that Jesus will change the hearts of this neighborhood. And because He is sovereign and He loves me I will have faith that with a humbled heart He will work powerfully through me and those I serve with.

Galatians 6:9 "Let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart."
Colossians 3:14-15"But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection. and let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called to one body; and be thankful"

Missions Uganda... Lessons Learned

When you come back from a mission trip everyone wants to know "How was it?" But this question has so many layers to it. Some people want to hear "It was (awesome, good, ok, bad, scary, sketchy)" (By the way it was amazingly incredibly awesome), while others want to sit down and hear stories for 2-3 hours. Many of the people in my life get a little weirded out by the "it was cool to see God...", they think the idea of a service trip is cool, but they don't really understand the objective of a mission trip. So one thing I have had the opportunity to do is give glory to God for the opportunity and everything going well (not always as planned, but well), and this has led to some good (and other awkward) conversations of what God was able to accomplish that I obviously was not. So this is just a collection of lessons I learned, it will probably be long, but it will not have the complete stories since I have already told most of them in one of my previous blog post. 

1) God loves to change plans. 
While I saw this one for me it was more clearly seen through my dad who went to Uganda with me. When planning for this mission trip at one point everyone had dropped out and it was just me still committed to going over the Christmas break in December. (My thoughts on this one are in my post Uganda?) I did not know exactly what to do, but I felt that God was still calling me to go. I talked to my mom about it and she did not think it was a good decision and thought I should just wait, but I really felt God was asking me to trust that he would provide protection and provision for the trip. So I respectfully told my mother that she needed to pray about it. A father/daughter team soon committed to going as well, but my parents did start praying about it and asking their community group for prayer. The answer they got was not to prevent me from going, but rather for one of them to join me. Since the other pair was a father/daughter team my parents decided it should be my dad. So three days before we booked our tickets my dad joined our team. 

The Lesson: I think it was so cool to see how my dad having no idea what to expect or what was expected of him and having no expectations of the trip was continually in learning mode. Learning from God, from the missionaries, from the nationals he worked with, from the others on our team, and from the kids in the orphanage. When we got there they asked each of us "what are your expectations?" My dads response was just "I came in my mind by default, but I know this is God's answer to our prayer so we will see why He brought me here." I know some of the things my dad learned and felt led to do because of our trip, I pray that as we become more and more entrenched in the American culture that he will have the drive because of what he learned on this trip to change the way he lives and in the process change the world for one more person. 

2) A. God hates guilt.
I am one of those people that try really hard to not make excuses for what happens. I try to take the blame and just say it was ill preparation on my part or what ever may be the case. In the two weeks leading up to leaving for Uganda I had spent about a total of an hour in the Word because I was so obsessed with finals. But the truth is I spent more time on Facebook, instagram, and pinterest and could have easily dedicated that time to biblically preparing for the trip to Uganda. But I didn't. When I finally got to the airport and had time to breath I began to feel guilty, to feel like I had failed in this aspect to question if I should really be going if I was not even willing to take time to dig into the Word which is so important in preparation for a MISSION trip. Well nothing I could do about it now, and I would just have to deal with the fact that God would not be as present on this trip for me because of the decisions I had made. After a total freak out when they announced that the plane had been cancelled and wondering if I had created this opportunity on my own the peace that came knowing in my heart that God was not in the same freak out mode allowed me to sense his presence before I ever took off. When they announced that we were going to board and I realized that everything was going to work out I felt Him telling me that this was not my great idea. He has had this plan for my life and although He revealed it to me in middle school He is still going to be ahead and beside me during every step in this adventure. I don't have to follow a set of rules or a road map to the destination, I just have to walk as He leads me and trust that He will carry me when I fail. The fact is I did not prepare for this mission trip the same way I did for Haiti, but the fact is that my God is the same God here when I am stressed for finals, in Haiti when I have taken a month to focus on being as intimate as I could with Him, and in Uganda where I realized that I need to stop giving myself so much credit for the things that go right so that I will stop giving myself so much credit when things do not go so "right". I just need to allow God to have the credit and remember His faithfulness in the past so I can count on his faithfulness in the future. 

 B. Be careful what you pray for. 
I touched on this one a little in my post "take off?" but for the last year or so I have been praying that God would give me opportunities where I would Have to trust in Him. There have been multiple opportunities over the last year, but the airplane issue was probably the biggest, or at least most obvious test of this I had. Serving in third world countries you see this dependence all the time. It's not like here in America where we think of dependence as those on welfare. I am talking about dependence where you and your child have not eaten for days and you know the only way you are going to get food is if God provides. Realistically that will likely never happen for me. The family I was born into and the path I took in my life makes the access of basic necessities readily available. Watching the different scenarios where God is asking me "Do you trust me?" is hard and yet a blessing to know that he desires to answer my prayers and to allow me to grow my relationship with him through these events. 

I thank God now for the incident with my first plane. When they announced we would be boarding it (the second time) I was overwhelmed realizing that not only was he answering two prayers, but that He was in control of this trip. I also realized that I needed to enjoy the trip and how He would use me, instead of focusing on my personal failures of preparation. 

3) God has got this (And He keeps his promises)
Back ground: Those of you that have known me for more than 2 years know how badly I did not want to go to grad school. I always joke (well not really a joke) that God knew me too well to allow me to go to grad school AFTER I finished my bachelors degree. There is no way I would currently be in grad school (or America) if God had not strategically planned the 6 years after high school. If it were not for my volleyball scholarship I would have taken a year off between high school and college to do a mission experience, and probably would have never come back. Then I was excepted into the dual admit program for physical therapy so my senior year of undergraduate was my first year of graduate school. Once I had one year done I figured I should just finish. But everyone knew that I was seriously contemplating postponing it a couple years or just dropping out, but when I really took the time to ask God for direction he made it clear that this was his plan and I had been given abilities and opportunities no one else had and I just needed to continue.  I did, but was not any too excited about it. When finals came around I was always saying that I was cool with failing out, that I would just go do PATMOS the next semester and then head to the mission field. But God made school quite easy for me and also made me stubbornly driven to not fail, so I passed. I began to feel like God was asking me to go on mission trips to prepare to be a missionary and one of my youth pastors suggested Mission of Hope Haiti. It was cool, but while I was there I got to see how God could use me as a PT there and basically told me to quit complaining about an opportunity that others fight so hard for but can not achieve.  

The Lesson: While I was in Uganda the next step on the "plan" was laid out right before my eyes. Most of you know that God "promised" me an orphanage while I was in seventh grade. While in college he "added" special needs orphanage to that. And this year I got to see an orphanage that loves and takes special care of EVERY child included those with special needs. The care is wonderful physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. I also got to meet an experienced missionary (raised an MK) that works with special needs children and the communities they live in to provide education, care, and love to these kids. (Her name is Julie Propts and you can access her blog by clicking on her name) It was cool to see a picture of how God may use me in the future to bring His light through the life of these awesome kids. I know that my journey will not look just like hers, but just to see how God is using those educated to work with these kids to bring the Truth of who Christ is and also to bring the reality of these diagnosis from being "witch-craft" to being a trial of a child that is beautifully and wonderfully made in the image of Christ. I don't know the why to everything right now, but I live in constant excitement to see how God is using every past experience in my present experience and the present experiences are setting up future experiences. God has a great track record in my life, so I continue to pray that He will show me how to walk directly behind him in excitement for the path we are on. 


Now you get to see all the photos

My dad with Matthew (I think) when we took all the special needs kids swimming. It was a very fun, but very cold day. So good to hear the kids laughing, squealing, and splashing. Special treat for them as well. 

This is Joseph with Tom. I know Tom does not look like he is having much fun, but trust me by the time Joseph finished with him he was enjoying it. Joseph is an occupational therapist and single handedly got every child that did not want to swim into the water. It was awesome to see. 

Julie (the special needs teacher) with praise who initially would not get anywhere close to the water until Joseph pulled her in. Then she would cry any time she was not in the water :) 

Picture of the source of the Nile

Sarah, Tom, and praise doing the see-saw. Praise did not know what to think of it at first and ended up loving it.

Betty and I. this girl seriously has the best smile I have ever seen

My dad cover in Toddlers. Again

We decided to make a Ugandan Style traffic jam on the toddler slide.... then a bunch of them started to cry and one got buried. 

This is Gloria. She and I got really close and I started to cry as I said bye to her and seriously miss her a lot. She just was so sweet and yet a little crazy. She got a part of my heart for sure

THE VILLAGE

Coffee beans drying out before being sold

Coming back from getting water

The village

 

The girl in the middle is Claudia. She showed me around the family house and took lots of pics with me. This is her with 8 of 13 siblings. Their dad works for one of the missionaries at GSF

The next four are taken in the village church... Light of the World church

This is Iesha and Niema. They are sisters but followed me the entire time we were in the village. Absolutely gorgeous. 

Village KIDS!!!

BACK at GSF

Bubbles with Sadie and Betty

4 Monkeys

Seriously... she is beautiful

Like I said... Always covered in toddlers

Village home

This is a jack fruit. It was not ripe, but supposedly it taste like juicy fruit. 

Sunset

Mimi is one of the missionary kids that ended up with me for much of the week (don't worry I was completely alright with it) This day we just were walking and I stopped at the girls house to say hi and Mimi (4 years old) decided she wanted to wash clothes. But they were so cute. This is her and Gayla. 

Mimi and Sadie post washing

Gloria and I on Christmas eve. She is so sweet!!!

Ok I know it is another picture of Gloria... I might be slightly biased. But seriously can you look at her plate of food. And every one of them eat that much. 

This is Sam. He is precious, sweet, smart, and all boy. He was born with spina bifida and so does not have the use of his legs. But let me tell you he is AWESOME and always so happy. 

Brothers. They taught the one on the right "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth"

Gayla. Beautiful smile, dress, personality. I loved this girl and her heart to help. Pushing the kids that needed wheelchairs was hard because of the terrain but you could always find her either pushing or right along side helping get the wheelchairs over rocks or what ever else was in the way. So sweet!

Esther!! This girl is basically the bomb. If you want to have a smile on your face every day you should get to know this girl. She has severe wounds on her hands and feet so she can not walk on them... but do not start feeling sorry for her. She gets on her knees and can keep up with the rest of them. Every time I saw her she would RUN (on her knees) over to me and give me the biggest hug. Not going to lie I went to the house she lived at more often so I could get these hugs. 

Yeah I am in love

Lilly. This girl is awesome. She loves hugs. And every time you she her she will ask "Do you know Lilly?" So sticking sweet

Gayla and Ester playing with the drums we made

 

This is what we flew back across the ocean. Yes that is a double decker plane with about 800 people on it

Live Foolishly, 

Rachel Woodson