Africa--Nigeria in the morning!

Please keep us in prayer!!!  Flight leaves Friday morning and I'll return Sunday the 25th.  I can't wait to come back and share with you what God has in store for us...  

Specifically, please pray for safety for our team, health, and divine appointments!!  More than anything, we want God's will and agenda in every move we make there and it will be incredible to see the specific purpose and role for each team member unfold on the journey.  I can't even describe how excited I am to go and serve the people of Emure-Ekiti, Nigeria...I just want to love on them.  :)

stay tuned...

Africa & moving forward...

As I write this, Africa is only 5 weeks away...5 weeks and 5 days.  I'm overwhelmed at the the thoughts, the excitement, the planning...the blessing.  We prayed as a group today--there are 10 of us going and it was an AMAZING time where God moved among us...knitting us in unity as a group and moving and speaking to each of us individually.  This is a team that I'm so blessed and honored to be part of...and I can't wait to see what God is going to do in and through each person as we travel to Nigeria for our first trip together.  I'm also so grateful and thankful for the blessing of those that have partnered with me financially and prayerfully to support this work with the Adassa Foundation in Africa.  I'm on my way to raising a third of my support, and believing God for the rest!  I covet your prayers most of all--please be in prayer for continued financial provision for everyone traveling on this trip, peace and comfort for our families while we're gone, protection--both physical and spiritual--for EVERY member of the team and those we are in contact with while we are in Africa, and that the impact of what God will do will spread throughout Emure-Ekiti, to the rest of Nigeria, and the entire continent!  I won't be taking my laptop with me, but I will take a journal that I will "blog" in each day and share it all with you when I return.  We leave January 16th...

God has been dealing with me a lot on "moving" and getting rid of the old, making room for the new...my lease is up in January while I'm in Africa, and as I get ready to pack my things and my apartment up before I leave, this new chapter feels very interesting.  I've moved A LOT since the beginning of my life...you don't even want to know how many times!  When I got my "first house" that I personally had ever owned ready for the market and sold it a few years ago it was probably the most physically demanding move, and the hardest to adjust to mentally.  I didn't get it on the market "in time" based on what everyone was telling me such as, "If you don't sell it this summer you won't sell it--people don't buy in Williamson County in the middle of the school year...it's going to be harder the longer you go and the closer you get to the fall,"  etc, etc.  (My personal favorite was "the face"...you know the one, when someone thinks you should've done something already because of the risk and fear they feel will be there if you didn't, and they do the "Is your house listed yet??  Oh, it isn't? Oooohhh. ___insert cringe face here___) The reason I didn't get it listed quickly is because I was doing repairs myself and continuing to work full time and serve at church.  I remember mowing the grass that entire summer, walking back and forth across the lawn while praying and fighting the fear the enemy would try to bring.  I KNEW my house would sell when the timing was right and prayed for the buyer even then.  God had already been providing in miraculous ways in the midst of bad circumstances and I was still IN my house by HIS grace and provision, so I knew it would sell and I didn't listen to the negative.  Anyway, fast forward to September/October of that year...I have a cousin who is a wonderful agent, and I had prayed so many months that I just knew it would sell.  The "for sale" sign went up one day, the same day we had our first showing, and THAT is the person who bought my house.  Everything was final and sold in 3 days--God DOES move mountains!!  :)  The reason I share that testimony is because I need to remind myself of it all over again as I face another huge change and adventure of the unknown!  (And the question of whether or not to buy a condo next year as I would like to live by myself for the first time... :)  God is the same yesterday, today and forever, so I don't expect anything less than another miraculous testimony.

I'm once again learning something all over again spiritually, and applying it physically as well.  I was reminded of a teaching that a very wise woman did earlier this year on boxes and clutter in our lives.  (watch for the Janna Pastin blog, coming soon. ;)  What I've taken away from the past few weeks is this--unless I get rid of the clutter in my "house"...my mind, heart, spirit...there isn't room for the new things to move in as I'm moving forward.  I'm holding on loosely to my own ideas, my own plans, and things so that God can change them to what HE sees...just as I'm letting go of old furniture, clothing, pictures, and miscellaneous "stuff," I pray to get rid of the old stuff in me as well.  Anything that would cause a block in the path God has for me, I want it gone!  Today's encouragement in the word from the Lord was SO on point...in the midst of all of this upheaval, I feel such peace and calm.  He's got me...he's got you...and that's all that matters.  We don't have to figure it all out on our own, but can just rest in Him and trust!

The completely unscientific, unsubstantiated gas octane experiment

I'm conducting my own little research in relation to my car and gas mileage.  My sister reminds me on a semi-regular basis what a geek I am when it comes to gas prices.  Usually the conversations go something like this:

"I've got to stop and get some gas...oh, here's a station." -Laura, as she pays no attention to what price gas is anywhere.

"I got gas for $___ a gallon in (insert random town) the other day.  If you've got enough in your tank you could make it to (insert station name) and save a few cents a gallon."  -Lisa

"Why do you notice the gas prices everywhere you go??  You're being so Eulas right now." -Laura  (Eulas [sounds like yew-less] is my grandfather & my dad's first name.  My dad does NOT go by this name, he goes by his more normal middle name, but my siblings and I use it at times to refer to particular actions that seem somewhat...ummm, geeky, frugal, and/or odd when it comes to sense of humor. Such as "You pulled a eulas." ;-)

So, I laughed at myself a little bit the other day when I decided to fill my car with premium gas (not "required" for my car) and reset my odometer to calculate the mileage.  I reset it yesterday when I filled up with regular gas.  I'm trying out a theory on octane levels and gas mileage in my car.  It is based on absolutely no fact or research...just to satisfy my own mind.

Come on, gas won't be this cheap forever...I'm just curious if there's a difference.  

(Don't get the wrong idea...I'm not the budgeted penny pincher I should be when it comes to other stuff.  Why I chose the cost of gas per gallon to notice every time I pass a gas station but don't seem to have a problem with the cost of make-up, I don't know. :-)  

Fight of my life...

I decided it is time to finally start a blog to chronicle this journey.  The "fight of my life" isn't as dramatic as it sounds, and yet...

...maybe it is?  There are many who know me who would be surprised to hear it.  What?  Why now?  Didn't you already walk through hell in the fight of your life 5 1/2 years ago?  Yes, I guess I did.  But that was an "obvious" fight that everyone who knew me could see and witness.  When decisions are made for you and the end of a relationship comes in a way you never imagined, it feels like fighting--fighting off the hurt and pain and rejection in a mental, spiritual and emotional battle--just to make it through.  God's redemption and grace were revealed in AMAZING ways during that healing process...and it certainly continues to be in new ways every day as I keep walking with him.  

What I'm walking through now is harder in many ways because it isn't obvious.  I can't pinpoint a specific "thing" or event.  This is the kind of fight where, in order to see more of the plan for your life and watch God move in it, you keep going...keep going...keep serving God...be faithful in what he's already asked you to do...keep in covenant in relationship with him and with a spiritual family...digging in deeper than ever and guarding what he shows you, tells you...  (have you figured out yet that I like to use the "..." a lot??)

This year marked significant change in a lot of ways.  I prayed beginning last year specifically for God to change my heart to what HE wanted for me.  I've had plans, dreams, goals...nothing wrong with any of them, but I wanted to make sure I was really listening instead of just forging ahead with what I thought was best.  (been there.  done that.  have the t-shirt!)  Have you ever just felt like you're in a holding pattern??  Waiting to land but not quite sure where yet?  Sometimes just afraid to make the "wrong" move--is that God showing you something or are you just trying to figure things out on your own and make stuff happen?  Hmm...maybe that's just me and you haven't ever done that?!?  :)  That's what I'm talking about...and it's FAR too easy to let complacency set in when you're not careful to keep going!  I fight it all the time.  I'm determined--absolutely determined--that the grace of God will not allow me to go down in defeat this time.  This is it.  My feet are planted.  By his grace I will make the right steps.  I've reminded myself many times of Galatians 6:9-10, "Let us not grow weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.  Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers."  I have a testimony of just how TRUE that is...plugging in and being faithful in serving, doing what God has already called you to do day in and day out...that is where you find yourself.  You find who he is making you to be.  So many times we're just anxious for the next BIG thing--you know, THE plan--the day where all of a sudden everything is made crystal clear and some exciting huge job, relationship or event comes our way...the flashing neon sign that says "Here's your DESTINY, Girl...GO for it! (or insert "Champ!" if you're a guy)...but if we're not even following through with what God has already asked us to do then why do we expect more?  I would think that my neon sign isn't going to be there if I'm sitting around already in defiance of what God has asked me to do.  I mean, I'm no expert or theologian but I think that's pretty safe to assume.   

So, that's still where I am at the moment, but it's great.  I guess that is why I called this blog  "under construction."  I was creating it and just named it that temporarily (meaning that I didn't have a banner or design yet--I was constructing it) but the thought kind of stuck.  I am a work in progress, and I never want to be closed to new directions and INTERRUPTIONS.  Ps. Steve Murrell spoke this morning of God's right to interrupt our lives.  I'm so glad for my interruptions.  (I've had many of them because I'm a detailed kind of person and in the past I've always liked to plan and know where I'm going way in advance.  Ha! :)  My current interruption in the plan for '09 is that I'm taking a huge step toward something that I don't even fully understand the whys and hows and impact of...Africa is SIX WEEKS away.  I'm a woman who never thought my life would have much to do with foreign mission work.  Maybe it won't be long term, God hasn't revealed that yet, but I'm just amazed as I watch the doors open for this single opportunity that it is happening.  Because it is so "random" in the natural but very purposeful in the spiritual, there isn't any other explanation than, "but God!"  

I knew I was excited about turning 30 this year...and I've felt that something big is around the corner.  I'd say Africa is pretty big.  I don't know WHERE I would be without his grace.  Like one of my favorite worship songs says, it is "Grace that restores, grace that redeems, grace that releases me to worship...grace that repairs visions and dreams, grace that releases miracles, Your grace."  (by Israel Houghton and Aaron Lindsey)

If you're still reading, every post won't be this long.  Stay tuned.