Wednesday, June 17, 2015

Little Girl Dreams

When I was a little girl, I dreamed of being a missionary doctor to the deep, dark jungles of Africa.  I remember going to church and learning about the “glamorous” life of missionaries all over the world.  I got to taste foreign foods from faraway lands.  I distinctly recall the first time I had kiwi J  How was I to know as a 5 year old (or however old I was) that I could get the fruit at the local grocery store?!  I pictured myself traveling by boat on a crocodile-invested river to some remote village, eating juicy kiwi with the dark-skinned people in the tribe.

As I grew up, I felt God calling me to become NOT a missionary doctor but a teacher. I still longed to work with children who were underprivileged and did NOT have access to the plethora of goodies here in the United States.  I actually wanted nothing to do with the United States.  The materialism sickened me.  The sense of entitlement made me nauseous.  The abundance of resources infuriated me.  We had so much and yet so many all over the world were starving, dying.  Children were abandoned, neglected.  And I wanted to love them.  To give them hope and joy.  To show them God had a purpose for them.

During my 4 years in college, I lived in Chicago.  Being in the inner city softened my heart, and I began to see that children (and families) right here in the United States were facing difficulties they couldn’t overcome.  Not on their own.  My heart was being pulled to work in the inner city, teaching those who others had given up on and left behind.  I wanted to reach down and pick these precious boys and girls out of the cracks and love on them.  To assure them they too were amazing and beautiful and smart and capable and skilled and talented and full of potential.

However, I couldn’t shake the desire to serve overseas.  When I graduated in 2005, I was almost fully funded for a 2 year term in Haiti.  I would be working with Kids Alive International, helping write curriculum and train the teachers at the school set up for the boys and girls in the Children’s Homes.  I was eager to make a difference.  I was also naïve.  I seriously thought I would be able to change the entire school system in such a short time.  Very soon, though, I realized how LONG that process would take.  I did my best to simply love on the boys and girls in the homes, teaching them how to THINK and how to live life to the full.  When I left, my heart was broken.  I hadn’t witnessed the change I so desperately longed to see.  But, I know in the depths of my soul, I DID make a difference while I was there those 2 years.

Lawrence and I went back to Haiti to visit in 2010 – shortly after the massive earthquake that ravaged Port-au-Prince.  We were asked to take over for the directors who were retiring.  We would be in charge of the school, a perfect fit given our education background and experience as teachers here in the US.  We did not, however, feel a peace about this decision.  We DID feel God pulling at our hearts to do something though.  So we became foster parents and opened our home and hearts for 2 years.

At the end of those 2 years, we felt God release us from that ministry and move us on to something new – being present in our community.  We have opened our home to the school kids, hosting a Bible study every Sunday night.  We invite these kiddos and students from Lawrence’s school to Ponca every year.  We KNOW this is what God has called us to do, for now. 

We also sense that He is asking us to be open and available for MORE, for something NEW.  When Mark and Christy Sharp invited us to go with them to Ethiopia, my heart leapt for joy.  I immediately said yes and would have started packing my bags that night.  Lawrence needed a little bit more time to get used to the idea, but is definitely ready now (he better be since we leave on Sunday).  Going to Africa for the first time is a HUGE dream come true!  I may not be going as a doctor, or traveling to any deep, dark jungles (that I know of).  Instead, I am going as a wife and mother, a former teacher, a wrap girl. 

I am not worried about the poverty I will see in Ethiopia.  I lived in the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere for 2 years.  I have seen poverty at its worst.  No, the hard part is going to be visiting the orphanages and seeing so many beautiful boys and girls who don’t have a family, no one to call their own.  And my heart is going to split into thousands of pieces.  I am going to want to bring them ALL home with us.  I am crying as I type, just thinking about their eyes looking back at me…

My prayer is to be able to start the adoption process this fall.  I realize it can take up to 2-3 years, or more, to actually bring the child home and for everything to be finalized.  I have already started praying for my brown-skinned kiddos.  Yep, kiddos.  Plural.  Our prayer is to adopt TWO.  We have room in our house, and we have room in our hearts. 

Do you realize that if every Christian family would adopt ONE child, there would be NO more orphans?  NONE.

God has adopted us into His family.  Sending His one and only Son to die in our place on the cross.  He has forgiven us our sins and made us clean, pure, whole.  He has invited us into His presence.  He has promised us an inheritance that will NEVER perish.  He has loved us when we didn’t deserve it.  He has looked past our dirt and boogers.  He has reached down and taken us out of poverty, placing us in His marvelous light and calling us His own.  We are sons and daughters of the KING!  And that is beautiful.

If God has done that for me, should I not also be willing to do the same for others? 

But here’s the deal.  Going on an overseas missions trip is NOT cheap.  Nor is adopting a child.  Let alone TWO.  Granted, those may not be the dreams you have.  God may be working in your heart to do something entirely different.  And that is OKAY.  In fact, it is GOOD.  He has given us each specific talents and abilities and interests.  Only as we each become the people God has created us to be can we carry out His overarching plan.  And an amazing, outstanding, incredible plan it is.  Really not enough adjectives in the world to describe it….

Whatever your dream or passion, there is a cost.  And so sometimes – far too many times if we are honest - we let a price tag keep us from living out our dreams, from pursuing the passions God has placed on our hearts.  We get caught up in paying bills, feeding the family, keeping up with the Jones’s.  We get distracted.  Discouraged.  Defeated.  We abandon our dreams and our passions fizzle out. 

And that enrages me.  I want to punch Satan in the face so badly.  I want to kick him in the gut.  I want to lock him up and throw away the key.  All that is coming – in due time.  BUT, for now, the enemy is unleashed and wreaking havoc all over the world.  He convinces us to settle.  He whispers in our ear and LIES to us and DECEIVES us and gets us to believe him.  We start to think our dreams are unattainable, crazy, silly, far-fetched, impossible. So we don’t even try!

Too many of us live mediocre lives.  Without even realizing it.

Satan is good.  He has blinded us. 
We are like those proverbial frogs in the hot water.  He has slowly turned up the heat and before long we are going to croak…

I for one do NOT want to end up as frog legs on Satan’s dinner plate.  So, I am jumping out of the water.  I am RUNNING in the opposite direct.  I am learning to be the EAGLE God created me to be, soaring to new heights.

Hence, Lawrence and I are going to Ethiopia while I am 20 weeks pregnant.  We could have let the baby be an “excuse.”  It’s not safe for me to travel.  I am sick nearly every day.  We have 3 young children – what if something happens to us?  I could go on and on about why we possibly shouldn’t go.  But, I can show you picture after picture after picture after picture of precious boys and girls in the orphanages we will visit.  You tell them we aren’t coming.  You do it. I can’t.

Yes, there was a price tag for this trip.  It was NOT free.  $6,000 didn’t just fall in our laps.  Granted, GOD did provide.  And of course He did it in a way I never would have imagined.  EVER.  Not once growing up as I dreamed of going to Africa, did I consider God would use a wrap and greens (and other natural health products) to get me there.  But He has.

I also truly believe He will use those same means to provide us with the $50,000 to $60,000 we need to bring home our African babies (children).  Liberty schools are amazing, but no way they are going to foot that bill.  Lawrence isn’t getting that big of a raise any time in the near future – or ever – no matter how hard he works and how amazing he is with the students in his classroom.  Daycare wasn’t going to cut it either.  But this It Works gig – now THAT can do it.  It IS doing it. 

Hence, I post and talk about wraps and greens all the time.  Not only have they changed my life personally, but they are making it possible for me to live out my childhood dreams.  I am going to Africa THIS week!

So, please don’t tell me It Works is a scam or that people don’t really make money with the business or whatever else.  I won’t listen.  I will board a plane to Ethiopia. 

What are YOUR dreams?  YOUR passions?
What is keeping you from them?

If you are really honest the answer is NOT money.  Or time.  Or whatever else you can come up with to tell me.  This might hurt a bit.  Be ready for the sting.  I say this in LOVE.  The biggest (and probably only TRUE) obstacle to your dreams coming true is YOU…

You have watched me for 2.5 years now.  I think that is long enough to realize I am serious about this – it wasn’t a fling.  I think that is long enough to realize it has helped our family and changed our lives.  I think that is long enough for you to see the products really do make a difference in people’s lives.  I think that is long enough for you to WATCH me.  It’s time for you to JOIN me. 

            Again, I don’t know what your dreams are or what specific passions are on your heart.  But I do KNOW with all my heart that It Works can take care of the price tag part.  This business can allow you the financial freedom to do all those things you want to do but can’t – for whatever reasons you want to give me.

            Please don’t miss out on something huge and incredible and mind-blowing.  Please don’t let this blessing pass over you because it’s different or not what you expected or something you wouldn’t have imagined.  THAT would be a shame…

            Well, I think I have about poured my heart out now.  I better go do some laundry and think about actually PACKING.  I do leave for Ethiopia in about 80 hours…


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