A call to love

I know I left everyone wondering about our big news.  A week of 600+ kids at VBS put everything else on hold for the past 10 days.  But we do indeed have exciting news around our house!  As I posted a few weeks ago, in the matter of a few days, three different opportunities came to Pete and I for us to host children.  One of the situations came our way via our school newsletter which shared that the school was looking for a host family for a Chinese student.  Call me crazy, but I felt that little newsletter column was written just to Pete and I.  This was the third of the three situations - the other two were personal phone calls requesting us to host specific children under very different circumstances.  I think the other two calls were God's way of opening my eyes to the fact that we could indeed welcome another child into our house.  

This weekend we were able to Skype with the family.  Both families were so excited to have
time to talk through everything from big questions like bank accounts, and medical insurance to smaller matters such as favorite colors and foods.  Our girls both felt less nervous about this new "sister"  after seeing her beautiful smile and hearing her happy laughter.  Hopefully she felt the same way.

This is a unique exchange situation in that her parents want her to come to the US for all four years of high school.  I have to laugh at this because the first hosting call we got was for a 6 week program.  The second was for a 8 month situation.  The third - yep, four years.  God is hilarious isn't He?  School officials have agreed with us that we will commit to hosting one year at a time, but we are all going into the situation understanding that the parents hope for her to be with us for four years.

While our family's big call this summer has been to open our home to this student, I have been amazed at some conversations I have had since my last posting.  God is making big calls all over the place.  A couple of friends have agreed to share their big call here on the blog, and I will be posting them in the coming week.  What amazes me about all of these calls is a singular common thread - love.  Love.  Every call to every person I have spoken to, boils down to the simple act of loving others.

“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” - Matthew 22:36-40 

So that is our big call, to love this girl as we love ourselves. Who is God calling you to love these days?  I would love to share your story here in the coming weeks.  

So what's your big call?

My last blog post ignited a flurry of phone calls and texts from friends. "What's your big call?" People had some pretty comical ideas.  I also had a wonderful email from a dear sister in Christ, Katie.
 Her message began:

Your blog hit close to home today (well - as usual) - but I have to tell you about what God did when I ran away in February.  I had plans just like you - and, also like you, God showed up!  and I am thrilled to tell you that the Lord has called us to the very messy, scary, risky, crazy business of ADOPTION!  

People, seriously, be very careful about wishing to run away.   God will show up!  Well Katie had hit the nail on the head, or at least pretty close.  The call I received was about hosting a Ukrainian orphan for the summer.  My friend Michele and her family had decided to host a teenage girl and there was one other girl that didn't have a host family - would we do it?  Meanwhile Michele's husband and Pete were talking, and Pete sent me a text saying.

I'm open to being a host.  

Okay, so you see how this was the end of the peaceful portion of my weekend?  Adoption has long been a topic in our house, and close to our hearts. Pete was adopted.  Emily thinks we need to "get a baby."  I have felt for years that there are supposed to be more children in our home - but how, I'm not sure.  While Pete and I started talking with the group running the hosting program, another call and an email came to us in the next three days.  Both of them, very different situations, were about bringing children into our home.  We were very open with our girls about these situations, and together as a family were praying for clarity.  As usual, our big picture clarity came through one of them.

Sarah said, " You know, we're a really good family."  

She's right.  We are a really good family.  So that was my big answer to the several opportunities that had come our way.  We are a good family, we can share the love of Christ, and we have an extra bedroom.  Next came the question of how to know what to do about each of these three situations.  The first opportunity, hosting the girl from the Ukraine, needed to be dealt with first, as we had only a few days to make a decision.  As we learned more about the program, its requirements and expectations, it became clear that we were not the family to host her. This is a program geared toward families with one parent at home, which is completely understandable.  Our role in this situation is going to be Aaron and Hur to my friend Michele and her family as they host this summer.  ( Exodus 17:12)  One of the two other opportunities we are pursuing and I will write about that more later.  

As I have spent the last two weeks praying through these opportunities.  The Lord has been so gracious in speaking to me through His word.  One of the scriptures is: 

"Be strong all you people of the land.  This is the Lord's declaration. 'Work! For I am with you.'"  

Haggai 2:4.  

This was written in regards to the rebuilding of the temple.  People were busy making their own homes lovely while the temple lay in ruins.  The Lord told them, "WORK!"  Often the work the Lord calls us to is, as Katie described it, very messy, scary, risky, crazy business .  It is inconveniencing and hard.  It is work.  And the Lord doesn't mince words about it, it's going to take away from the time, money, and energy we may be planning on using to make our own homes lovely.  This is not the plan for some people, it's God's plan for all His people.    We have to WORK!  There are orphans to love, hungry to feed, lost to find.  There are immeasurable needs in our fallen world, and each of us is called to address part of it.   

So while I appreciate your texts and calls wondering what my big call was, I give the question back to you my friends.  So what's your big call?    I would love to be praying for you and your family as you wade into the work the Lord has called you to.  

Just in case you were thinking of running away

Never fear, I did return from my Run Away Momma trip last week.  I had a wonderful two days.  I ate at restaurants of my own choosing.  I spent a really long time in an art museum.  I found this garden and wiled away an entire morning sketching.  Alone.  Alone.  Blissfully Alone.

I listened to this book and thought complete thoughts without interruption of work, little girls, or regular life.  Alone.

I spent several hours praying through three specific opportunities/ideas I had for this summer. I made a lovely chart of the pros and cons of these ideas and wrote out scripture ... yes scripture.. to support them.  Alone.  

And about three seconds after I took this photo, documenting my lovely peaceful morning ... it was so peaceful.. my cell phone rang ... it was God calling to thank me for the large amounts of humor I was providing Him with my cute little chart.  He barged right into the prayer time I was having Alone. God liked my chart for its humor purposes, but if my life was a bad Sunday School cartoon, my journal would have blown up into a little cloud of smoke and God's voice would have been heard from the cloud saying, 

"Wendy, Wendy, your chart is stupid. Your plans are small, and so is your faith."  

Okay, God would probably not say stupid and it was not Him calling on the phone. (That would have been a really fantastic culmination of my trip!)  No, He used my friend.  She was calling to ask me to do something that would require a LOT of faith this summer.  Something messy and difficult and totally outside my comfort zone.  I explained my chart.  My chart held three pretty little ideas.  Ideas that I was trying to choose between - because surely in my busy life I couldn't do something nutty and pick two.  There was just room for one.  She laughed, (sort if manically actually), and wished me good luck with my chart.  

So that was the end of the peaceful portion of my trip.  It was also the beginning of the genuine part of my trip.  You see I had told Pete I wanted to go away and be quiet and pray about what God's will is for me in this season of my life. But I had lied.  I wanted to go away and think about what I wanted to do in this season.  There is a big difference.  It's easy in Christian culture to say cute phrases about prayer and the will of God, when you really mean "thinking" and the will of ME.  It's easy to get away with living a life where you are risking nothing, over analyzing everything, and worshiping your "quiet time" because what really matters most is keeping life as smooth and peaceful as possible.  I had planned a weekend Alone, but I didn't get it.

I can try to put on all the trappings of The Good Christian Girl's Life and walk smoothly in my own self-serving plans. But then God shows up, out of His great and mighty love for me.  He reveals a better plan, a messier, bigger plan than would ever fit on my little chart.  For have any of God's plans ever fit on a little chart?  

So just in case you were thinking of running away to have a weekend Alone, I thought it would only be fair to warn you who might show up when you get there.  And that is the grace of God.  That even when we plan a weekend Alone, we are never left there alone.