Off to Ghana, one friend's answer to God's big call.

In June, I wrote a posting asking,  what is God calling you to do?  I noticed that same day that my friend Allison posted on Facebook that she was getting vaccinations.  I asked her what was up.
Allison amazed me with her answer, she was preparing for a women's mission trip to Ghana in August.

Allison and her son Mac

 I asked Allison how she decided to go on this trip.   She answered:

 I thought it sounded interesting two years ago and couldn't go that time. my son was little and I wasn't prepared so I potentially planned on going on the next one. Then life happened and I couldn't have been in a worse position to go and I sort of forgot about it, or tried to, life was just to messy. I decided to be on the women's retreat team and help put that together. While I was working I couldn't get Africa off my mind, I sent out a prayer request to my WIW (Women in the Word) table and Cindy Ostlie (one of the greatest prayer warriors I know) praying for wisdom and guidance, was I supposed to be there, could we afford it? I waited a few days and it was clear, I would now ask my husband and my mom, respectively I needed money and child care. Without hesitation or thought both said yes and didn't question me. Yes, I am a little nervous. Is it possibly dangerous? Especially for a small blonde woman? Maybe. I know i am supposed to be there. It's on my heart and I had a clear calling from God. He spoke directly to me and I choose to obey!  

I have been so blessed in the last few months to talk to women about what God is calling them to do.  The thing that I just can't get over is it always comes down to those four simple words.  "I choose to obey."

Mac selling lemonade to raise money for his mom's trip

Allison's decision to obey God's call, flowed through her family.  Son Mac helped raise money for the trip with a lemonade stand.  Allison's mom and husband are getting to use their gifts of time and money to bless Allison with watching Mac and making the trip possible.  I think so often as moms we think we can't obey a big call from God like going on a mission trip because we will inconvenience family members by asking them to watch the kids, we think we will burden our husbands by using family funds to pay for the trip - but maybe instead we should be looking at it as offering them the opportunity to be the blessing as well.  Women and children in Ghana will be blessed by Mac as well as by Allison, what an amazing lesson to teach a seven year old.

Allison, and a group of incredible women from Cherry Creek Presbyterian Church outside of Denver, Colorado left last night for Ghana.  I am posting this today in hopes that you will join me in praying for these women.  They will be in Ghana for eleven days.  This is the description of their mission as posted on the CCPC website.

This year, thirteen women from CCPC are going to Ghana where we are helping build a school and programs for the girls/women so that they can gain skills that will help them provide for self and family. We also bring health supplies and training to help the women and their children fight off illness and remain healthy.

Talents and silence

Here's a clue into the life of Wendy... when I blog a lot, very little is going on in my life... when I stop blogging, big things are going on.  So you can take by my silence that the last month has been a full one.  This has been a month of talents and silence for me.  What does that mean?

In the book of Matthew chapter 25, Jesus tells the parable of a master who is going on a journey.  He entrusts three servants with different amounts of talents. (A talent was worth more than $1,000).  The two with the most go out and earn more, when the master returns he is pleased and gives them even more talents  to be responsible for.  The one with the least, does nothing with it, and what little he was put in charge of is taken away from him.

I heard a great sermon a few years ago that asked, Is the Lord adding to your talents or taking away?  Good question huh?  Life seems full and I sometimes think I few less responsibilities might feel good.  But when you read the account in Matthew 25 it ends with the master saying, ".., throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." That's pretty bad.  It's not the reaction I am looking for from God - so bring on the talents! It really is a good thing.

This summer I have watched the Lord place three new "talents" into my life.  Talents that have me excited, freaked out, thrilled and bewildered.  Once I get over the freaked out and bewildered part, I will tell you more about each of them, but just to break my own little season of silence, I wanted to share them with you.

1.  Daisy:  Daisy is our 14 year old exchange student from China. She arrived Sunday night and will be staying with us for at least a year.  She plans to be in the United States for four years, but with her parents, we have made the decision to prayerfully consider each year at a time.  We are so excited to share our amazing school, our church community, and our family with her this year.

2. A 5th grade Mother - Daughter bible study:   After a year of praying about it, God showed me a clear six week period to host a study this summer.  With great trepidation, I pulled the trigger and invited all 17  5th grade girls in Sarah's grade, and their moms to come to our house to study Elizabeth George's A Girl After God's Own Heart.  This was the third week, and it has been incredible.  We have had 18-22 moms and daughters here each week.  The discussions and prayer times have been so amazing.  I love this group of girls and their moms.  Many of us have not really had the chance to get to know each other, so it has been a very special time.

3.  Spiritual Parenting Class:  For six years I have desired to teach a spiritual parenting class. By "spiritual parenting" I mean a focus on passing on your faith through your parenting, (As opposed to a class focused on parenting topics like discipline and potty training).  This Fall I have been asked to co-teach The Legacy Path with our adult education pastor.  This class will be the first in an ongoing series of classes offered each semester in our newly developed Legacy Track of classes at Bay Leaf Baptist Church.  (If you are in the Raleigh area, please join me!  This class is open to the public and childcare or Awanas is offered at the same time!)

                                              

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.