5.18.12 "Busy Day"

Readiness


"God called to him...and he said, 'Here I am.'" -Exodus 3:4


Readiness for God means that we are prepared to do the smallest things or the largest things- it makes no difference. It means we have no choice in what we want to do, but that whatever God's plans may be, we are there and ready. Whenever any duty presents itself, we hear God's voice as our Lord heard His Father's voice, and we are ready for it with total readiness of our love for Him. A ready person never needs to get ready- he is ready. (Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest, April 18)

I absolutely love this response. I have actually mediated on it the last two days and finally getting a chance to sit down and think through my thoughts. Readiness. Is it a process or something that you are? I take from this devotion that it is a state of being, as far as being on a mission for God, we are always to be "ready". But this is a different mindset than "ready" for vacation or "ready" for your day. When sent on a mission for God, or when you feel like you are being prepared to go, the state of your heart depends on your relationship with Jesus. If you are in love with Jesus, if you take upon yourself a heart to be a servant, when you give your life to Him, when all you care about is pleasing God, seeking to please Him, then you are ready for anything that He puts in front of you. I love the part of this devotion that says, "[I] have no choice in what [I] want to do, but that whatever God's plans may be, [I] are there and ready." As I think about the choices that I have been looking through, praying over, and researching about, I realized that I had no choice. That it really was whatever God wants, is where I will go.

With that said, I have made a decision, one which I can only pray God too wants. I have sensed many confirmations throughout today that this is where He wants me to go. More on this later.

Today.

9am: I had an interview with Pat & Joel. We discussed my ministry now and what that may look like overseas.

10am: I met with Cindy & Ray. I really enjoyed this interview. We laughed a lot, talked about what I think the mission field will look like, and got a lot of questions answers.

11:10am: President of SIM USA, Bruce Johnson, did a presentation to my group on the Vision of SIM. Out of this, I got the chance to write out how my personal vision and how that connects with SIM.

 "Jesus said, let the little children come to me and do not hinder them... Jesus loves the little children and he loves the orphans around the world. With the great foundation that they have in their history as well as all the things they have learned over their 119 years of experience, I look forward to taking this knowledge and move forward with the mission that He has given me. He has put on my heart orphans, specifically in Africa, and is orchestrating plans to send me to use my gifts to fill the needs of orphans in Kenya, to share the gospel with them and help to equip the church of Kenya. I look forward to working with a multicultural team to share the gospel with children in Kenya." 

Lunch! We had turkey wraps, chips, and fruit.

1:15pm we piled into a few cars and a few vans and began a very adventurous journey to SIM International in South Carolina. Yep, I got to cross borders today! Two countries to cross off my list from the east coast. As we began the trip we were following the car in front of us, unfortunately that car was following a car in front of them from SIM but were not headed to SIM International, instead they turned the other way. Our car was stopped, told we were going the wrong way and sent to chase down the other car. Oh my, God kept us safe. Nothing crazy but it took a few minutes to catch up to them. We made it back and then followed closely behind the correct car! We spent about an hour and a half getting to hear all about the history of SIM. Lots of dates, lots of names, of which I cannot remember, but what I did get out of it was how firm the foundation is that SIM sits on.

3:30pm We learned about the Core Values of SIM. Out of this talk, a lot of great conversation happened as well as some great questions.

Dinner! Beef stroganoff, vegetables, bread and salad.

6:45pm Community Hour. We talked about having a servants hearts. We did a great exercise where we were given scenarios where we were to discuss how we would respond to a difficult situation with a servant attitude. Some great discussions came out of this.

And now it's 10:45pm and there are six of us left. We started with about 15 of us in a circle and people have slowly faded to their beds. One discussion in particular I will share. Most will remain great memories in my head :) Our head guy on our floor, Ray, sat down and said, "can I share an email with you guys"...sure! A Cotton Mouth Moccasin snake is loose on our campus and we are to be aware of it as we are moving around. Oh my!!! I'm thinking this time here is really preparing me for them missions field! It has really been such a blessing to be here. I'm really trying to soak in all this encouragement. All the wonderful stories about Lyberia and the mission fields. It's now 11:18pm, I'm pretty tired. There are 3 of us. But now I am off to bed. Prayers for awakeness for tomorrow would be so amazingly appreciated. I thank God today for his confirmation. Finances are a huge fear and tonight, without asking, I received another person who said they would like to support me. That is so encouraging. Jesus is faithful, if He wants me to go, I don't think I can really stop it, if I wanted to.