"Follow You"

"Follow You" by Leeland

"You lived among the least of these
The weary and the weak
And it would be a tragedy for me to turn away.

All my needs You have supplied.
When I was dead You gave me life.
How could I not give it away so freely?

And I'll follow You into the homes that are broken.
Follow You into the world.
Meet the needs for the poor and the needy, God.
Follow You into the World.

Use my hands, use my feet
To make Your Kingdom come
Through the corners of the earth
Until Your work is done
'Cause Faith without works is dead
And on the cross Your blood was she'd
So how could I not give it away so freely?

And I'll follow You into the homes that are broken.
Follow You into the world.
Meet the needs for the poor and the needy, God.
Follow You into the World.

I give all myself.
I give all myself
I give all myself... to You.

And I give all myself.
Yes, I give all myself.
And I give all myself... to You."

Such a GREAT song!!

"Through their message"

"My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be on, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world known that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me" --John 17:20-21, 23

When I was working the Alumni Retreat at Cho-Yeh this weekend, this was a Bible verse that was read on the opening night, and I instinctively thought of Honduras. Our mission trip is being surrounded in my prayers as we speak--prayers for us, prayers for safe travels, prayers for the Hondurans. All of these things are important, but it seems so easy to be focused on praying for ourselves when we are praying for the mission trip. I catch myself all the time praying that I will be able to get the paperwork completed and finalized, that I will be safe while I'm there, that I will be effective, that I will be able to pull the money together, that I will have fun... That is how selfish we are today! This trip is NOT about me. It isn't about any of us that are going. It is solely about God and bringing Him the glory while sharing His beautiful message with those that don't know Him. No where in there am I needed. God could send anybody on this mission trip, if I wasn't going then He would send somebody else. He doesn't need ME to go. Therefore, although prayers for ourselves is important, what is MORE important is the prayers for the people who will be primarily effected by our efforts. The children, the employees at the orphanage, the families of the homes we are building, the people we will encounter at the airport, you catch my drift. That is what my prayers should be focused on. I am not the fundamental puzzle piece in this trip. That spot belongs to God, and then to those who we are going to serve. Therefore, join me in prayer for the people of Honduras, that our words may not be of us but rather that God will speak through us so that His beloved children in Honduras will be able to draw near to Him and understand the abundant life that we are given through Him. That they will feel the love that they may have never experienced, and know that the love comes from Jesus Christ. That God will (because we have faith and know that He can!) move mountains in Honduras and start a ripple that will turn into a wave to spread His love throughout that orphanage, community, and country!

God is big enough!

Every Thought

"We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ"
-2 Corinthians 10:5

I read this passage this morning and loved it! Another translation puts it like this, "We use our powerful God-tools for smashing warped philosophies, tearing down barriers erected against the truth of God, fitting every loose thought and emotion and impulse into the structure of life shaped by Christ". WOW! In essence, that is what our lives should look like everyday. We are supposed to break down anything that stands in the way of letting others know Christ, and sometimes (and by "sometimes", I mean ALL the time) that means breaking down ourselves to where others can tell that we are living 100% for Christ. All of thoughts should be centered around Christ, how gigantic does that sound? How many billion things do we think about in a single day? Lots. And the Bible says that each and every thought should be centered about the Lord. Even trying to think about what that would look like blows my mind. Every thought. I can't even fathom it, and I think that's a good thing. I don't want to be able to understand the Lord (but that's a totally different blog post for some other time).

This is huge at camp, and is going to be crazy huge in Honduras. We are not in Honduras for ourselves, we aren't going to be there for our friends. We are going to be there to spread the Word of our God and bring hope to so many people. In order to do that, our every thought must be on Him. There's a chance we will encounter conflict (if not in Hondruas, it will happen in our world), and we will have to demolish and smash everything that is not of God. We will have to be totally in tuned with God to have the strength and ability to do that.

Therefore, we start to pray now. Our thoughts aren't just supposed to be completely on God when we are at church, or on a mission trip--it's a daily thing. There's no better time than right now to begin to learn how to do this and be intentional about it!

Love Is A Verb

"Love is a verb- just do it" -BJ Higgins

"love" itself is going to be HUGE when we are in Honduras. Not only are we going to be loving on kids constantly and showing them Christ's love, we are going to have the opportunity to show these orphans a love that they may have never experienced. Can you imagine being a child and not knowing what it was like to be loved? To be held and comforted, to be rocked to sleep, to be hugged and played with? That breaks my heart knowing there are kids out there like that, and it also excites me knowing that I will have the chance to provide that for these kids.

Love is not just something that you say, love is very much an action. Christ demonstrated love every second of His life, from the way he spoke with his disciples, to the way he handled the markets in the temples, to the way he healed Bartimaeous (the blind man) in Mark. Love isn't just a phrase. We can demonstrate love in every second of our life, in every word, every action, every situation, and every response. LOVE. It's a verb. Just do it!

"Made In Honduras"

Maybe I'm kinda obsessed right now.. When I was putting away my laundry, I found that one of my shirts was made in Honduras!

Heart For Honduras

Welcome to Heart For Honduras! This blog is essentially for me, so that I can document the preparation of the next 4 months leading up to Honduras, and then the trip itself.

I wil be going on a mission trip in January 2012 with Camp Cho-Yeh to Honduras! We are going to be building 2 houses for families who are currently homeless, and will be holding a children's camp for over 300 orphans. We will be gone from the 8th-14th of January.

Today, I was reading out of Jeremiah 1, and fell in love. There were a few verses I especially liked, then one that hit me hard.

"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart" (Jeremiah 1:5)

""Do not say "I am only a child" You must go to everyone I send you to andsay whatever I command you. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you" declares the Lord. Then the Lord reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me, "Now I have put my words in your mouth. See today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms...to build and to plant"" (Jeremiah 1:7-10)

"Get yourself ready! Stand up and say to them whatever I command you. Do not be terrified by them" (Jeremiah 1:17)

This is my journey of "getting myself ready". Join me as I intentionally pray over the next 4 months for the children who we will impact in Honduras, the families who will receive the homes we will build, and the 20 of us that will be on the trip.