My Journey: Ushering in a New Season

   
In my last blog post My Journey: Abundance in the Hard Places, I talked about the work that the Lord has been doing in my heart during the long difficult season of loss that I have endured this past year. I have seen so much of the Lord’s heart and His trustworthiness in this season, however I do believe that the time is quickly approaching where I will be entering into a new season. To explain what I mean and how I know I need to jump back about 6 years…

    In the summer of 2006, I had just finished my first year teaching in Atlanta. I was beginning to build a life and a career for myself (pictured right teaching in Atlanta). In June, the Lord started asking for permission to shake up my plans. It took almost two weeks of consistent asking before I finally conceded. I still remember it like it was yesterday. I was out west visiting some of my best friends from college Cassidy Hastings, Jason Davenport, and Kaysi Hastings. We were at Yosemite for the day. I was standing at the foot of one of the giant waterfalls getting soaked by the water splashing off the rocks and my heart just started singing “I stand, I stand in awe of You. Holy God to whom all praise is due, I stand in awe of You.” As my heart sang out, the Lord asked again, “Will you give Me permission to shake up your plans?” I finally agreed.

    Less than a week later, I was boarding a plane bound for Kenya. I spent a month working with AIM in the slums around Nairobi (pictured left teaching in a school in Kibera slum- July ’06). It was my first experience with extreme poverty. The Lord certainly used that time in Kenya to shake up my plans. Suddenly my heart was completely broken for the hopeless and hurting of this world, especially the orphans. And my heart was completely captured for missions. I knew at that moment there was nothing else I wanted to do with my life. And yet the Lord was sending me back to Atlanta.
    This started an over 2-year pattern in my life where I felt like the Lord kept sparking my heart for certain things and then telling me that it wasn’t yet time. I couldn’t understand what the Lord was doing. I didn’t know yet how to trust His timing. There was a frustration building in me as the Lord kept sparking my heart and then telling me to wait. It culminated when I was leaving Candelaria in August ’08 during my time on the World Race (pictured right eating sugar cane with some of my boys- August ’08). The Lord had shown me the exact place where I wanted to invest my life, but once again He was saying, “Not yet.” I really struggled with trusting the Lord’s heart toward me in the midst of the waiting. However, over the next several months the Lord started to deepen my trust in Him and in the goodness of His heart.

    Finally in January ’09 things started to change. Not in a way that my eyes could see, but in the spiritual realm. I was still on the World Race. We were in a tiny village in the bush of Mozambique (pictured left worshiping in our church in Mathovane,  Mozambique). Physically I was still hopping from place to place waiting for the Lord’s timing to step into my dream of full-time missions. Nothing about my physical situation had changed. However, the things that the Lord was speaking to my heart through His word, through prophecy and prayer, and through His still small voice in the quietness of my spirit began to change. Again, my memory of this day is still so distinct and clear.
    Our team had been meeting together every morning for worship and then had been taking turns praying and prophesying over one another. Today was my turn to be prayed for. As my teammates began to pray for me, one of my wonderful World Race brothers heard the Lord say, “It won’t be long now until the Lord brings you to the place He has prepared for you. The time of waiting is almost over.” My heart soared with hope. That was beginning of change. Suddenly everything that the Lord began to speak to my heart- through His Word, through other believers, in prayer- all began announcing a time of stepping into dreams that the Lord had given me. It was still another year before I saw those things come to fruition in the physical realm, but I knew the time was approaching as the words of the Lord shifted. His words ushered in a new season in my life.

    And it’s happening again…  The entire last year the Lord has continually spoken to my heart about trust, about being sustained in difficult places, and finding strength in Him. It’s been what I needed to hear. Right before the first of the year the things that the Lord had been speaking to me began to change. The first moment was one night in church when the Lord brought me to Luke 1:45 “Blessed is she who has believed that what the Lord has said to her will be accomplished!” My heart cried out, “I believe it!” And I do. I believe that everything the Lord has spoken to my heart will be accomplished. I believe that I will live out the dreams that He has given me.

   There are still dreams that I have been longing to step into here; dreams of becoming family for the orphaned, abandoned, and abused. For such a long time, the Lord has been telling me to wait, to learn to long, and to trust Him in the longing (read My Journey: Learning to Long). This past year the Lord has re-awakened this dream in my heart. My heart has begun to long for it so deeply and I believe that the time is coming where I will step forth in this dream that the Lord has placed in my heart.
    I don’t know exactly when it will happen, but I believe that the time of waiting is coming to an end because once again the words of the Lord have begun to change. He is beginning to speak to me about be given the things my heart desires. Once again, I believe that His words are ushering in a new season in my life. I’m eager to see what He is going to do in this next year! Pray and believe with me for this new season of walking out the dreams that the Lord has placed in my heart.