New Blessings for a New Season…

     I have been in an enlightening, deepening, frustrating and beautiful new season. The Lord has been challenging me in so many areas over the last several months. It has been a time of seeing my current projects in Sunday school and student sponsorship growing, solidifying, and placed in capable hands. I love to see the way in which the Lord is moving in our mission and in these programs. In the last couple of months, we have added more sponsorship staff and so have been able to offer English classes and tutoring in each of our villages to help our kids raise their grades. I love to see how this program is expanding to see more students sponsored, to better support our sponsored students, and to really empower the beautiful children and teenagers in our villages to live out the greatness that the Lord has placed in them! (If you're interested in transforming the life of a child for only $25/month, check out our sponsorship website at educatenica.org) I have also  watched the teenagers that I have been discipling for the past 3 1/2 years grow and mature into amazing young adults who do an incredible job running our Sunday school for 150 kids (like Kenia pictured above left). I believe that soon I will be completely unnecessary and this program will be run entirely by members of the Nicaraguan church. It's always my dream to empower our local church in such a way that I am constantly working myself out of a job.

    While things within in the mission have been growing and deepening, I have also found myself simultaneously pushed into deeper waters and feeling stalled on the shores. I know that sounds like a contradiction, but it's been true. I have been trying for the last year to move forward in my long-term dream of becoming a foster mom. It has been a wonderful and frustrating process. It has challenged my faith as I learn to wait patiently for the Lord and hold tenaciously to His promises. The Lord has placed two gorgeous daughters in my life, Juanita and Yessica (pictured right). This has been a season of becoming a mom. It has been a beautiful season of loving them and for them to learn what it means to be beloved daughters. This time is essential. 

    I know that the day will come when things will no longer feel held back and the doors will swing open for me to fully run in these dreams of my heart. I know that soon I will no longer be a part-time mom, but I will have a home where children can feel safe and can abide in the Father's love for them. I realize that I am becoming in this season the woman that I need to be for the next. It's a beautiful time of preparation where my Father is gently leading me into deeper and deeper waters while giving my heart time to adjust to these new depths and the new challenges and joys that will come with this season. Right now I am in a season of persevering and digging deep roots. It is challenging and frustrating and beautiful and necessary. I know that this season is temporary and that soon the time will come to run in the fullness of His dreams for me. And with each new season will come new challenges and new blessings.

    The Lord has already placed a new blessing before me that has the potential to catapult me into this new season of running in the fullness of His promises. I found out in March that I have been nominated for an Epoch award. Epoch is a bi-annual missions gala that celebrates unsung heroes in missions and gives away $50K in grant money to different missions organizations to help them continue their work. This year's event will be held October 28th at the Fox Theater in Atlanta.

     I feel incredibly honored to have been nominated. It is wonderful to feel the support of other Kingdom-minded people who are standing with you in your dreams and ministry. Also, as I said, this honor has the potential to launch me into the next season that the Lord has for me. I have been longing to begin construction on the foster house, the Abide Home. My heart cries out to have a home where my daughters can live and be cared for, to create family for them, and to see their hearts restored. I have been working the past year to step forward toward this dream. The last piece that I am waiting for is the ability to fundraise. The Abide Home is creating its own non-profit and the paperwork has been held up at the IRS awaiting approval for our tax-deductible status. If I am chosen to receive a grant from the Epoch Awards, we would be able to move forward now and begin building the Abide Home. Please join me in praying to see the movement of the Spirit bringing this dream to completion. I am thankful for the Epoch Awards and their commitment to celebrate and support missionaries around the world.