Why Bother?

Hey All,

Before I start ranting--I mean, writing...I want to wish you all a belated and blessed New Year! It's now 2013. and for some reason, I'm suddenly feeling like the countdown has "officially" begun. I'm $7,000 away from my goal--but I'm believing in faith that the money will come through! (I did the math; if EVERY person on my facebook gave $9.00...I'd reach my goal!) I am excited and so ready for all this year has to offer. I sincerely thank you from the bottom-of-my-heart for reading this and for supporting me. You are all a collective blessing in my life thanks to your kind words and heartfelt prayers.

Some of the most common questions I hear when I describe my trip to people are, "Why bother?" or "Why are you going?", "Isn't that a ton of money?", "What happens to the kids when you leave?". I'd like to address some of these questions, and please know that I do so as genuinely as possible.

For me, it all starts with the Gospel. I'm sure many of us can recite John 3:16 in a heartbeat, but that's not actually what I'm referring to. I think one of the ways to know that you've fully digested the Gospel is to realize that you can't. Once we've taken in the full, beautiful devastation of the Gospel...it will change the way we think. It's an entire shift in mentality. Suddenly, everything will all come back to His unfailing love, our unworthiness, and His unfathomable forgiveness. When we live in the understanding that we are meant to be separated by sin, but we are reunited at the feet of Jesus when we leave our burdens, sin, and failures at the Cross.

When, on an individual level, we look at our own life and see the brokenness...when we see the pain and the heartache and the trials we've endured, the beauty of the Gospel will wreck our lives. He will be our number one. His desires become the desires of our heart. And suddenly, everything else just seems to matter less. I can appreciate the beauty of his forgiveness because I've lived in the brokenness of my failures. I can look to tomorrow with hope and joy, because of the storms He's carried me through--bitter, fighting, and uncertain.

I believe in my heart of hearts that there is a brokenness in the World. In the realities of so many, they have endured pain and suffering in their lives--but they have no beautiful devastation to frame their problems. They have no knowledge of our incredible Savior to keep them afloat. They live in a darkness of the heart that is desperately crying out for salvation from a God that they don't yet know. My desire and my passion is to live the Gospel with them, beside them. To love them as He loves us. If the Lord would use my life and my heart as a tool to shine His light into that darkness, that would be enough. I'm merely a vessel of the glorious message of our Savior and His love.

I want to see the broken healed in His name. I want them to know my Savior and what He's done in my life, and that He can work in their lives with all the intricacy and redemption that I know in my heart. I want the widowed to find love in Him that can heal the pain of their loss. I want orphans to be raised with the love of an eternal Father that will never end. I want young women to pursue the Lord as the healer of their broken hearts, no matter the pain caused by the men who have hurt them. I want young boys to be transformed into Godly men that will lead their households on faith. I want His name to be glorified in every nation and every heart. I may not see the day that every knee will bow and every tongue confess, but I do believe with all my heart that I will see miracles. That our God will do the unthinkable and soften the hardest of hearts. That lives will change and glorify Him and Him alone. That it doesn't matter if they remember my name, as long as they get to know and love the God that sent me.

I can't say for sure what will happen. I can't even begin to fathom the wonderful things He has planned for our team. All I know is that He will be glorified and lifted high in all that we do. That, I'm certain of.