Answered Prayers

Where do I begin?! Our trip was truly a life-changing experience. First, THANK YOU for all your prayers for us! God answers them! If I ever doubted it before, I am convinced of it now! Here is just a taste...Before leaving, Cole and I asked family and friends to pray for 5 things specifically (see previous blog post). Here is what they were and how God answered them and is continuing to answer them. 

1. Pray over our bags. We each are taking 30 pounds of medications in our checked bags. Pray that our bags get there and are not taken! We need medicine to run our clinic. You will not believe this, but ALL of our medicines and ALL our supplies (except for 8 pairs of glassses) made it into the country. The missionaries we partnered with there work "hidden" because it is illegal (and has been for 1400 years) to not be Islamic. Thus, we could not come in as a group to meet them. We walked off the plane not speaking to one another or saying sensitive words as to not make anyone suspicious of our group. We claimed our bags and began towards the security area. THE MACHINE TO SCAN OUR BAGS WAS BROKEN AND CLOSED FOR THE AFTERNOON. Yes, I said it, it was closed! WOW! God answered a huge prayer! Looking back, our group was so anxious about this, but God showed us that He is in charge of everything and He will not let Satan or any earthly force keep the gospel from going out to a lost world. What a wonderful way to begin our trip with a reminder that God is in control. 

2. Safety during travels to and in North Africa. You are all probably very well aware of the recent unrest in Muslim countries after the death of Bin Laden. Pray that we would not be anxious. Pray that we would encounter peace. We felt safe our entire trip, and in a lot of ways, safer than I feel here in the States. My eyes were opened to how the media in our country leads us astray and blows things out of proportion. The last week we stayed about 300 yards from where the bomb went off in the main city about a week before our trip, and we still did not feel threatened. I learned so much about the Muslim people. I am guilty of my imagination of the Muslim people before this trip, as totally covered in their dress and evil. Oh, how I was wrong! Most of them do look like I imagined, but they do not act like I imagined. They are normal - nice, kind, appreciative, caring, happy people with families and jobs and chores - just like us!! This is not at all what the media tells us. The sad distinction is that NONE of them have the hope of eternity in heaven. We also had safety in all of our travels, even with crazy bus drivers and riding camels!!

3. Pray that we would change the perspective of Christianity there. It is so sad to us that the people associate America with Christianity and all they see of America is the media and Hollywood. No wonder they don't desire it! Pray that people see the servitude we bring through medical care as an example of Christ. Pray that they understand that physical healing is only temporary, but spiritual healing is eternal! God moved mountains in answering this prayer request! Although we couldn't openly share the gospel, we could if a person asked! Our team struggled with this a ton before the trip, especially with just not understanding and foreseeing how we could further the kingdom of God without being able to share the gospel or even say "churchy" words. We trusted anyway and prayed a lot! Turns out, by providing medical care, we were able to love on the people. This was huge! Our goal was not to see the most patients, but to spend time with each patient - touching them, talking to them, and just loving on them any way we could. Since we couldn't openly begin to tell them about Jesus, we wanted our actions to portray Him. It was sad to hear their stories, but so cool to see just how little can change their lives. We had one lady in sobs tell us that she had never been touched in a loving way before.  I got to share specifically with one lady that the medicine we were giving her would not make her well and happy forever. God showed us that we had little faith, and that He could use us despite what seemed to be a crushing barrier for our mission. We had a surprising number of people ask us WHY we were in their village! They couldn't understand why we would want to come to help them. What an analogy to our position in relation to Christ. As sinners, we don't deserve Him and often ask, "Why me?" We had the biggest impact on the translators that we worked with because they were with us for 2 weeks. They caught on to our prayer cards and attitudes and other things. I will share more about them sometime soon! I am confident in saying that every patient we saw cannot think that all Americans are like the ones they hear about, and therefore Christianity may be different than they expected. 

4. Pray for the full-time missionaries in North Africa. Pray that we would be a help and encouragement to their daily mission to spread the gospel. I learned that the average time it takes a person in the country we were in to convert from Islam to Christianity is 7 years! What perseverance our missionaries have! I saw the hardship it was to be a missionary in a place that is completely lost and where it is illegal to be a believer. It is tiresome and heavy and discouraging. Can you imagine living in a place as a believer with no community or fellowship!? How hard that must be to not have a church, TV or radio worship music, conferences, etc. I experienced this for the first time ever. The missionaries assured us that our 2 weeks was sweet time for them as they shared time with the body of Christ! We especially encouraged them by each developing a heart for "their people". I desired for our team to be an encouragement to them, and we were, but I was just as encouraged by their heart for the nations and dedication to furthering the kingdom of God here on earth. As far as being a help to their mission...The Lord accomplished this through us in multiple ways. We had medical clinics in 2 villages (1 each week). One of the villages had NEVER had a missionary or any other Christian influence or even a medical clinic before, EVER. The government gave our team permission to do a medical clinic there a few weeks before we arrived. (Of course, they didn't know our purpose was to be a light for Christ, which is why we had to be so careful). Our missionaries were able to meet many of the native people, as well as develop a reputation for bringing the American doctors into town! The villages are a lot more likely to be open to anything the missionaries do in the future. They now have a Bible in their native tongue, as well as praise and worship music on a mini headset and a video of Jesus, that can be distributed discretely to those who ask. 

 

5. Pray for our personal growth in the Lord. We are both leading Bible studies during the trip so we need strength, encouragement, and wisdom! Pray that we would see God even bigger and greater than we already do and come away with an even greater desire to make missions a priority in our marriage! God answered this prayer as well! The theme of our trip was "Greater Things" and it is taken from John 14:12-14 which says, "I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do EVEN GREATER THINGS than theses, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name and I will do it." God had "greater things" prepared for Cole and I than we imagined when committing ourselves to this trip. I am also reminded of the verse in 1 Corinthians and Isaiah that tells us that "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him." I am excited about posting A LOT of this sometime soon. Just know that this prayer was answered and we DID see how big God is and how we are called to be a light to all nations. 

And We Are Off!

All due to the faithfulness of God and the love and support from all of you, we are leaving for North Africa tomorrow!

Have you ever seen such a mess?!

What would packing be without a little humor? And yes, I do have to pack the scarf!

Now, we specifically ask you to pray for these things: 

1. Pray over our bags. We each are taking 30 pounds of medications in our checked bags. Pray that our bags get there and are not taken! We need medicine to run our clinic. 

2. Safety during travels to and in North Africa. You are all probably very well aware of the recent unrest in Muslim countries after the death of Bin Laden. Pray that we would not be anxious. Pray that we would encounter peace. 

3. Pray that we would change the perspective of Christianity there. It is so sad to us that the people associate America with Christianity and all they see of America is the media and Hollywood. No wonder they don't desire it! Pray that people see the servitude we bring through medical care as an example of Christ. Pray that they understand that physical healing is only temporary, but spiritual healing is eternal!

4. Pray for the full-time missionaries in North Africa. Pray that we would be a help and encouragement to their daily mission to spread the gospel. 

5. Pray for our personal growth in the Lord. We are both leading Bible studies during the trip so we need strength, encouragement, and wisdom! Pray that we would see God even bigger and greater than we already do and come away with an even greater desire to make missions a priority in our marriage! 

"May the favor of the Lord our God rest upon us; 

establish the work of our hands for us - 

yes, establish the work of our hands." Psalm 90:16

You Have to Read This Book

I just finished one of the best books I have read in a while, Heaven is For REAL by Todd Burpo. Cole's mom recommended it to me, and it was truly one of the sweetest stories. Basically it is about a 3 1/2 year old boy who undergoes an emergency appendectomy. After the surgery he claims of visiting heaven, explains what his parents were doing in the hospital during his surgery, describes what Jesus looks like, shares events that happened before he was born, recognizes deceased family members pictures, and describes heaven in ways that match perfectly with Scripture. Sounds hokey, I know! But, you must read it!! It is a quick read and will change your view and desire for eternity!



This book has taught me a few lessons.

1) God answers prayer. Colton, the little boy, says that Jesus sent him back to earth specifically to answer his father's prayer. Wow!

2) What Jesus means when he calls Christians to have a "childlike" faith. Mark 10: 14-15 says,"Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it." Colton was bold and plainspoken and honest and able to believe big things!! He did not doubt or question but was receptive.

3) Heaven is personal.

4) God "shoots down power" to believers to help us, strengthen us, encourage us, and love us in this world.

As believers, heaven is to be desired. God gives us very real glimpses of heaven in the Bible, and this story confirms everything it says! This world is hard, but heaven awaits those who trust in Him and live for Him. There will be no more suffering, no more hurting, no more sickness, no more aging bodies, no more stress, no more...you name it! There will only be joy and worshiping at the throne of God!

2 Corinthians 5:1-10
¹ For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. ² Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, ³ because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. ⁴ For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. ⁵ Now the one who has fashioned us for this very purpose is God, who has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come. ⁶ Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. ⁷ For we live by faith, not by sight. ⁸ We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. ⁹ So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it. ¹⁰ For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.

The message is simple: Heaven IS for real.

Missions Update

Cole and I are leaving for North Africa in a week!!

Molly and I have been working hard this week on inventory, organizing, and packaging the medications for our trip. We received over 700 pounds!! If you can't imagine how much it is, I will just tell you that believe me, it is a lot!! 

In order to take all of the medications to North Africa, each team member is packing about 30 pounds. Where are my personal things going?! Hello carry on backpack - be prepared to stretch! 

Last night we had a lot of help from our team members to prepackage some of the medications. Hopefully, this will save us some time on the first day so that we can get everything set-up in an efficient and organized manner, and not to mention make things much less bulky for transport. 

We had tasks for each person, and a few hours later, it was all done!! Thank you!!

Notice above the bags we are using. They have pictures instead of words. Hopefully this will somewhat eliminate the language barrier so that the patients will have written instructions on each medication they need. 

See Molly's blog at Therefore Go for more pictures and updates. 

Not only have I spent a lot of time preparing for the pharmacy, but I have also spent time spiritually preparing for our trip as well. One of my favorite things I have read is the chapter on Missions in John Piper's book "Desiring God". He describes missions as "the automatic outflow and overflow of love for Christ. We delight to enlarge our joy in Him by extending it to others. As Lottie Moon said, "Surely there can be no deeper joy than that of saving souls." He further describes a true believer as one who has "discovered a hundred times more joy and satisfaction in a life devoted to Christ and the gospel than in a life devoted to frivolous comforts and pleasures and worldly advancements."

He has instilled the desire in me to become what he calls a "World Missionary" - one that reorders their life around God's global cause. The Bible tells us in Revelation 7:9 that in the end, there is at least one person from every nation, tribes, peoples, and languages, standing before the throne and praising God. So, the mission goal is to establish a church in each "people group". No one knows exactly what "all nations" means but the best guess is each ethno-linguistic group. Of the 13,000 of these, 3500 are still without a church or mission endeavor. A great website that keeps current updates on this is joshuaproject.org. It has been really cool to look into the place we are going and see the statistics on church planting and missions. The people there definitely need Christ!! As you probably already realized, the task of missions can be completed, but the task of evangelism never will (Missions= unique task of crossing language barrier to penetrate a people group and establish a church movement. Evangelism= ongoing task of sharing the gospel among people within the same culture.)

I am reminded over and over again through this process that my purpose here on earth as a Christ-follower is solely to give glory to Christ. How often I fail! It is so easy to lose that eternal mindset and be caught up in my everyday doings. I should be living each day to further the gospel of Christ to those around me and to all nations (Acts 1:8). Hell is real, and people need to know Him! In the end, this is what matters. Not my clothes, my education, my house, my achievements, my body, not even my family...only God. Join me in striving to not only claim, but to also live as Christ is my number 1 priority. 

It is also easy for me to forget that we are called to be witnesses wherever we are! Not just on a mission trip to North Africa! People need Christ here just as much as those across the world. A huge part of how people come to know Christ is by observing the lives of believers. We are relying on that for our trip as we cannot openly share the gospel. They stereotype Christianity as an American thing and think that people in Hollywood are the faces for Christianity. No wonder they shun it! So sad! We want to change that stereotype because those images are not of God. 

"Most men are not satisfied with the permanent output of their lives. Nothing can wholly satisfy the life of Christ within his followers except the adoption of Christ's purpose toward the world he came to redeem. Fame, pleasure, and riches are but husks and ashes in contrast with the boundless and abiding joy of working with God for the fulfillment of his eternal pans. The men who are putting everything into Christ's undertaking are getting out of life its sweetest and most priceless rewards." - J. Campbell White

I have always admired Jim Elliot, missionary to the Auca Indians, who was killed in 1956 for attempting to share the gospel with them. (There is a touching movie on his story called "End of the Spear"). His credo stated "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose." What a mindset!! He truly exemplified Phil. 1:21 "For me to live is Christ and to die is gain."

Acts 26:17-18 " I am sending you to them to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me."

Acts 4:12 "Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.”

Romans 1:16 "For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile."

Psalm 67 "May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face shine on us—so that your ways may be known on earth, your salvation among all nations. May the peoples praise you, God; may all the peoples praise you. May the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you rule the peoples with equity and guide the nations of the earth. May the peoples praise you, God; may all the peoples praise you. The land yields its harvest; God, our God, blesses us. May God bless us still, so that all the ends of the earth will fear him."

Sweet Potato Stack Twist

I blogged previously on Southern Living's Sweet Potato Stacks. Cole and I loved them!

Tonight my Bible Study had dinner together to celebrate the completion of our study on Isaiah (!!!) and I decided that I would try to make these Sweet Potato Stacks with a twist...Scalloped Sweet Potatoes anyone?

I used the same recipe, upped the quantities just a bit, a baked it about 50 minutes. It turned out to taste just as delicious at the stacks, and made for what I think of as a perfect side dish.

Last Medical School Test, Done!

I am SO proud of my husband! This week marked his very LAST day of class, ever,  AND tomorrow he takes his very last exam!! (When I say last test, I mean last test based off of classroom lectures. He will still be tested after each rotation). It has been a long 2 years of studying for him, but we have made the very best of it. It has surprisingly flown by! He has made it to the end of the first 2 years of classroom work!!

Here are a few pictures that I hope we will look back on and smile, knowing that all the hard work was worth it!

Studying at the beach house

Studying in Greer

Studying at our house

Studying at the library

This celebration is not to say that the studying is over...quite the contrary. Let the board preparations begin! June 24th at 6pm will really be the end to the nose in the books and the most grueling part of medical school.  The next 2 years he will be on rotations and getting to apply all the knowledge that he has gained. Proud of you!!!

Farmer's Market Outing

I am almost embarrassed to say that I have lived in Charleston for almost 2 years now and, until yesterday, have not been to the Charleston Farmer's Market at Marion Square.  Frances and I walked down to the market and had so much fun! Many local vendors and farmers set up booths from 8am-2pm every Saturday from now until around November and sell (and give samples!) their handmade and homegrown goods. The market also turns into an open-air cafe with various cooking booths. Frances and I enjoyed a yummy crepe! Since now is the beginning of the summer produce, it was in abundance. I snatched some baby squash and zucchini and butter beans. I also purchased some handmade ravioli. Their were so many pastas I had a hard time deciding! I ended up with  1) goat cheese, lemon, and chive  2) crab and avocado  3) butternut squash...YUM! And, what a fast dinner! I cannot wait to try them.  The cans in the picture are sweet potato butter and balsamic pepper jelly. Of course, a trip to the farmer's market wouldn't be complete without bringing home a fresh bunch of flowers!

I will be out of town the next 3 weekends, but after that, I plan to be there on Saturdays! Call me if you want to join!