Why "Go"?

For those of you wondering, I suppose I should explain why I started this blog in the first place and just what "GO" is all about. I'm not sure where to begin, so I suppose a little background is in order.

About seven or eight months ago my mom went to Africa for eight weeks. She had been before with a team, but this time she went by herself. She wasn't sure exactly what God had for her on that trip, but her heart has always been toward the orphan. Through the letters and emails she sent we began to understand why God says "Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world." James 1:27. We began to get a glimpse of the incredible pain and suffering that is so prevalent in Africa. Our hearts were broken and we began to pray and ask God what we could do. His answer was simple, "adopt" just as God had done with us. He was asking us to take his children, who happened to be born in another part of the world, into our family, to be our children. We had never really considered this before, but through much prayer and God being so confirming we knew this was his answer.

The decision to listen and obey him in this not-so-small area of our lives has enabled me to see that God does have great plans for my life if am just willing. "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them." Ephesians 2:10.

I began to seek His will for my life more and more. I couldn't shake the feeling that God had more for me to do in Africa than just adopt. I wanted nothing more than to be doing His will, but what was it? I couldn't get enough of God and His word. As my relationship with Him grew, I was starting to realize how little of my life I had really given over to him even though I'd known Him most of my life. I was really trying to give Him every part of my life now, but I still found it difficult at times, particularly at work. I struggled to be a light in a dark world.

Fast forward a few months. Shauna was reading a post from one of the amazing blogs that she follows. She (the blogger) was talking about how she quite frequently hears from God and that it is very clear. I had heard from God in my own life, but not as clearly or as often as she was talking about. I decided to pray in faith and ask God to give me a word. Immediately He answered... "GO". That was it. My first reaction was "hmm... that doesn't make sense, I must be making things up. 'GO' doesn't mean anything, does it?" I decided to look up the word in the concordance of my Bible. Out of the many many references a verse instantly jumped out at me. "But I will hope continually, and will praise You yet more and more. My mouth shall tell of Your righteousness and Your salvation all the day, for I do not know their limits. I will go in the strength of the Lord GOD; I will make mention of Your righteousness, of Yours only." Psalm 71:14-16. What an incredible word. What an incredible verse. What an incredible God! I knew that God had indeed spoken. I now had those verses to stand on as I went to work every day. I thanked God for his perfect timing. Little did I know how far that word would take me.

A few weeks later I was looking on the internet and found the home page of a church in Colorado. The pastor of the church just happens to be the husband of the woman who's blog inspired me to ask God for that word. Right there on the front page of their website, in huge bold green letters, was one word... "GO". In the background was the picture of the flag of Ug*nda, Africa. I was stunned. God was again answering, giving me a little more direction in my life. "Go to Ug*nda." I soon found out that not only was this church planning a trip to go and serve there, but they were opening up a few spots to people following their blog. God is so good. He always has a plan.

Now here we are, 25 days until I get to GO. Needless to day I am ecstatic. I can't wait to see what God has in store.

There are SO many more details where God has confirmed and provided, like when I told our church missions board and they wanted to give $300 toward the cost of the trip, which happened to be the amount I needed to send in that week. Or the fact that I had been saving up my vacation at work and when I found out I was going to get to go, I had exactly 9 hours more vacation saved up than I would need. There's also the incredible generosity that has been shown by the people locally in giving so much to be donated to the kids we are going to be serving. I could go on and on about so many ways my God provides and answers when I just ask.

THANK YOU

THANK YOU FATHER FOR TODAY.

THANK YOU FOR MY FAMILYAND FRIENDS, FOR THOSE WHO KNOW YOU, THAT I CAN REJOICE WITH THEM. FOR THOSE WHO DON'T, THAT I CAN PRAY FOR THEM.

THANK YOU FOR MY WIFE, WHO ENCOURAGES ME TO LOOK MORE LIKE JESUS EVERY DAY, AND LOVES ME ENOUGH TO TELL ME WHEN I DON'T.

THANK YOU FOR OUR LEADERS, THOSE I AGREE WITH AND THOSE I DON'T, FOR THEY ARE ALL PUT THERE BY YOU.

THANK YOU FOR HEARTACHE, THAT YOUR LOVE AND GRACE CAN BE DISPLAYED.

THANK YOU FOR MY CHURCH, WHERE I CAN WORSHIP YOU IN PEACE AND PRAY FOR THOSE WHO CAN'T.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR SON, WHO DIED FOR MY SIN, THOUGH I STILL CAN'T COMPREHEND THAT KIND OF LOVE.

THANK YOU FOR MY FAILURES, THAT YOU CAN TEACH ME THROUGH THEM NO MATTER HOW PAINFUL.

THANK YOU FOR MY SUCCESSES, THAT ARE NOT ACTUALLY MINE, BUT YOUR MAJESTY DISPLAYED.

THANK YOU FOR THIS NIGHT, THAT I KNOW I REST SAFELY IN YOUR ARMS.

Weekend without Mommy

I just saw my beautiful wife off to Arizona to see our new twin nieces. I am going to miss her, but I am really glad that she gets to go visit for a few days. Have fun, hot stuff. We will be waiting for you!

Why I write

This is my first attempt at blogging, so it may be a little bumpy. I have been following my wife and her blogging world for several months and have threatened to write one myself for awhile but I've always found ways around it. Tonight I am finally going to follow through, not because I think I have wonderful things to say, but because I serve an amazing God who deserves to be praised on every platform. He is awesome. I could never say enough to do justice to what my relationship with Jesus Christ means, but I suppose no one who knows him can. So I write... to try to put the impossible into words.



I am not sure where to start, but all good stories start in the middle, right? Well, mine does. Several months ago my wife and I started to feel God was beginning to show us a bit of what the people in Africa, especially the orphans are going through. As we learned more of the horrific conditions that the majority African poeple live in, our hearts were broken. The hardest thing to grasp was the almost unbelievable number of orphans. We began to pray andask God what we could do. I fgured we could sponsor a child or two, support a local ministry, maybe even go on a mission some day. God's answer came, but it was much more involved than I had ever imagined. So I asked... again. And again He answered, clearly. But once more I had a hard time with his answer, it just wasn't what I was looking for. But God, in his amazingly patient manner, just kept on answering, "it's so simple... just adopt". He was not asking us to just throw money at the situation that was so heavy on our hearts. He wasn't asking us to simply give a portion of our time or money and then go on with our lives as if we had really made our mark in this world. He was simply asking us to do for others exactly as he had done for us, to bring them into our family and make them our own. Simple. Adopt.



I would like to say that we jumped in head first as soon as it was clear, but that's not quite how it went. However, through many questions, doubts, fears, concerns and just plain stubbornness we slowly began to see that God's plans are always better than ours. (What a hard lesson to have to relearn all the time.) And so here we are six months later bursting with excitement and eagerness to see who He has for us. We are still in the early stages, and nothing seems to be going fast enough now. (Patience- just another lesson I'm still learning.)



Through all this I realized that my response to His prompting us to adopt was how I had been living most of my life, for me. When Shauna and I decided to quit balking and just obey I made a commitment in my own heart as well, no more questioning God. No more hearing from Him and doing nothing because I wanted a different answer. Better yet, no more not hearing from him at all because of being too concerned about myself and what I wanted. No more living halfway for God, it is all or nothing. No more "lukewarm".



I am far from perfect. In fact I don't think I can even see it from here, but I know one who is. And He is where I draw my strength from. He is one I turn to after I fail at the same things over and over again. He is my rock, my first love. He is my savior. He is Jesus, King of kings and Lord of lords.



God is awesome and I am not worthy of His grace, but He gives it anyway. I don't deserve His blessings, but He blesses anyway. I fail to hear Him call, but still He calls. His love is immesureable. His patience, unfathomable. His blessings, unmatchable. His grace is perfect. My God deserves all praise and Honor. Praise Him, praise Him!