October Newsletter
Valley of Vision:
Christ was all anguish that I might be all joy,
cast off that I might be brought in,
trodden down as an enemy that I might be welcomed as a friend,
surrendered to hell’s worst that I might attain heaven’s best,
stripped that I might be clothed,
wounded that I might be healed,
athirst that I might drink,
tormented that I might be comforted,
made a shame that I might inherit glory,
entered darkness that I might have eternal light.
September Newsletter
Scatterbrained Update
“For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength.” 1 Corinthians 1:25
The way the Lord works is so interesting. Especially compared to the way we work. By nature, we need some outside source to look at us and say we are valuable. We only want to love people and be vulnerable if we feel like they will return the favor. And so often we change the way we feel about those people when they do something to hurt us or make us question our ability to trust them. God is so not like that. He loves us fully and extravagantly KNOWING we are going to betray Him. He doesn’t change the way He feels about us once we let Him down or prove that we aren’t trustworthy. It would be comparable to a man or woman recently engaged who looks at their fiance and says “Fiance, I am going to hurt you and let you down so often. I’m going to choose other things over you repeatedly. I’m going to cheat on you and give you so much less than you deserve.” And then the fiance on the receiving end of all that responds by saying, “I know. But it is so worth it to me. Nothing you could do would ever separate you from my love. Nothing.” It’s like WHAT? How does that make any sense? Get out while you can. That’s how we naturally respond. Thank God that He is not like us.
I just finished reading “Counterfeit Gods” by Tim Keller and you have got to get your hands on a copy. It will radically change your view of things. Here is a little excerpt for you: “Jonah was thrown only into a storm of wind and water. Jesus on the Cross, however, was thrown into the ultimate storm- of all the divine justice and punishment that we deserve for our wrongdoing. When I struggle with my idols, I think of Jesus, voluntarily bowing his head into that ultimate storm, taking it on frontally, for me. He sank in that storm of terror so I would not fear any other storm in my life. If he did that for me, then I know my value, confidence, and mission in life all rest in him. Storms here on earth can take away many things, even my physical life, but not my Life.” This book is soaked in truth front to back and the author has a way of getting to the heart of things. You won’t be disappointed. Maybe challenged, maybe convicted…welcome to the club…but not disappointed.
Well some of you guys have been tracking with me and supporting me prayerfully and financially. I can’t thank you enough! So I want to just share what’s been going on in my world and what is ahead. As many of you know, I will be involved in what is called the Women’s Development Program at the Austin Stone Institute along with but separate from my internship. I am STOKED about this program. It will include somewhere around 40-50 girls and we will all meet together a couple times a week, but we will also be broken down into “missional communities” of 8 or 9 girls. These groups will be decided based on what we have a heart for and what we are most passionate about. For example, if there is a group of girls within the big group who really have a heart for their lost co-workers, they would be put into a missional community together and they will be missionaries to those people they work with who don’t know Jesus. They will meet with them weekly and it will look differently week to week. One week they may invite them to a movie, another week they may have them all over to someone’s house for dinner or go out to eat…you get the idea. So we will be missionaries in these missional communities to the city of Austin. Also, throughout this program we will be learning about the Muslim culture. What they believe, what they don’t believe, how they feel about certain topics, etc. Then at the end of the program we will be going on a foreign mission trip to a place where Islam is predominate. This trip will be next summer and the whole 40-50 member group will be going together. I am SO excited about this opportunity as well as the opportunity to reach out to people in Austin on a daily and weekly basis.
Here’s kind of a cool revelation I had this week:
As many of you know, I have a little dog named Elle. She is a 3 year old malti-poo, just to quench your curiosity. Anyway, I was really torn about bringing her to Austin with me because there was free housing for the interns but I couldn’t take advantage of that with a dog. Also, as I was looking into apartments in Austin with my roommate, every place had an enormous pet deposit. Though I could have sat down with my parents and had a talk with them about how I needed to dump her on them, I didn’t feel good about that. She is my responsibility after all, not to mention she’s pretty great. So, my roommate and I ended up finding a place to live and I made just enough money this summer babysitting and teaching dance to cover the pet deposit. Well every morning and evening we go on pretty long walks around the apartment complex. I have met SO many neighbors and made some friends where I live BECAUSE I have to walk her around. I just realized the other day that she is part of the Lord’s will in my life. He is using her to draw people to me…especially kids, which has been so fun! The other day I was walking her and these two little girls came over to meet Elle. While they were petting her and playing with her I just started praying that the Lord would give me an opportunity to speak Him into their lives in some way. I didn’t want to just randomly attack them with the Gospel, but I wanted Him to prepare a moment where I could plant a seed in their hearts. I kid you not, the next thing out of one of the little girl’s mouths was “Did you know that when we die we get to be babies all over again?”…first of all, random. Second of all, thank You, Jesus. So I talked with them about where they had heard that and all that jazz and then I said “Well I believe that if you know and believe in Jesus as your Savior, you get to spend eternity with Him in Heaven after you die!” They looked up at me, their eyes got huge, and they said in unison “WOOOOW!” Then their brother who was watching them called them away. It was small, but it was a seed. And it never would have been planted if I didn’t have Elle to take on walks. It just reassured me that he has a purpose in literally everything. There was a very unique reason and purpose that I didn’t get to live with the other interns in free housing…because the Lord wanted me here in this apartment, to reach out to my neighbors. I love that about the Lord. He uses everything for His good purpose.
P.S. WOW! This is such a random post. Sorry about that..but what can I say? I’m ADHD. Hope you enjoy!
What This Is All About
I want to be a part of something bigger than myself. The Lord has brought me to Austin for this season of life to make His name known. I have been given the absolute privilege to serve at the Austin Stone Community Church as a business intern. I recently graduated from Texas A&M with a bachelors in Finance and will hopefully be using some of those skills to further the outreach of the Gospel in this city. I am so excited about this opportunity! My heartbeat is to grow spiritually in many different ways and let that growth pour out into the lives of those around me. My hope is to be a vessel for the Lord to use to reconcile His people back to Himself. I would love for you to prayerfully or financially join me in this exciting opportunity to further God’s Kingdom!
