HEALING RAIN. LIVING WATER. BOREHOLE WELLS.

It is that sound on the roof, you know it, the pitter patter of the first drops and then the deafening roar of rain pouring from the sky. The sound drew me to go out on the porch and watch it soak the ground, bringing life to the hardened soil. In Zambia this year God has answered their prayers, quite overabundantly I might add, for rain. The past 20 years have been less than adequate but this year it has almost been too much. 

I love being in Zambia during the rains. But this year, it was not just healing rain for the ground but for my soul. It was an overabundance of love, support and encouragement pouring from dear people, our partners in Zambia. 

The theme of water on this trip was quite easy to spot. The miraculous way in which we got the bore hole wells set up, sited, dug and the hand pumps put in, was truly exciting. Really, you have no idea! These wells will now give life giving, clean water to the community of Chibolya! See the rains could only provide water that was in reality, still dirty when collected in their hand dug wells. Going deep into the clean underground water table is what it took to give water that makes a difference. And it is the same concept with the true Living Water, Jesus. You can try to dig your own well, try to get to clean water on your own, or go to the source, the life giving water that Jesus talks about in John 4. It’s Jesus that makes a difference. 

It was so humbling to give life giving water to the community of Chibolya and be able to share about the true Living Water to this community (and give out New Testaments!). A community God has picked out of all Zambia so we can join Him and pour our lives into. I prayed as I left on this trip that I would be, “poured out as a drink offering, an empty vessel for Him.” God is so amazing that as I prayed that prayer He was already planning on filling me back up in the home of and through the care of our partners. Healing rain. Living Water. Borehole Wells. 

Healing Rain

The Dance

A shadow heart in the rocky dirt of Chongwe

Today is February 14th. A day of love. I have been thinking about what this day means as I sat with a dear sister in Christ earlier who is not married or in a relationship but love still abounds in her life. I set off on a walk after she left and thought about love. About earthly love, puppy love, romantic love and then I thought about who is the true love of my life. I put on my music and thanked Jesus for being the lover of my soul. 

Now, I do love my husband and our marriage. All that God has brought us through and to. I love that I get to experience marriage in this world and all it entails and represents. What I love most about my husband though, is that he loves me less. Less than Jesus. Now, don’t get all bent out of shape and send emails stating that I am a humbug about Valentine’s Day. I am all for it, but there is a everlasting love that goes beyond this world. Ben and I won’t be married in heaven (at least according to most biblical scholars on those verses). We will be to each other, brothers and sisters in Christ. What freedom that should bring to us here. It is all about Jesus. It takes the pressure off of the expectations we have about love in this life. It frees us to fully enjoy earthly love without depending on it outside of Christ. What Christ did for me on the cross by shedding His blood to be the atoning sacrifice for my sin that had to be paid so I could be made right before a holy God is the most overwhelming act of love I could ever experience. Jesus wants to love the socks off of you in ways earthly love can not touch, even marital love. It is so profound and so deep. It is the most intimate relationship you can have. And while I love being in the arms of my husband, being in the arms of Jesus is that much sweeter. It is in this truth that Ben and I will stand side by side with our hands outstretched to the One who loves us more than either of us can love each other and turn our gaze to something greater than both of us which is the kingdom work that is laid at our feet. And it is with those same feet that we follow the lead of our Lord and Savior in a dance that will continue on into  eternity. And as I walked on in my thoughts on this sunny day, this song came on…We Dance. 

We Dance (Official Lyric Video) - Steffany Frizzell Gretzinger & Bethel Music - You Make Me Brave

MY WORD FOR THE YEAR-FOCUS

With a whole year ahead of you it can seem as if the horizon is quite vast. It can look either exciting or overwhelming depending on your point of view, but regardless, there is much to take in. Those little squares on your calendar long to be filled in, days begin and end and the future desires to be defined in the here and now. Trying to take it all in is almost too much. 

So, here I am in the year 2017, embracing the holy unknowing, the mystery and what lies ahead. As I was thinking about a word God wanted me to hold onto this year, I was also in the middle of finishing a Bible Study and writing a review for it on Amazon. It came to me as I was writing, the Bible Study was the prep for what God wanted me to know about this year. The review for, “HIs Last Words: What Jesus taught and prayed in His final hours,” was the trigger for what is important in this New Year. I was sharing in the review that the study was, “…not only in title, but in content, about Him. All about our Lord and Savior. The focus is on Him.” Well, there you go. That is what this year is going to be about. IT IS ALL ABOUT GOD. 

The word FOCUS then is the way in which I will do this. To FOCUS is to pinpoint what you want to see clearly. You then, by no other choice, let what is in the periphery fade. God is who I will keep my eyes focused on. I will let all that is trying to pull me away, or detour me, or distract me, fade to fuzzy. 

What is it that you are focusing on going into this New Year? Is it on something or someone other than God? FOCUS. What if Moses, Nehemiah or Paul would have lost FOCUS? Regardless of time, hardship, years of struggle, naysayers, battles, discouragement, beatings, hunger, attack or trials, they held their gaze on the One who is worthy, despite what it meant for them in this world. 

The world is full of stuff that fills the periphery. Don't let any of it pull your FOCUS off God. It takes work to stay focused on something. So we need to be ready, we need a plan and we need to be diligent in keeping our eyes on Him. You will get tired, your eyes will hurt and you will want to look at something else at some exhausted point, but don’t. He is all that we need. The vast horizon of the New Year is upon us, let us narrow our view to what is important, let us not look to and fro but fix our eyes on Jesus. And not surprisingly, that becomes all the clarity we need. 

Psalm 16:8, “I keep my eyes always on the Lord. With him at my right hand, I will not be shaken.”

LIGHT-MY WORD FOR THE SEASON

The sunrise seeps through the trees oozing into the darkness of the pre-dawn sky. I sit and watch this almost every morning as the light invades the night. It is always amazing. There is something so divine about the sunrise, about light, about how it illuminates the darkness impartially. It can’t not shine it’s light into every corner or crevice. It overcomes darkness. 

And so it is with Jesus who is the Light of the world. He has come to overcome all darkness. John 8:12 says, “When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, ‘I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.’” He is the Light! When we know Him as the Life and therefore the Light, we will never walk in darkness. We walk in abundant life and never ending light. Light that illuminates all sin, all darkness and evil. We see clearly! We have no fear in the Light. We can walk in the world because we are in the Light. Friends, we need to make sure we are in the Light as 1 John 1:6 states, “If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in darkness we lie and do not live by the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son purifies us from all sin.” 

What a glorious truth that Jesus would come to be the Light of the World and allow us to enter into this light and life through His blood that He freely gave! He came from heaven to be born of a woman and walked this earth, died and was resurrected! Knowing Him, we are therefore also lights unto this world, a “city on a hill” that we might “shine our light before men (Matt. 5:14-16). 

My prayer is that I can be that light, that beacon of hope to those around me. And that THE LIGHT will overflow from me as I walk in the path God puts before me everyday as the dawn overtakes the dark and the day begins. As I walk here in Wisconsin or in Zambia or anywhere in between, I walk into the world knowing I have the Light that overcomes. Let us boldly be that light, life and love to those around us and overtake the darkness with the Name above all Names, the Light of the World, Jesus. 

May you experience the Light of the World this Christmas season! May He illuminate your need for Him and may you bend your knee to a Savior born to the world, a baby in a manger. 

Many Blessings to you all! Merry Christmas!

Water

This week, as we prepare to celebrate Thanksgiving and as I walk around the beautiful Geneva Lake in Williams Bay, Wisconsin, I know that I have much to be thankful for. My family, my friends, this beautiful home that God miraculously provided for us and, based on a recent trip to Zambia, the abundance of water that we have available to us here in Wisconsin.
Reflecting back on my recent trip to Zambia, God presented to me something that I wasn’t completely prepared for. It seemed that the main theme of this trip was water. I have always known that water was an issue. On previous trips, I’ve seen the wells that are dug into the ground with used tires around them to announce their location and to keep debris from blowing into them. Sure, the water wasn’t the cleanest and safety was certainly a concern as many of them are not covered but there has always been water in them so the people of Chibolya at least had something. They may get sick from drinking it but maybe not, dirty water is no good but it isn’t necessarily a death sentence.

As I walked around with Issac, the headman of this community, he took me to 4 or 5 of these wells that I’ve seen many times before. This time, however, the wells were empty. No water for the community at all. In November, Zambia is in the tail end of their winter. There has been no rain since April or May, nothing to replenish the water table that has been falling since the last time it rained. I never really appreciated the value of water until I witnessed this first hand. Until I saw the wells, and the tanker trucks delivering water from the capital city which, for whatever reason, delivered the water to the communities across the road but not to the shanty community in which we have been called.

God showed this to me for, what I believe, a very specific purpose. Not necessarily to fix the problem but to show me that the problem is really much greater than water itself. Why has nothing been done about this? This isn’t a new problem for this community. Why hasn’t the Chieftainess done anything? Why hasn’t the Zambian government addressed this issue? Maybe the issue is too big for any of them to make any significant progress. Maybe their resources are already spread so thin that they just can’t afford to do anything. Whatever the case, something needs to be done. Or maybe, God wants so much more for this community.

John 4:13-14 states, “Jesus answered, Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” NIV

This is my prayer for the community of Chibolya. That they may thirst for the water of eternal life. That God would seek them out and call them to repentance and to Himself so they may never thirst again. God is big enough to meet the physical needs of these people and we will continue to work toward solutions to ensure everyone has access to their most basic needs of food (water) and freedom while also focusing on their greatest need of all, forgiveness. 

A PERFECT NIGHT??

A fire, a cup of tea, a blanket and Jesus. Aloneness is right up my alley as I am an introvert and such a night would be a dream! Tonight, Ben is gone, Kate is working and Carter is at a friend’s house. I really can’t remember when I have had time like this in the recent months.

This time alone is usually something I relish and can’t wait for but tonight I actually had to work my way to where I was comfortable in it. I wondered if I should have invited someone over, or if I was “missing out” on anything somewhere. I actually contemplated what my life would look like if I was not on this road, If Ben and I were not in ministry. If we still had “real” jobs and money. Wondering where you are going to live next or how God is going to meet a need, is not the life most American suburbanized Mid-Westerner’s find attractive. I realized I needed to address this in my heart as I was walking around the house feeling very unsettled. I got on FB and then realized that is not how I wanted to spend my evening. I then sat down by the fire to write a brief update to a couple that has been praying for us. 

As I was writing, I realized I was divulging all my thoughts to them. There were words being typed that I did not know needed to be. And then the tears came. I did not know where these were coming from! Words like, “I feel very alone” were pouring out in the email. Well, of course you are! You are alone in your house by the fire! That should be a good thing! But these words were coming from a place in my heart that needed to be touched by Jesus, not by humans.The words to “I Need You” came to mind and I started to sing to Him. I just needed to sit and talk to Him. 

I know I have chosen this road, the road that goes the other direction from most. 

I do not wonder when I am going to have time for a manicure; or where we are going on vacation. I wonder how we are going to get the money we need to get back to Zambia and then I start thinking about the things I need to buy for people we know there, and my mind goes to future projects and the money that will be needed for those. What impact a safe house could have or the money to properly cover and protect the few wells in Chibolya so no children fall down them, or how to keep drainage from the shoddy built outhouses from entering the water in the wells 5 feet from them. These are things most people are not thinking about on a Saturday night. And that’s ok. 

Then I remember that I am exactly where God wants me, alone on a Saturday night with Him.  Addressing my needs with my Savior so I can then get up and address the needs of a dying world around me. He is truly all we need. He is enough. 

https://youtu.be/LuvfMDhTyMA

Just another piece to the puzzle

Last week, Kristin & me were talking with some friends of ours about how we remember our mothers putting puzzles together when we were younger. I used to enjoy helping my mom with the puzzles and I have great memories of searching through the pieces looking something that looked like it would fit somewhere on the table. That was the fun of it for me, finding the next piece, the realization that I’ve figured out what’s next. Many times, I’ve looked at my life with the same goal, to try and figure out how the pieces would fit together. Somehow, I felt that if I could figure it out, I could “help” God move me in the direction that He wants me to go.

However, in Isaiah 55:8-11, it becomes very clear that this is an impossible task.

8 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. 9 “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. 10 As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, 11 so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.” (NIV)

I have effectively given up trying to figure out how all of the pieces of the puzzle fit together. Just when I think I see what God is doing, he either adds another 1,500 pieces or changes the puzzle all together. I know many people would struggle living a life where it seems that things are changing all the time but I love change, always have. The adventure of the unknown fits my personality and the way God created me quite well. I can’t tell you how many times in the last 10-15 years I have sat back and said to myself or someone in my family, “well, let’s see how God is going to work this out”. Every time I’ve said that, EVERY time, He has never let me down…ever. It may not have been what I thought it was going to be or what I thought it should be but it has always been exactly what I have needed and it has always exceeded my expectations.

Because of that, I will continue to follow God’s leadings wherever they may lead me and my family. Through our trips and future move to Zambia as well as our stay here in the US. Sometimes that’s a little scary and not knowing exactly where God is taking us is a faith journey for sure but when I look back at all the times that God has shown up and executed His perfect plan for us I am able to sit back and say, “look at that, that was God, He did that”. That is such a sweet place to be and it gives me the strength once again respond in faith, in total surrender to whatever God has in store for us next. My circumstances are just another piece of the puzzle, when God is done, the only thing left will be a beautiful portrait painted by Him and Him alone. Nothing I do will improve or diminish what He is doing in my life. My job is to follow Him and allow Him fit the pieces where they belong because He knows best. 

- Ben