I left home to head home. That's what I felt when I was leaving New Zealand in March. I felt as if I was leaving home to go home. And now as I prepare to return to New Zealand, I feel the same thing. I'm leaving home to go home.
I love New Zealand so much and my heart is in that nation. I am returning to New Zealand to staff with YWAM and to be a staffer for the Justice DTS, school that I just finished in March. I felt God beginning to place this in my heart and in my mind last November when I was in the lecture phase of my DTS. I felt God showing me that my gifts would be used well in an environment like YWAM. I would get to pour into people and love on them. I would get to spend time just walking with people on their walks with Jesus. I would be able to lead people to other nations and just share the love of God with people! My heart's cry for last few years has been to love God and love people. That continues to be my hearts cry.
I am so excited about this next chapter of life and this journey that papa is taking me on. He has continuously confirmed over and over again that He will provide and that He is so good. He continues to reveal His heart in many ways. I cannot wait to dive even deeper into relationship with the Father and see what He has in store for me. I am excited about the people that I am going to be staffing with. I'm exciting about meeting the new students and becoming friends with them. Am I sad about leaving Chicago and all my loved ones here? Of course I am. The verse that I continuously turn towards in this time is Luke 14:26 If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.
It doesn't mean that I hate my family because I don't, I do love my family. But the love I have for my family will look like hate in comparison to my love for Jesus. I will live for Jesus in wholehearted abandon. I give up my life daily and take whatever God has in store for me that day. God will not leave me or forsake me. He won't take me to a foreign land and abandon me there. He is always with me. He is a good father who gives good gifts to His kids. I am going to the nations to tell more of His kids about His love for them. That all He wants is a relationship with them and that He wants them to be reconciled through that.
I will be blogging my journey, what God is teaching me, what I am learning, what I am doing and just everyday life. I'm excited to continue on this journey in New Zealand and where ever else God calls me in the next two years. As for right now I will enjoy my time at home with family and friends, working at camp and just being here. I will head home to New Zealand on August 22 after spending 2 days with friends in LA. So walk with me on this journey and come home with me.
