I've been silent. I've been doing a lot of pondering and I have been very busy. It seems I don't have as much time for blogging as I use to. We are coming to the end of our 2nd year of homeschooling and I am praying the Lord help us make it through. *sighing* That definitely hasn't been the easiest thing. God always provides grace through an encouraging husband, girl friend and associate pastor. I am confident and thankful that my daughter and I are right where we need to be. I love the body of Christ!
We just completed our 4th year as urban missionaries last month. I remember Kevin and I saying "15 years, we will commit 15 years to this ministry before we go before the Lord and inquire on what we should do next." Stay here or go else where?? I cant believe its already been 4 years! It went by soo fast. As I have been thinking what to blog about, my mind mostly just ends up blank. Its not that I don't have anything to say, its just that the question(s) I end up asking myself is, "Do I really want to share that?'... "How would it make my neighbors feel if they read this?" "Will this point those who are reading this blog to Christ?"
My whole reason for wanting to blog about our ministry was to give people an "up close" account to what life is like as an urban missionary. Now I just kinda feel like, its just life. That's all we are doing. LIFE on LIFE. Nothing radical about what we are doing. I say that because if we read the scriptures, we will see many people before us have done the very same things simply out of obedience and love for the Lord and the plight of their neighbor. Nothing radical about that. That's just simple obedience. It just burdens me that we have resorted to calling obedience "radical" simply because many are choosing not to live according to the scriptures as we should. (this including myself) Lord have mercy on us all!
Many times when I come to blog I don't and wont have "deep, frightening" stories about living in the hood. I won't come with a sob story all the time about some girl in the hood who is just running wild and crazy, or some boy caught up in local gangs.
We are simply doing LIFE. Does it get hard? Heck yea! Frustrating? Uh yea! But even in that, there is confidence and a reassurance that can only come from the LORD. That assurance for me is that we are right where we need to be. So, I do plan on blogging more in the future, (starting this week). It's just right now, I have so much to think through and focus on that I can't even begin to get what I want to say down in writing. The ministry is adding more options for the kids in our after school program. Our community garden is well underway. Our church plant is in full effect and the official launch is late summer. The Purity Study begins TODAY, and our cheer team is blooming with confident girls who are learning what it means to cheer for the glory of God. The 13 Letters Wednesday night bible study is amazing, and the kids seem to really understand all that is being taught from week to week. I don't want to use this blog to boast or brag about my own abilities or what "I'm doing" (unless its in the NAME OF THE LORD OUR GOD), but my hope is that whatever you read here, it provokes you to faith, in our Savior and that faith shows it self through the works you accomplish here on earth.