“Then He called his disciples and the crowd to come over and listen
as he said… If any of you wants to be my follower, you must put aside
your selfish ambition, shoulder your cross, and
follow me. If you try to keep your life for yourself, you will lose it.
But if you give up your life for my sake and for the sake of the Good
News you will find true life. And how do you benefit if you gain the
whole world but lose your own soul in the process?”
This is our last week in the beautiful home we call Nsoko. And what
a perfect ending to a place that has changed us each so drastically. I
think I speak for our team when I say each one of us will never look at
life the same again after living along side this inspiring community of
believers.
The
perfect ending started Friday when a lovely couple from Florida came to
do a special art project with the children from the area. The man named
Bob works for Delta, and their company decided to hold a coloring
contest where each child got a piece of paper and a pack of crayons,
donated by Crayola, and they got to color a picture of anything they
wanted to. At the end of the time Bob and his wife Pattie collected
the pictures and took them home so that the CEO of Delta could pick
the best one (although every paper was beautiful) so that Delta could
auction the best drawing off on eBay. Hopefully this project will
generate a ton of income so that a children’s village can be built on
the property we are now currently staying on. Our teams is praying
daily for this project to be successful and are asking for ya’ll at
home to pray about this incredible project with us. Thanks!
As for my life God is making BIG CHANGES! And I could not be more thrilled about them.
He is truly showing me what it means to put aside all selfish
ambitions, desires, thoughts, and anything else that is selfish in my
heart. I have seen just how far and wide God’s love spreads, and it is
CRAZY! I feel that most of my life I have lived as a lukewarm Christian
who never truly wanted God more than anything else. We listened to a
song by Lifehouse and the words are “How can I stand
here and not be moved by you…Your all I want Your all I need your
everything.” The words hit me like a ton of bricks! How often do I
compare God’s worth with other things in my life on accident… for
example so many times I choose friends or family or items or money or
stuff over God. How could I think for even a second that something on
this puny little earth compares to the Creator and Sustainer and Savior
of it all…
For the first time in my life I feel like I am willing to say “God you can have whatever
you want, a wholehearted commitment to you is more important than
anything or person in my life. Nothing I do in my life matters unless
it is about loving you and loving people!”
I am falling so much deeper in love with my maker and I could not be
more excited and ready to shout it from the roof tops! Like Psalms 63
says God’s love is better than life itself! I want to experience true
satisfaction and pleasure and joy in my relationship with him. I want
to love Him more than ANYTHING on this earth; I want to treasure His kingdom of heaven so much that I would be willing to do ANYTHING in order to get that. I want to stand here and be truly moved by him.
