it’s totally cliche, but springtime DOES represent new beginnings. so then i find it totally natural that God would use this time of the year to bring me into a ministry entirely new to me.
i’ve spent the past 10 years of my life pursuing God’s calling on my life as a full-time missionary. He’s lead me to many countries in central and south america, the caribbean, and most recently south-east asia. oh my gosh i have been privileged to see and do some truly amazing and even miraculous things by His hand and leadership. and now, in the spring, nature’s annual season of starting afresh, God is bringing me into a form of ministry and missionary work that i could have NEVER imagined.
to begin with, He, in His HILARIOUS sense of humor, has called me to my own backyard...RICHMOND. it’s funny; i am completely in LOVE with richmond...its history, its land, the PEOPLE. but for years i refused to allow God to draw me into His purpose for this city. i think i was afraid of what it would look like to be a missionary so close to home. but opening my heart, letting go of MY plan and allowing Him to lead me here is turing into one of the biggest ADVENTURES of my life!
...He is calling out to richmond for REVIVAL and RENEWAL. and He is calling out to begin this REGENERATION thru prayer. hmm.
so where does that lead me?? well, God has such a funny way of talking to me sometimes. this past december thru february i was in india and nepal with ywam. near the end of our time there i naturally began wondering where God was going to lead me next. about 20 different ideas swept thru my mind and each of them involved a different country i had never been to. while my team and i were in kathmandu, the capital city of nepal near the end of february, one of my friends back at our home base (in honolulu woohoo!) sent an email to me saying she had a word from God for me. all it said was “psalm 132.” i read psalm 132 immediately.
...so now i’m sure you’re expecting to hear about the big revelation and crazy direction i got. because that’s exactly what i thought was going to happen. well, i read psalm 132...and tho it was beautiful...i had NO CLUE what it meant and even LESS of an idea of where i was going next. but i did know that God was telling me to stop planning and wait.
alright so i waited. my team and i returned to honolulu in early march, and i returned home to virginia a few weeks later. sitting in rihop (richmond international house of PRAYER) one evening, holy spirit reminded me of the word my Father had given me in nepal. i read it again and literally JUMPED up and down, definitely breaking the silence in the room (sorry everyone haha).
God revealed to me thru that psalm what it was that He had called me to next.
“surely, i will not go into the chamber of my house, or go up to the comfort of my bed; i will not give sleep to my eyes or slumber to my eyelids, until i find a place for the Lord, a dwelling place for the Mighty One of Jacob” (psalm 132:3-5)
----this is the CALL God has placed upon me. to CRY OUT DAY and NIGHT to Him to come and DWELL here. this is His RESTING place.
“for the Lord has chosen ZION; He has DESIRED it for His DWELLING place; ‘this is My resting place forever; here I will dwell, for I have desired it. I will ABUNDANTLY bless her provision, I will satisfy her poor with bread. I will also clothe her priests with salvation, and her saints shall SHOUT aloud for JOY. there I will make the horn of david grow; I will prepare a lamp for My Anointed” (psalm 132 13:-18).
----zion: RICHMOND. He is calling out to His bride to prepare the WAY of the Lord...to come and DWELL with us, where He will prepare the way for His anointed: JESUS.
so then. this is my calling. this is what i do. my Father called out to me...even as i was in nepal. He called out to me to RETURN to this city, for He is desiring to DWELL and rest here. he has asked me to give up everything; my comforts, my SLEEP, all i know, to call out His HEART here in the heart of this CITY and make a way for Him.
this is my call, this is my LIFE.
my UNDIGNIFIED life!
