In-n-out of the desert... He is faithful!

2 . 26 . 12

Happy Sunday friends :)

I wish to bring to the eyes and hearts of those who might be reading this, a request for prayer... These last few days have been crazy, the spirit is on the move... like the wind. Please read on...

Last week - on ash wednesday - I wrote about the season of lent, the cleansing it represents, and discipline it requires...

Re-reading my words, I thought I should copy the end in this post. Remembering the condition of my heart on wednesday is now such a gift as the events which would follow are just too much to ignore... Here's how I ended the post, followed by my account of the days following (feel free to skip on ahead if you've already read it...):

"...the gift of God which awaits those who present themselves as faithful in pursuing the sometimes difficult commands of the spirit(Jericho). Then in a pure light being cleansed from unrighteousness (Achan) where the Lord can now hold you warmly in His perfect hands, giving hope for today, and eyes for tomorrow…

And of course,it all comes back to Jesus, the Son which cleanses… delivering through his death & resurrection the gift of the spirit which will hover above and within as I journey this next week, learning new discipline, leaning on the spirit to give power in moments of weakness & temptation…

The whole purpose..?. its my gift (so small but so significant) to my maker … a display of my affection for Him and a way of saying thanks for all he has blessed me with. It's a pouring out… a re-throning of the Spirit in my life, giving His touch - the same touch which delivered Moses & Joshua with glooory - authority and creative license over my life and it's direction."


After this day of ash, the spirit was given new freedom in my life...

So Thursday I got an email from the president of an organization called Warm Blankets International, a group I'd been working with this past year, struggling to get a Sunspring unit to a community in Burkina Faso (W Africa) where it would provide safe water to over 1,000 impoverished individuals, who just. don't. have any.

This process has taken over a year.. a year to recruit and gather the $$, ship the unit, break out of customs, properly educate on set-up, and eventually install... at each step there were moments of "is this going to work"?

Anyway, Thursday he sent me this email with the pictures of it's finally having been installed. In the pictures I saw the unit pumping water with community members surrounding it full of joy, for now they can drink... Glory!!:)!!

Selah.

In the email he asked if I was interested in doing consulting work with Warm Blankets, and said we should talk soon... we spoke friday for an hour.

Walking through what his vision was for me within the organization, tears rolled down my cheeks... my spirit could not have been more glad... ash now gone, i felt 'warmly held in His perfect hands, given hope for today, and eyes for tomorrow'.

This guy Craig, we've never actually met, but apparently our conversations on the phone regarding the Sunspring and how it was handled were enough for him to reach out. He candidly told me that his spirit felt my name come into his mind wednesday as discussions of who they might recruit to fill this position were beginning. Coincidence? :)

The hour conversation was not enough... He told me he wanted to fly me out to discuss the job further and actually meet me. Tomorrow I'll be in Illinois, Tuesday night I'll be back... I wonder what my 'eyes for tomorrow' might see as this journey only gets more interesting...

The job: It's framework - as I understand it - looks like this... building relationships with high net worth donors, sharing the story of Warm Blankets (whose mission statement is James 1:27... gahh love it!), and then leading these people around the network of orphanages in over a dozen countries throughout SE Asia & Africa where their $$ has touched so many... first trip would be to Africa in two months. I'll find out more soon... tomorrow actually:)

So pray for me. Pray for it to be a warm introduction... that if this is the direction the spirit is wanting to lead me, that I would respond and move... move my feet towards His good work.


"Why are you planning all these great things for the fall; plans to do work which you know makes your heart pump with passion, work which you know you were created to do... when I may want to use you now to do these things??"

This is what I felt as I drove the 1400 miles from Seattle-Salida... having a firm grip on this summer being a raft guide again, I felt the spirit pressuring me to - in my heart - open up this space for Him to move... If rafting is not meant to be, I want to be okay with that... pray for this. I love the river... so much. The people I work and the community we've built... even more.

Moving on...

Equally significant and definitely worth a mention are the other ways the spirit moved in the days following wednesday. Two Sunspring units I've been waiting on since October, the money has finally come through... all in His perfect time. Shoutout to Rotary International and the good work they're doing with clean water for the people of Northwest Haiti... Glory!

And one more I'll share, thursday I got a call from a person I know will become a dear friend here in the valley... Mallory Mccall, calling to give me the classic YL welcome, inviting me over sometime for beergharitas and burgers at their home where she lives with three other YL leaders, all who work just next door at the Salida Hostel... Just perfect. It now has a scent of 'home' this town...

Judd and I went over there last night and met her as well as her roommate Katie, both just a year or two outta college... what beautiful spirited women who clearly love jesus and have such beautiful vision and hope for how the Spirit wants to move in this valley, where in many ways darkness reigns..

Did I forget to mention too that the methodist church I've gone to these past three weeks (wherein grey heads full of wisdom outweigh youth like myself at least 20:1.. ha.. love it) has just last week shown interest in me speaking to the congregation about the possibility of having a raft guide dinner in Salida, like the one in BV where over 150 mangy guides come each week for a warm, home cooked meal and a shower... could be my first time behind a pulpit.. where is this meant to lead I wonder?

Gosh... So much more to share about each of these crazy happenings... that should do for now.. join me in praying for each, please:)


I write these things, not for myself... i know it, I feel it, I relyyy on "it". I write for you... that the warmth and perfect guidance of the Holy Spirit might touch your life today... that you might have your very own 'ash wednesday', today, tomorrow, whenever... a day for your spirit to give up that which hinders, and touch life, re-connecting with it's source, giving the maker of you, the maker of your eyes - your most beautiful, complex eyes - which read these words, authority over this life, delivering new hope for a life offered us all in eternity.

Ending with some meat to chew on... this morning in scripture I found myself nearing the end of the story of Joshua. His journey... just crazy. Without the hand of God, it's nothing... But His plans were to bring Glory to His name, and freedom to His people, through the spirit led leadership of Joshua, and before him Moses.

It hasn't been an easy journey for Joshua and his people... anything but actually. However, he remained faithful... and his people are now settled in the land which was promised them long loooong ago... a place they could only dream about as they journeyed forty years in the desert, manna falling from the sky, they knew and trusted (most of them..)... even in the desert, sand and suffering stretching as far as the eye could see.

And now the journey is ending... and "the Lord gave Israel all the land he had sworn to give... they took possession of it and settled there. The lord gave them rest on every side, just as he had sworn to their forefathers. Not one of their enemies withstood them; the Lord handed all their enemies over to them. Not one of all the Lord's good promises to the house of Israel failed; every one was fulfilled."

Beautiful, no?

We are all promised beautiful things... if only we'll let the Spirit be our guide. We know this from scripture.. we feel it, and in desert moments, we do our best to remember our own 'exodus', the ways in which the hand of God has touched our lives, and maybe those around us.. and as we munch on manna and dream of a future bedded warmly in eternity with our maker, we can then be used, our joy which overflows bringing life to those in need, theirs then overflowing to those longing to overflow...


Be well friends! Thank you for your prayers! I'll hope to be back wednesday with an update :)