Take Heart

In a few months I’ll be headed off to Rwanda for a three week mission trip.  My team has been meeting weekly since the beginning of February in preparation for this trip where we will be spending time working with churches around the area. Deciding to accept the invitation onto this team required so much courage and faith. I’m working and saving money, but there is no way that I can save it all myself, I have to depend on God as well. It’s a beautiful thing to be in complete reliance upon him like this.

Another challenge has been facing the responses from concerned family members about safety. It seems that when you risk your life in a different way than through usual daily activities, its value is suddenly apparent and somehow one is in more danger than before. There are so many factors that make this trip impossible and there are millions of reasons to fear, but no matter what oppositions I see I cannot rid my heart of this love. So, to better explain my heart and passion for working in Africa, I’ve gathered quotes from the past two months that I’ve collected as they’ve confirmed and encourage me…

He dared to trust God to do only what God could do. When everything was hopeless, Abraham believed anyway, deciding to live not on the basis of what he saw he couldn’t do but on what God said he would do.

Romans 4

But if you embrace the way God does things, there are wonderful payoffs…God pays no attention to what others say (or what you think) about you. He makes up his own mind.

Romans 2

The person in right standing before God by trusting him really lives.

Romans 1:17

Those doves below, the ones utterly cared for, never endangered ones, cannot know tenderness.

Rilke

Jesus left what was safe to do what he was meant to do.

Flood Church

I feel compelled to go to Jerusalem. I’m completely in the dark about what will happen when I get there. I do know that it won’t be any picnic, for the Holy Spirit has let me know repeatedly and clearly that there are hard times ahead. But that matters little. What matters most to me is to finish what God started: the job the master Jesus gave me of letting everyone I meet know all about this incredibly extravagant generosity of God.

Acts 20

Every conflict, no matter how hard, comes back to bless the protagonist if he will face his fate with courage. There is no conflict man can endure that will not produce a blessing.

Donald Miller

He said he didn’t think we should be afraid to embrace whimsy…He said whimsy is the nagging idea that life could be magical; it could be special if we were only willing to take a few risks.

Donald Miller

The great stories go to those who don’t give into fear.

Donald Miller

Keep it up, and don’t let anyone intimidate or silence you. No matter what happens, I’m with you and no one is going to be able to hurt you. You have no idea how many people I have on my side in this city.

Acts 18

It makes no difference who you are or where you’re from – if you want God and are ready to do as he says, the door is open.

Acts 10:35

But the master said, “Don’t argue, Go!” I have picked him as my personal representative to Gentiles and kings and Jews. And now I’m about to show him what he’s in for – the hard suffering that goes with this job.

Acts 9:14-15

Your job is the relentless pursuit of who God made you to be. And anything else you do is sin and you need to repent of it.

Rob Bell