Throwbacks

In the past few weeks, I’ve had some really great opportunities to reflect on the past. Join me as I take a walk down memory lane and celebrate with me how the Lord has been sovereign through it all.

Old Meets New

The first time I came to Clarkston was for a Great Day of Service McKendree UMC put together. I went with some fellow youth and our youth pastor, Joe. We spent a few hours in the garden and met some families and had a really great time. One of the Friends of Refugees staff that was hosting us shared the opportunity to come back and work at summer camp. As a small group of highly involved youth, we signed us up…and told Joe later (I’m not sorry). There was a spark from that first experience that brought me and others coming back for more.  Here I am almost 7 years later now directing the same camp I signed us up for as a youth group without permission. How cool is that?

The Karen New Year Celebration in CIBC's Gym.
It was quite the party!

A couple weeks ago, I had the opportunity to come full circle in a way. I got to host Joe’s new youth group from his new church for a service project. I met with them at the same garden where it all began for me. It was such a blessing to catch up with Joe and have him catch up with and meet so many of the people I get to work with now. Talk about the past and present colliding, it’s a pretty cool thing! It was also incredibly helpful for us to have a group of people willing to help up clean up after the Karen New Year celebration and have them help up deep clean and organize our youth room. It took the group a few hours what would have taken a few of us all day (or more) to do, freeing us up to spend more time with families in the community. What a win!

In the Beginning…

Hanging out with Joe and his youth already had me reminiscing about my first experiences in Clarkston, so when I had the chance to catch up with Scott Kelley it was fitting. See, it’s Mission Impact Celebration week at McKendree UMC. We celebrate the different ministries and missions the church is involved in by inviting all of them to come to the church all at the same time. We will the fellowship hall with tables of information about each of the ministries for the church to see and learn about all we are involved in around the community and around the world. I’ve gone from being one who floats from table to table to gather information about what’s going on in different ministries to hosting the Friends of Refugees table. Scott and his family were hosting their table for their new ministry, The Refuge. Scott wore all kinds of hats while he worked at FOR, but he was always involved with the youth. He was the one who convinced me to intern my first summer and exemplified for me what full-time ministry in a place like Clarkston could look like.  His kids, one of which was my camper one summer, now tower over me. It was such a blessing to be able to connect with them. The example Scott and his family set for me is very much a part of why I do what I do now.

Steady Growth

My roommate Carrie is a pretty incredible person. She loves the Lord, teaching, and Clarkston. Though she doesn’t get to spend as much time doing ministry in Clarkston as she wishes, her encouragement that she gives so well and freely to me and many others works for the benefit of the community as a whole. Recently, she discovered one of her campers from two summers ago that she had an especially close relationship with lives very close to us. They started hanging out every now and then and she was excited about the opportunity to reconnect. One day, she gets a call from the camper’s dad and asks if she would be interested in tutoring his daughter twice a week. Carrie now gets to see her sweet camper twice a week. And teach her. At our house. It’s a beautiful thing! Carrie had the chance to start discipling her that first summer together, and since then the ways the Lord has brought Carrie and her camper together over the years has been really cool. Sometimes the relationship seemed dormant. Sometimes they went months without seeing each other. Sometimes it seemed like there would never be a chance for fruit. But the Lord is sovereign and has been so sweet to provide these two with a chance to reconnect in ways that minister to both of them so well.

Reflections

It blows my mind how God can so intricately weave together the events of our life to make such a big difference. Having a youth pastor who encouraged missions for the youth and having an example set for what living missionally looks like helped me very much get to where I am now. Believing in God to be faithful and entrusting relationships to Him has made two and half years of relationship an opportunity for one leader and one girl to grow closer to Him together. There are so many stories like Carrie’s that could be told about how persistence over time and being faithful has created beautiful things in people’s lives. When we only focus on results right now, we will likely be disappointed. Sometimes fruit comes quickly…or sometimes it takes 5, 10, 20+ years. In those situations where progress seems to only be 3 miles an hour, sometimes it’s hard to tell that there is progress until you realize where it all started months or years ago.

I hope you will pray with me for the sweet relationships like Carrie’s that exit around our community. Pray for opportunities to share about the great God that brought them together and for patience as we sometimes grow irked looking for fruit. Let us also thank God for the situations and people in our past that have helped us get this far. We are so lucky to have God that was and is and will be, a God who is immune to the effects of time and stays the same always. 

PS: Clarkston with a dusting of snow was quite beautiful!

2016!

Happy New Year! I hope that as we are now over a week into the new year you are holding fast to your resolutions and getting back onto your "normal" post-holiday schedule.

Holiday Updates:
We've had some really wonderful Christmas parties around Clarkston. I decorated more trees, made more ornaments, and celebrated the birth of our Savior with more people from more countries than I ever have in my entire life. It was such a blessing. I also had the true honor and pleasure of sharing American Christmas traditions of caroling, lights, gifts, nativities, and hot chocolate with some sweet families in the community who were spending their first Christmas in America with the help of an awesome mother/daughter Bible study group. Those seven seven-year-old girls and their moms brought some serious holiday joy to the families we visited.
After celebrating in the community with other's families, I think I appreciated my time at home with my family that much more.What a blessing to have most of my family living close enough together that we can see everyone over the holidays. For the family that does live farther out (love you Kentucky folks!), it's such a blessing to have the technology that keeps you always on my mind until we can be together in person again. My heart was definitely filled to overflowing this holiday season.

Jolly Ave Community Garden Tree
(decorated by the community)

Girls' Group Christmas Picture

Life Lesson:
I've recently been reading C.S. Lewis' The Screwtape Letters, I'm not finished yet but I highly recommend it. As I was  reading the other day, I came across a quote that I really wanted to share with you. So here it is:

"And all the time the joke is that the word 'Mine' in it fully possessive sense cannot be uttered by a human being about anything." pg 114

As I've said before, living off of support really has changed my perspective on life. I have come to understand more and more every day just how true it is that humans do not (and should not) own anything on their own. All I have is the Lord's. My time is not my own, my resources are not my own, and my relationships don't belong only to me. The more I let go and stop trying to own these things, the more I am blessed by them. By opening up our house for others to use as a place to fellowship, by giving freely and without expectation of something in return, and by valuing relationships with others as a gift and not something that I deserve, I have found more joy. A close friend of mine often reminds me the importance of open hands. The Lord gives and He takes away. The thought of something being taken away is a scary thought to us sometimes. But as soon as you close your hands around something, you are no longer able to accept whatever else might come your way. Since even the lessons the Lord is teaching me are not my own, I wanted to be sure and share with you what's going on in this life I get to live.

Donations for youth programs by others who understand that what they have is not their own

2016:
We are excited for all that the Lord has in store for us this year. 2015 was pretty incredible, but the cool thing about serving an infinite God is that he can always do immeasurably more than we could every imagine. That's amazing. All the wins we had last year: 17 summer camp interns, a $50,000 check for youth programs, a brand new girls' tutoring group, and so much more...it can all be topped this year.

I hope that you will pray with me that 2016 is a year where we watch the Lord outdo himself. A year where He gains more glory and His Kingdom grows bigger than it every has before.