Freedom to Feel

As I see God working in people around me and in my own life, I find myself thinking, "This is what it's supposed to be like!" God is broadening and deepening my understanding of what "community" is all about. It's so cool that I can minister to and be ministered to all in the same place/physical location! It's really freeing to not be locked into either of those roles (giving/being given to) and to be able to oscillate between either role within a matter of hours or even minutes.

It has been an exhausting, intense, emotional, worthwhile experience training here in Florida. There are some really hard, low, I-did-not-realize-that-about-myself-until-right-now days (i.e. times of conviction)...and there are times of joyful celebration! There are days when it is so obvious that God is at work and days were it is so obvious that Satan opposes all the teaching, growth, honest conversation, and revelation that is taking place here. I've experienced both of these extremes within the past week, even! It's pretty intense! I am learning that it's a blessing (not a curse) to be able to feel deeply and mourn and celebrate with those around me.

As far as the celebrating goes....a few of us from the COAT training program went to Busch Gardens in Tampa this weekend. It was good to have a "play day" amidst all the work!

One of the first things we did was visit the tigers....

We really loved the gorillas...

Later we saw some hippos....

They're not as friendly as they look...

It was one exhausting day....

Awesome Ashley

This is one funny girl! She makes me laugh and is really good at listening and seems to create fun wherever she goes. Case in point: eating lunch at my house after church today (see below)...

Sweet Melissa

This is one of the coolest roomates ever! We have a lot of fun together and I feel so comfortable and safe and happy when I talk to her! She's ALWAYS smiling!

Wisdom from Friends

Several people have really encouraged me since I've been here:

*I have no doubt your heart is as big as this building and you could cry with anyone for an hour (Henry)

*You love everyone with the love of a kindergarten teacher without making them feel like kindergarteners (Aaron)

*You're great at asking questions that make people feel important and not invisible (Jen)

*I love your laugh (Derek)

*I've never thought you weren't beautiful (J. D.)

*You're the most loveable girl here (Carrol)

*I'd choose you to be on my team any day (Aaron) I was thinking that, too (Adam)

*You're relationally intelligent (Laura)

*Listening is a strong gift that you have (Derek)

*I see an incredible amount of faith in you. You are always talking about how you see God working and in every sentance you're giving Him glory (Susan)

*I can see so much passion and joy in you. You're very expressive and have a great smile (Mike O.)

*You're great at calling me out when I have my "game face" on. I think I probably just love you (Ashley)

*Jesus loves you (Steve)....he says this EVERY time he sees me!

Powerful Ideas

*Forgiveness is giving up hope for a better past



*You can trust God because He's perfect. You can only trust people when they admit that they're imperfect.


*You can only trust people who walk with a limp.



*Fear is a lack of love. (Why people don't confront one another)



*Community is when you let down your guard and trust other people to guard and protect you.

Jesus Loves Me, Redefined

What if the top-line (or A) is our country and the bottom-line (or B) is other countries? How often do we have an A>B mentality in this way? What about A is less than B?



Here's a new version of "Jesus Loves Me" that corresponds with the A=B philosophy:



Jesus loves us, this is true

But he loves the ______, too.

And this is His last command,

"Take my gospel to each land."

Yes, Jesus loves them

Yes, Jesus loves them,

Yes, Jesus loves them,

The Bible tells me so."

Insert the name of a different religion in the blank in the song. For example, "But he loves the Bhuddists, too." "But he loves the Mormans, too."

Insert the name of an unreachd people group in the song. For example, "But he loves the Najdi Bedouin, too." If you're interested in praying for "unreached people groups" or groups of people who have not heard about Jesus before, you can visit http://www.joshuaproject.net/

Unveiled At Last

One of the books we've read here is Unveiled at Last. Though a fairly dry read, it has some really good points. For example, a lot of times we look at scripture (and memorize, pray through, preach on) primarily the "top-line" or the "bottom-line." The "top-line" is all about how blessed we are and how amazingly incredible God is. The "bottom-line" portion of scripture talks about our responsibility to others. We're blessed (top-line) to be a blessing (bottom-line). It's so interesting how we can get so focused on either the top-line or the bottom-line almost exclusively, so that we're totally missing the big picture.

We need to recognized how blessed we are AND how much of a responsibility we have to pass on that blessing to others. Which side do you err on? Another way to look at it is that the top-line (or A) is focused on yourself and the bottom-line (or B) is focused on others. In what areas of your life is A>B? (I'm better/worth more than everyone else). In what areas of your life does A=B? In what areas of your life is A less than B? (Everyone else is worth more than me/I'm not worth anything).

OHV Rocks! And So Does J.D.!

I hung out with J.D. (one of the Vice Presidents) today for a couple hours and was continually amazed at his ability to speak truth into my life. I met him in 2002 when I went to Hondruas and he led the trip to Kenya. Since then he's gotten married and had two adorable boys. Truth isn't always easy to hear or understand, but he delivers it in a confident, upfront, gentle manner that I really respect.

J.D. gave me a huge gift today... after talking with him for a while, he unexpectedly prompted me to be open, honest, and vulnerable (OHV) with the rest of the COAT training group. That resuled in a lot of crying, people circling around me to pray for me, and a lot of love being poured out into my life. I'm amazed at the deph of love I have for the people here and the depth of love that they have for me after only one week in Florida/COAT. Can you imagine how close we'll be at the end of the summer!?!?!?!

This OHV opportunity was incredibly draining and incredibly powerful. J.D. said it was the best half hour of his day, his week, and maybe his month or his year. I can't tell you how much that touched me! Even so, his comment didn't come close to the feelings of love, acceptance, inclusion, and hope that I felt during that praying. One of the guys praying for me was sobbing as he prayed for me...there is so much compassion and love here. More than any other place I've ever been....You have no idea how necessary and powerful it is for me to be in this place. Thank you so much for the ways that you've supported me so that I can be here! Now I feel like the transformation that COAT program is known for has officially "begun!"

A Typical Day of COAT

You may be wondering what a typical training day looks like. At 8:00 we meet as a group (50 something of us with office staff and COAT people) for devotions and announcements. Then from about 9:00 to somewhere between 3:30 and 5:00 we are in workshop-like sessions from Monday to Friday. These can include presentations from various divisions of NMSI (Short Term Projects, Finance, HR, Publications, etc.).

At the end of this week we will have been introduced to each of the divisions and completed the "Orientation" part of our training. Then we can officially affiliate and get NMSI e-mails and fill out insurance papers, etc. The workshop-like sessions that we attend are on various things from a short discussion about Spiritual Gifts, to trianing in Thinking Skills/Processing, Spiritual Formation, Global Perspectives, Purpose and Planning, Life Stewardship, to book/article discussions. Each day's schedule is a little different and each week we have "chores" or "community work" to do to help keep the campus clean.

8 Leaves Later....Mmmmmm

Today we traveled to ECHO (www.echonet.org), an organization that trains both interns and people passing through on agricultural methods that can be used throughout the developing world. Thier vision is to be "a Christian non-profit organization whose vision is to bring glory to God and a blessing to makind by using science and technology to help the poor." They have a seed bank that they use to give free packets of seeds to people throughout the world so that they can test them in various growing conditions to see if they work well in that particular climate (arid, semi-arid, etc.). ECHO simulates each of these conditions on thier own compound, based in North Fort Myers, so that State-side personel can experiment with various irrigation methods, which plants grow best where, how to grow plants with very little water, etc.

Not only that, they experiment with raised and lowered beds, various methods to plant seeds, and various fertilizers, and the most efficient way to use space---which often means taking advantage of vertical space that is often unsued. For example, one might have animal cages above plant beds so that the droppings fall through the cage and fertilize the plants beneath the cages.

During our tour we tasted various leaves---some bitter, some plain, some sweet---that could be grown and eaten in "leaf form" or ground up and added to food as a supplement/to increase nutritional content. We even tasted a bush that may be used one day as an anticdote for malaria! It was an incredibly interesting tour not only because of the science and technology that they use, but because they have people stationed in virtually every country in the world in order to teach people how to farm more efficiently and feed those who are dying of hunger or lack resources and water to farm effectively (it made me think of you, Heather and Gerson)! You've probably heard that "if you give a man fish, you'll feed him for a day, but if you teach him to fish you'll feed him for a lifetime." They do the same thing, but with plants!