For truly, I say to you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you belong to Christ will by no means lose his reward.
Mark 9:41
When I first got married to Jared, I remember staring at what was now our house with all its unfinished projects and imagined potential and saying something like, "As soon we get the upstairs done and I love it, that's when we will have to move." Well, our big upstairs project is almost done and as much as I never really wanted to move to St. Louis in the first place, I do love it now... and it is time to go (almost).
We are currently in a sort of time in between times. Jared just wrapped up his longstanding salary-with-benefits job to dive into a faith-fueled, nomadic summer as we begin language and cultural acquisition courses, prepare our house for sale, tour about visiting family, and, Lord have mercy, fundraising.
Oh, fundraising... I must admit, I had been dreading this part. Ignoring it, putting it off, wishing I could just apparate straight to Honduras and live freely off the land, but that's not what we are called to. And I think I am starting to get a little glimpse of why. We were never meant to live this life alone. And we were certainly not meant to do it on our own strength. We need the Lord, we need to trust the Lord, and so often the way he provides is through people.
PEOPLE?! The Lord’s love I can trust, but trusting people’s love can be a little trickier sometimes (I would know, I’m one of them). And yet, in the Lord’s wisdom, he has set it up for us in such a way right now that we need to keep remembering that he is with us through people. Not dreamed up, "out there" sort of people, but actual, broken, living-their-own-lives-too people. You and me kind of people. Thankfully, we really have had so many people give us encouragement, stamps of approval, the right kind of challenging questions, story sharing, and a whole lot of prayers along the way. Being supported financially, however, still feels vulnerable. At times, I am tempted to fear the thoughts and opinions of others. Will people think I’m being friendly because I’m trying to get something from them? What if our friends start avoiding us because they think we’re going to ask for money? What if we’ve come all this way and nobody wants to support us at all…
Even though I know this discouragement is not from the Lord, the enemy's voice still creeps in from time to time. Once I recognize what's happening, I slow down enough to hear the Lord's still small voice calling me to trust him. The more I lean into the peace that comes through that trust, the more I am freed up to remember the excitement of our call to Micah. When I can laugh off the discouragement I'm experiencing as an attack from the enemy, fundraising itself becomes part of the excitement--this amazing call isn't just for us, we get to invite others to be a part of it, too! Support-raising (in whatever form it takes) is giving others a tangible way to say "we are with you” to us, before we head out and say “we are with you” to our Micah family.
The support we receive from others—whether intellectual, emotional, spiritual, or physical--is then turned into support for others. Every popsicle, every word of encouragement, every cup of coffee, every job training program, every porch chat, every English class, every pool outing, every Bible study, every movie night, every drama outreach, every prayer in time of need, every hand we are able place on another’s shoulder doesn’t just demonstrate our own support, but yours, too, and, ultimately, the Lord’s, whose hands made ours. The Lord loved those Micah guys before I ever got a chance to know them, and yet he has allowed me—us—to be a part of showing them that love. And at the end of this age, when we see the ones we have loved in this life robed in glory in the next, we will know the sweet reward of seeing the ones to whom we’ve given a cup of water along the way in the arms of their Savior (and ours). What an honor to be even a small part of the Lord's demonstration of love in another's life!
And yet, as excited and hopeful as we are to step into this call to Micah (with all its ups, downs, and in-betweens), we are still sad to leave our current chapter behind. We have such a wonderful community, beloved family and friends, meaningful work, shared joys and shared suffering, finished and unfinished projects, too much stuff to know what to do with, and the home where our family began. Going is great; leaving is hard. For this reason, I am grateful that we need as much support as we do--it's a way stay connected to those who go with us--through prayer, emails, visits, donations, treasured memories, and, especially, the shared hope we have in Christ. The sure hope that he is in the business of restoring broken families and bringing his people Home. To him. And to each other. Forever.
Would you consider supporting us as we prepare to move to The Micah Project in Tegucigalpa, Honduras?
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