What I'm Thankful For

Thanksgiving...a day to reflect on all the blessings in our lives and focus on what we are thankful for. I find myself thinking back on the past year with a smile on my face. Lots has happened, both good and bad, and yet I have learned how faithful God really is and how exciting it is to be a part of His plan.
It was about this time last year that I was contemplating my future. I remember a conversation I had the first week of December last year with my friend Corrie while I was in Mexico. For the past 8 years or so my heart has grown more and more interested in mission work and what God is doing all over the world. I was really wrestling with the idea that we have so much here and so many people will go to bed hungry. I was wondering why God was breaking my heart for the world. It was a confusing time and I really felt lost. I loved my job working with teenagers. I really did like Cincinnati and I liked my church, although I was wondering if it might be time for me to move toward full time missions.
So Corrie and I really prayed for clarity. I had no idea in that moment where God would take me over the course of a year. In February, Corrie and her husband John moved to Nigeria from Mexico. I prayed about joining them for the summer to "get my feet wet" in more of a full time mission capacity. I applied to be an intern with Back2Back and was accepted. Still, I had no idea where God would take me in this adventure.
In June I took a group of students to Mexico and then in July I turned right around and headed to Africa. It was probably some of the best weeks of my life. I loved the culture, the people, and of course the children we were working with. And over the course of five weeks God showed me a ton...about me, about orphans and about His plan for this world. I was shocked as He not only gave me a heart for the people of Nigeria, but He gave me a deeper hurt for the kids that I work with. He shared truth with me about the lost and that we are all orphans until we come home to the Father. And He gave me vision for student ministry here in Cincinnati.
It was the opposite of what I expected. But it has been a blessing to come home and share that vision with our team and be on the ground floor of something I know God is building here. And in all of this, missions is still very deeply on my heart. Africa is still very deeply on my heart.
My hope is that I can mobilize a generation of students and their parents to care about the world. My prayer is that God will move in them to break their hearts for those who are lost and hurting. This is the hard part...because in our culture, it's so easy to just close our eyes to what is going on even in the middle of our own city. Its easy to sit in our little suburban bubble and not see past our own neighborhood. But this is why I think God brought me back here. To make sure that everyone knows what is possible.
And the opportunities keep coming. I will leave Monday for Monterrey again to build these thoughts into the lives of 25 women. In February I am going to Belize with an amazing group of doctors, nurses and others who are excited about making a difference in the world. And in June I get to take a group of students back to Mexico to impact the lives of some beautiful orphans.
My life is so blessed! So, if you want to know what I'm thankful for...it's that God takes simple lives like mine and allows me to be a part of His bigger story.
I don't know what the future holds. I'm here for now. But I do know the guy who writes the story and I'm totally confident that whatever the next chapter holds, it's going to be awesome!