Monday, March 26, 2012

Adventurously Expectant

We just sent off yet another amazing team yesterday! We had a returning team of 116 serving with several communities/schools/churches in the Trelawny, Jamaica area. I had the pleasure of serving with a small group of 15 which I called my own. :) We spent a few mornings with grade 5s of Hastings Primary school assisting in reading and math and our afternoons were filled with construction. We are working on an additional building for the primary school which is overcrowded. This group started this project exactly one year ago and this spring we poured the concrete for half of the roof. The other half and the floor should be finished by this summer giving the school an additional two classrooms next year! Overall it was an awesome week getting to know my little group, seeing old friends from last year, and worshiping and serving with the team as a whole!

The group's theme for their spring break mission trips this year was "Adventurously Expectant". Basically this means living an adventurous life for God and expecting Him to come through in big ways! As I thought about this theme and enjoyed the cool evenings, I would look at the stars and think about a practice of mine. When I was younger I would stand in my backyard in the country and stare at the stars. I remember "asking" God to show me a shooting star. . . not that I needed proof, but more as my test of sorts for God. I don't do it so often now, but I still have my moments where I sort of ask God to give me a sign. I can honestly say that I have never once during one of these tests seen a shooting star. I feel like I have the "expectant" part down, but sometimes not so much the "adventurous" part. I feel like often we ALL do this! We expect God to do something for us or speak to us but we're not willing to actually listen to him when He answers us. We ask for that shooting star or whirlwind to appear but instead God is in that "still, small voice" (1 Kings 19:11-13) and we don't recognize it.

So tonight as our group was debriefing our day (I picked up yet another amazing group of 10 yesterday) I had my back turned to the sky and was talking with the team. All of a sudden I could see a light in the corner of my eye and nearly everyone awed as this ginormous shooting star (or comet or satellite or whatever it was) streaked through the sky in bright green and red and finally disappeared. It was big enough that I had time to turn around and see it for about 2 seconds! What I find interesting is that I don't need a shooting star from God to show me Him. I see Him in front of me always and witness Him working in so many ways on a day-to-day basis! I know that when I live adventurously for Him I can expect great things! Try living your life "adventurously expectant" and see what you find!


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