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Learning to love like Jesus

Life is tough. There will always be people you struggle with… you’re not going to get along with everyone. I’ve always done my best to stick with the people I identify with; who are compatible with me. Over the past year, God has placed me into situations where I’m with people I wouldn’t normally hang out with. And not just a little bit of time… He’s made them a part of my day-to-day life. I love it…. I mean, I struggle with it, but it’s my challenge. What can I learn from being around so many different kinds of people and different personalities? God’s amazing love for every single one of us! I’ve been praying about this a lot lately… sometimes I just don’t want to put in the effort to love people… I want to coast, to hang with people like me. I find myself avoiding people I don’t automatically click with. But I’ve really been hit like a ton of bricks about that over the past few days. God doesn’t call me to stay comfortable… or only love the people who love me. He calls me to love everyone. It makes so much sense… Why wouldn’t I? I mean, after all, we’re all created just as God wants us. He didn’t make a mistake. If I don’t show love to someone because I don’t particularly mesh with them, I’m distinctly saying God’s creation isn’t good enough. I’m not saying that I have to get along with everyone perfectly, but I must learn to see people through God’s eyes. When I think about God’s love for any person I don’t click with, all I can do is smile… because God’s love for them is so huge… . Even if the person drives me crazy, I can’t find a reason not to love them… because Jesus does. Will I hang out with them all the time? Maybe not. But I must stop ignoring them.. stop taking the easy route. Why would I withhold love from anyone? It makes absolutely no sense. If I’m in love with God as I say I am… love should pour out to each of His children through me… I should get His heart. It’s so exciting! I mean… I know it seems simple and impossible all at once… but God’s been demonstrating how it is possible. He’s so good and gracious that He’s given me glimpses of His immeasurable love for every single person. I will strive to love everyone and when I do struggle, I will cling even closer to Jesus to teach me how to demonstrate that love. What an amazing God I serve! He loves each and every one of us equally, even though none of us deserve it. He loves each of our quirks, he loves our mannerisms, our shyness, our loudness, whatever. He loves us just as He made us… we don’t need to change a thing about us to make Him love us more. It’s an unconditional love… now we must learn to love each other like that. I’m taking it a step at a time… and although I’ll never perfect it, I’ll depend on Him to continue to teach me one step at a time.

New Home...

What brought me to Aus? Straight and simple… God. I look back over the past few months and not only was I not excited to go back, I was fighting it. I wasn’t ready to leave everything behind. But God provided and made it very obvious that I was supposed to be here. I had many obstacles standing between me and Australia when I came home from my DTS in September. I had my work cut out for me… I had to raise all my support, get my parents to understand why I wanted to go, apply to staff the DTS, and get a visa. I ignored all of them. I did the bare minimum to scrape by… instead I focused on school, work, and friends. But the money came in… my parents became my biggest cheerleaders, I was welcomed with open arms to staff and my visa came through miraculously. God made it all happen. Now that I’m here, that’s more apparent than ever. Today for lectures all 42 of us on the school just talked about how we ended up at the Sunny Coast January 2010 DTS. Everyone had pretty different stories… but when it came to my turn, I wanted to start bawling. As I started explaining all the miracles that took place to get me here, I was blown away. God really wants me here… I don’t quite know why… I don’t feel especially good at staffing, but I’m so confident this is exactly where I’m supposed to be. So cool. It was awesome hearing the students’ responses also. I am so excited to see what God does with each person on this school. It’s going to be huge! Although I’m still struggling to find my place and my balance as a staff member, God is so good and His will for me to be here is undeniably obvious.

I’m loving getting to know the students too… today they were all so vulnerable and real… so exciting. The growing process is going to get messy, but I can’t wait to see the fruit of all the labor. God is going to make big changes in each of our lives… it’s going to be excellent.

There are so many great things happening here. God is moving.

Prayer requests:

· That I continue to make the Sunny Coast my home

· That I learn the balance of being staff and a friend with the students

· That each of the students will be so impacted by God on this trip they’ll be changed for life

· More patience for me as I find my role here

· That I won’t dwell in the past or look to the future, but rest in the present

Cost of Discipleship

The grass is always greener on the other side… I feel like I’ve been living out that expression this past week. As excited as I am about being here, I’ve also been terribly homesick. I miss my friends, my family, good coffee, anything and everything familiar. I left a perfectly happy life to come here… and I began to wonder why. It’s not that I wasn’t happy here, but new beginnings are always rough. You have to reach out, make new friendships, and adapt to a different culture. It’s definitely not easy. Yesterday I was really struggling… crying yet again over everything I left behind. God reminded me of my purpose for being here. We’re doing orientation lectures this week with the DTS… laying a foundation for the weeks to come… running through the basics. Yesterday a wonderfully wise lady at the base, Miss Pattie, came up and shared on the ‘cost of discipleship.’ She talked about leaving everything behind to follow Christ. When Jesus approached the disciples in the Bible, they instantly dropped everything to follow Him. They left their careers, families, everything they’d ever known behind at the drop of a hat… to follow Jesus. That’s a pretty crazy leap of faith. This wasn’t the first time I’d heard this stuff… but this time it applied to my life in a whole new level. To be a follower of Christ, I really do have to leave EVERYTHING behind. I always thought that was pretty extreme… and that I’d never have to do it myself, but being here, I’ve realized I can’t live in both worlds. I must choose one or the other. Living on facebook and constantly skyping home won’t improve my life here… it’ll just make me miss home and be miserable here. Choosing one or the other just simplifies things. It’s not that I won’t be in touch with people at home, but I can’t run to that for comfort… as an escape. I also realized I can’t look at this period of time in Australia as a ‘2 year shift…’ this is my new life. I can’t just count down until I leave then go back to Eugene and live how I was before. Eugene is no longer my home. I’m moving on… whether I’ll live there again or not is not even something I have to consider now. Right now, I have to settle into my new home.

As scary and tough as this new life is right now, I’m confident that God has brought me here for a reason. I’ve already been stretched so much… my going outside my comfort zone, I have to cling to God for comfort. Nothing else compares.

God’s really blown me away with new revelations over the past few weeks. I love it. I can’t wait to see what comes next :)

First Day of DTS!

Today was orientation day on the base for DTS (discipleship training school)! It was so awesome! We started out with a great base worship time this morning. the blue room was full of people and the Spirit. It was such a special time. Everyone felt God's presence in the room. I was blown away... we were all worshiping whole-heartedly and it was such an amazing environment. I've missed worship like that. So heartfelt. Amazing. Although there were 60 other people in the room, it felt like it was just me and God. I didn't want it to end, but the rest of the morning was awesome too. The DTS leader, Mallory, came up and introduced the vision of the school, then the students had time to reflect and ask for prayer and make goals for the school. It was great! I'm so excited to see these students grow. Their prayer requests included giving up their inhibitions to God... not holding on to anything but openly falling into God's love. What an exciting request. I remember when I reached that point on my DTS... then exponentially grew from there. God has so much to share with each of these students... and with me.

I'm stoked for this school for my own growth too... last night I stayed up past midnight praying for vision and goals for the school. God revealed things He wanted me to work on and new challenges to live up to. It's so exciting. One of my commitments is to wake up at 6 every morning. I want to start every morning with a quiet time with God... dedicating the day to Him. Then I'll still have time to have breakfast with the girls before lectures at 8am. I've been learning so much already and can't wait to see what God's going to show me next. It's so different being on staff.. I have much more responsibility, but that also presents more opportunity for growth. God is good. :)

I'm so excited for my one-on -ones too. The girls are so incredibly sweet and open to growth. God is going to blow them away. And I get to be a part of it... encouraging them along the way. What a blessing! I love that God has allowed me to have a position of mentorship... that i can encourage people the way I was encouraged. I'm forever indebted to the leaders from my school.... and hope to have an impast on the students here.

I'm also looking forward to the SBS (school of Biblical studies) in September. It's a pioneering school from this base and I've had the opportunity to talk to the leaders... they have such an amazing passion for knowing the Bible inside and out. I'm so looking forward to being a part of it. I get so much out of the Bible already, but it'll be exciting to know it more in depth... and in context. SO EXCITED!

There are many more great things going on here... God is working in big ways already!
Write more soon....
Heidi

Students Arrive!

They're here! The day has come and I'm so excited. Since i've been in Australia we've been anticipating this day... preparing for it. The past week we've been in staff training... long hours filled with lots of information and prayer. Now everything is coming together! I'm living in a house with 1 other DTS staff, Callie, and 8 girls from all around the world. I get to drive everyone around in a monstrous white van... which is slightly intimidating... especially since I JUST learned to drive on the left side of the road. But it's going to be awesome! I'm so excited to get to know all the students and to pour into their lives. this is so different from my DTS... 3 months in Australia and then 2 months of outreach. It's going to be a great and challenging experience for all of us.

This past week has been a bit of a struggle for me.... leaving home for 2 years is definitely more extreme than anything I've done before. But I already am feeling at home here... more everyday. I still miss everyone from home, and i doubt that will change, but i'm excited to see what God has in store for me here. I'm excited for all the experiences to come... to get out and see more of the world and to reach out.

I have been challenged by so much already... and i can't wait to see what happens next. Hello January DTS!