SOPHOMORES

Honestly, is there anything more annoying than a sophomore?  You know… someone who has exactly ONE of something under their belt and now believes they have achieved omniscience.  They gaze at the poor freshmen and mock their freshness.  Sophomores, in general, get on my nerves.

I realized at last night’s Mission Team function, (the ole “Pack and Pray Party,”) that Braxton and I are sophomores.  This is our second trip to Guatemala, so we knew what to expect at this event.  I watched the new guys enter the room with confusion, just as I had done last year.  But pretty soon we were all working smoothly together to get all the “ministry supplies” packed in large suitcases that were empty and propped open all over the room.  For all you freshmen out there… “ministry supplies”  is code for Dum Dum lollipops, soccer balls, and art supplies. J  Much of what we do in the clinics is entertain the WELL children while the sick kids get the medical attention they need.   Ministry supplies are donated by the mission team members, and various other supporters.  At the “Pack and Pray Party”, we get ‘em loaded up and ready to go. 

THEN, we pray.  I don’t mean short, polite little prayers.  I mean OTHER people show up and pray over us – BIG TIME.  Elders from the church come and anoint each team member with oil.  (If you’ve never had that experience… it’s incredible.  Participating in a ritual that dates back to the Old Testament makes you feel part of something MUCH bigger than yourself.)  Friends and family come and lay hands on us while they pray.  Together, we rattle the doors of heaven and let God know that we are ENTIRELY dependent on Him to do the heavy lifting on this trip.  I absolutely LOVE Pack and Pray Parties.  Most of my Small Group from church showed up to pray with us.  THAT was pretty awesome.

I spent some time today pondering my sophomore status.  I decided it would be appropriate to review in scripture what happened during the apostle Paul’s SECOND missionary journey.  I was hoping this wasn’t the one with shipwrecks and snake bites.  I was relieved to find out it wasn’t.  (In case I’ve peaked your curiosity, you can find the story of his 2^nd journey in Acts, 15-18.)  Too much happened on that journey for me to recant in one little blog post, but three things jumped out at me which felt relevant to MY upcoming sophomore journey.

1)    The mission team members changed.  Paul didn’t travel with Barnabas and Mark this time, like he did on the initial journey.  Silas and Timothy became his partners for this season.  I’ve been struggling a bit as I processed the reality that THIS year’s team will be different.  We have about ten of the same folks as last year… but I’ve been really grieving those who won’t be with us this year.  All three of my roommates from last year are missing on this year’s team.  A close friend from church is missing.  The doctor who beat me by a hair in the ping pong tournament is missing.  But after reading about Paul’s 2^nd journey, I feel encouraged.  Silas and Timothy were great partners for Paul, and they were great men of faith.  I will still miss my friends from last year, but I am looking forward to seeing who God plans to use to enrich my life this year.

2)    In Philippi, Paul and company had to go by the river to find the saints.  They had no synagogue in Philippi, so they just gathered informally to worship and pray.  WHY did they not have a synagogue?  They didn’t have the required TEN Jewish MEN to qualify for a synagogue.  As I think back to last year’s clinics in the villages of Guatemala… I saw very few men.  Mostly it was single mothers who had been abandoned.  My heart sank as I heard their stories and realized the depth of their daily struggle just to survive.  As I kept reading in Acts this morning, I loved being reminded that it was by the river – in the company of MOSTLY women and children– that Lydia emerges as a player in scripture.  Just one lady touched by God through a willing missionary.  The ripple effect of that was HUGE.  I’m getting excited.

3)      Paul and Silas ended up in prison, shackled and bruised and bloodied.  Ok.  That’s not good.  Hopefully we won’t endure anything like that!  (I’m sure we won’t Daddy!)  What did they do in those shackles at midnight?  They sang and they worshipped.  I’m amazed, challenged, and inspired by that.  Next week we’ll be in a very remote village in Guatemala from Monday until Wednesday. (did I say VERY remote?) We won’t have beds or showers or familiar food.  And the biggest gasp of all… we won’t have wireless internet service!  HOW will we bear it?!  I imagine we’ll bear it just fine the FIRST night.  But the second night will begin to feel like shackles to us spoiled Americans.  Please pray that we’ll sing and worship like Paul and Silas.

We depart for Guatemala Friday morning at 6:15am.  Please remember to pray for us.  You know to pray for all the usual stuff… safety while traveling, safety TO and FROM the clinics each day, team unity, protection from illness from the food and water, and protection for those we love back home.  But here are two that are specific to Braxton and to me.

·          For Braxton: Please pray that God will draw his young heart in a real and powerful way!  My prayer for him is Jeremiah 17:7-8 “But blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in HIM.  He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear WHEN heat comes; its leaves are always green.  It has no worries IN a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.”  Notice that the prayer doesn’t ask for protection from EVERY heat wave and EVERY drought… it just asks that God dwell in His heart to strengthen Braxton for the road ahead.  Loved the word picture of this verse I found this weekend on the farm in Metter.

                                                                The Tree

The Roots

·          For MB: Please pray that I will HEAR God speak to ME and SEE God move in the villages, in response to our prayers for real individuals.  During the prayer at our “anointing service”, the head Elder prayed a line from MY current memory verse.  It was just a little thing, but it felt like a hug from God that HE hears ME and sees ME.  My best friend and I are holding each other accountable this year for memorizing scripture.  On the 1^st and 15^th day of every month, we tackle a new verse or short passage.  I’ve been working on my June 1^st passage a little early since I knew I’d be traveling and busy.  It’s 2 Kings 6:16-18.(ESV)  “He said, Do not be afraid for those who are with us are more than those who are with them. Then Elisha prayed and said, “O LORD, please open his eyes that he may see.  So the Lord opened the eyes of the young man and he saw, and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.  And when the Syrians came down against him, Elisha prayed to the Lord and said, Please strike this people with blindness.  So He struck them with blindness IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE PRAYER OF ELISHA.”     - As for me… please pray that I will BELIEVE God.

Thank you for journeying with us, and for praying FOR us.  Please also pray for Keith and Thayer while we are away.  It isn’t easy for a family to be apart.

More when we arrive…

Preparing For Guatemala???

I felt something surge within me as my foot forced the blade of the shovel into the ground.  That motion, when done properly and authoritatively makes a very distinct sound.  It’s a sound of promise… something is about to move.  There were many things in my life that felt “stuck”, so I was happy for something – anything really – to MOVE.  I was never a very good physics student, so I don’t really understand the laws of leverage, but I know that sound is a good and satisfying thing.  My muscles engaged as I used my upper body to hoist the shovel full of dirt out of the hole and onto the ground beside it.  It wasn’t much of a hole yet, but I was just getting started.

 

I thought about my days growing up on the farm.  I used to watch my dad use post-hole diggers to make holes in the ground for a new fence.  Dirt has a good smell… even city dirt.  It’s honest work.  And sometimes a soul just needs to engage in something simple – something that actually has FORWARD progress.  When digging holes, the hole gets steadily deeper with each stroke of the shovel.  When raising children, the progress is not so linear!  In fact, it feels like someone sneaks in at night and fills back UP all the holes I dug the day before.  “How many times must I dig the exact same holes Lord – say the exact same things - do they listen to anything? Are we making ANY progress?”  I was taking out some of my parenting frustration that morning on my front yard.  

About once every five years I get in the mood to work in my yard.  All the other moments in between, I get in the mood for someone ELSE to work in my yard.  But given the fact that we have other financial priorities, Keith and I somehow do enough to keep the Neighborhood Association from insisting that we vacate the premises, but just barely.  My poor Dad… he fathered three children, and not a single one of  us inherited his love of tilling the earth.  I wonder if that makes him sad?  I wonder how many holes my Dad dug in parental frustration when I was a kid?

Today I wasn’t just digging, I was also planting.  The lady at Home Depot promised that even I did not possess the ability to kill these “Knock Out Roses.”  So I bought ten of them.  I was in the process of digging the FIRST of ten holes when I encountered the roots.  I attacked them with strength, vigor, and determination.  I flipped the shovel on its side and used it like a sword.  I chopped with an over head motion until the root was basically pulverized.  (This was no whimpy little root!  It was big and twisty and knobby.)  I knelt down and ripped it out of the hole with my bare hands and hurled it victoriously onto the driveway.  I wanted to beat my chest and make cave man noises, but I was afraid of scaring the neighbors.  So I just picked the shovel back up and kept at it.  

 

After the second AND third holes were ALSO filled with stubborn roots… I lost that “every 5 year feeling” and got back in the mood for someone ELSE to work in my yard.  No one was forthcoming; however, so I settled into a rhythm.

Our mission trip to Guatemala is less than a month away, so I began asking God - during my digging - how He’d like me to prepare myself spiritually for the trip.  (I figured if I was talking TO GOD at the time, I’d be less likely to cuss as I kept hitting all those roots.)  God being the way He is, with thoughts HIGHER than mine, answered my question by reminding me of a story in Scripture.  I would come to understand later that clearly, God was up to something that day.

The story is from 2 Kings, chapter 3 (in case you decide you’d like to go read it for yourself.)  But to put it in VERY simple terms, it occurred during the time when Israel was split into TWO nations: the Northern Kingdom (Israel) and the Southern Kingdom (Judah).  For the most part, these two “brother” nations did not like each other very much.  But in THIS particular passage, the two kings decided to work TOGETHER to fight against the nation of Moab.  Unfortunately, the two kings got caught up in the emotionalism of the moment and took off half-cocked in hot pursuit of the Moabite army.  They did not take proper provisions for the journey, and after about a week… they were OUT of water.  There was none for the soldiers, and none for the horses.  They had a BIG, BIG problem.  They’d never make it back HOME without water, and they didn’t know where to FIND any water if they proceeded ahead.  The king of Judah, Jehoshaphat (one of my MOST favorite characters in ALL of scripture,) wisely asked if there was a prophet of the Lord anywhere nearby.  Elisha was the preeminent prophet of the day, so he was summoned to seek a message from God for the kings.  

One of the FIRST things Elisha did was call for some musicians.  Elisha understood that MUSIC has the power to touch the soul.  He believed that he would be able to better HEAR from God if he had musicians setting the mood.  And God came through.  He answered Elisha’s prayer… but it was a very STRANGE answer.  God wanted the weary, parched soldiers to dig DITCHES all over the valley.  The ground was as hard as a rock.  The soldiers were exhausted. I had never been more CERTAIN that the LAST thing they wanted to do was grab a shovel and start DIGGING. (as I was in that moment.)  THAT was just going to make them MORE thirsty and MORE desperate.  You see, the answer they WANTED was for God to say… “Mount up!  I have miraculously created a beautiful mountain stream in the middle of this desert.  It’s just around the next bend.  The water is crisp and clear and ice cold.  All you have to do is ride for five more minutes.  Relief will be instant!”

But that’s NOT what God said.  God wanted His people to PREPARE for the blessings He wanted to bring.  About this time in my mental recounting of the story… I looked up to the sky and said, “That’s pretty funny.  You’re reminding me of a bible story about people digging ditches in the hard ground – WHILE I’m digging holes in my front yard and dealing with all these roots.  You’re funny God.”  But I wasn’t yet sure what THAT story had to do with ME.  So I just kept digging and kept following the storyline in my mind.

 

I love that God gave the kind of instructions the men of Israel and Judah were CAPABLE of doing.  He didn’t tell them to invent a rocket to the moon.  He didn’t tell them to build a High Rise Office Building in the middle of a desert.  He told them to do something they already knew HOW to do.  When I think of our upcoming Mission Trip to Guatemala, this part of the story gives me a sense of peace.  I’ll be ok.  I’ll know HOW to do what He wants me to do.

Based on my own mood in the moment, I was pretty sure the soldiers in the story were not EXCITED to do this thing they were fully capable of doing.  They were hot, tired, thirsty, and probably a little scared.  But they persevered, and they obeyed… and they dug the stupid ditches.  They didn’t understand it.  There was not a cloud in the sky.  NO possibility of rain.  No dam nearby that would release water and instantly fill up those ditches.  DESPITE how things looked to their HUMAN eyes, they simply picked up the shovel and started digging.  Pretty sure that's a picture of faith.

I began to ask God to help ME to simply OBEY in Guatemala… no matter how hot and tired I feel during the LONG, LONG days.  I asked Him to help me obey even when the job I’m doing doesn’t seem very important or doesn’t seem to make any sense in the moment.  “This is good” I thought to myself.  “God is helping me prepare my heart for Guatemala while I dig these holes.  Multi-tasking.  I’m all about that!”

So, did it work?  After the soldiers went to the trouble of digging the ditches, did God fill them with water?  Oh yes sir, He certainly DID!  All we know for sure is THAT He did.  I can’t explain from scripture HOW He did it.  Scripture simply tells us in verse 20 “The next morning, about the time for offering the sacrifice, there it was – water flowing from the direction of Edom!  And the land was filled with water.” I have no idea what that means.  God just said “Flow” and a torrent of water poured across the land and filled all those ditches!  What a sight that must have been!!  Can you IMAGINE the celebration of all the soldiers who had dug those ditches in faith?  I can’t wait to TALK to a few of them in Heaven!!  I want them to tell me the eyewitness account.  I want to HEAR what their reaction was!  I want to know if they just drank – or if they went SWIMMING!  I wonder if they regretted not working HARDER?  Not digging DEEPER ditches?  

I absolutely LOVE what happens next in the story.  The kings had approached the prophet Elisha with their most URGENT need… water.  They had completely lost sight of the original mission: to defeat the Moabites.  All they cared about, all they were focused on was getting relief from their current predicament.  How HUMAN is that?  We aren’t really worried about our Final Grade in the class… we just beg God to help us pass the test TODAY, to get the paper written ON TIME.  God is so much bigger than we give Him credit for being.  Filling the ditches with water / meeting our immediate need?  Scripture tells us “this is an easy thing in the eyes of the LORD”     But in the last half of that VERY SAME sentence in scripture, it tells us “he will also hand Moab over to you.”   OH how He longs to bless us – to give us MORE than we even ASK for.  Ephesians 3 says it like this,“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably MORE than all we ask or imagine…”

 

I start to get a little excited about THAT part of the story as I continue sweating and digging in my front yard.  My mood had shifted now.  I was no longer just doing the dreaded yardwork – I was PREPARING for Guatemala!  And God just reminded me that He’d do FAR more than I had even asked!  AWESOME.  Hole 7 of 10 was nearly done.

And then He went and did that God thing – the “His ways are Higher than Our Ways thing.”

“Marybeth.  You’re missing the point of the story.”

“Well what do you mean I’m missing the point?  We’ve got this whole ditch-digging analogy thing going here.  It’s beautiful… you reminding me of that story while I’m out here getting blisters with this shovel.  I get it.  I’m preparing for Guatemala as I meditate on that story!”

“You do not need to prepare for GUATEMALA.  Guatemala will prepare YOU.”

“Come Again?”

“Guatemala is NOT your Mission Field.  Norcross, Georgia is where I’ve planted you.  You are not going to SERVE in Guatemala.  You are going to Guatemala to TRAIN.  They will teach YOU.  Your service to ME is in the place where I’ve planted you.  I created you for much more than just one mission trip per year.  Go to Guatemala and listen for my voice.  Share your faith with the villagers.  Love hurting people with your words and your hugs and the medicine you will give them.  Then come home and do likewise.  Reach out to the people I bring across your path.”

I don’t know what to say Lord.  I had the wrong mindset about this trip.  I thought it was the destination.  But you’re telling me it’s just a pitstop on the journey.  I thought it was the SEASON, but you’re telling me it’s just “training camp” to prepare for the season.  I’m not sure I can shift gears that fast.

“You’ve got three more holes to dig.  Maybe you should just focus on that for now.”

And that’s exactly what I did.  But as I watered all ten new rose bushes after they were in the ground, I began asking God to water this thought He had planted in ME that day.