Here we are...

“My abundance and your emptiness are a perfect match.

I designed you to have no sufficiency of your own.”

                                       (Sarah Young, JESUS CALLING)

And there you go……

If that’s not a kick off to a Happy New Year then what is?! 

Sarcasm aside, this devotional was a great reminder for me today.  Our emptiness is a perfect match for God’s abundance.  As we experience the close of one year and anticipate the start of a new year we know full-well we proceed not in our own sufficiency. 

2 years ago we were gathering last minute things and relishing in extended family time, preparing to leave the familiar to start a new journey in the unknown.  A journey to Haiti. 

Our first year was supposed to be our ‘adjustment period’ and a time for building relationships and laying the ground work for great things God placed on our hearts to share.  We didn’t come bringing answers or remedies for current issues in this, our new environment, but solely a hope and love for this place we soon called home.

This time last year we were celebrating a hard but good first year in Haiti and looking forward to tackling fresh goals and growing with the community we had adopted as family.   3 days into the new year, however, our world came crashing down and our hopes were shattered.  With news that we had 2 months to find a new place to live, we immediately started unraveling.

We tried to make sense out of what just didn’t make sense.  Not only did we lose funding, we lost friends we considered to be family and we lost our church community.   Our happy new year wasn’t exactly happy and just like that, 
                                            a whole new adjustment period began. 

With faith that could barely be called such, we begged for direction.  Without answers, we let go and set out into the unknown...again.  We wrestled, we questioned, we doubted, we screamed, we cried, we pleaded.  We trembled with fear and we approached the throne, but with less boldness than before. 

After visiting 9 places and sleeping in 5 different locations during the first month of our search for the “next”, we were relieved to find a spot that could house us for more than a week at a time.  The staff and people of Heartline loved on us and helped restore our belief in the church as it’s meant to be but while we fought for a reignited passion, I argued repeatedly that I had nothing left to give.  It was during my weakness that God quickly reminded me that I never did.  

An incredible couple passed the baton to John and me as we took on the role of Guesthouse managers and once again our emptiness was a platform for His abundance. 

As we continue to grow (and argue about our limits some days) (still begging for a house of our own), we praise God that we are being restored, for GREAT is His faithfulness!

If you are empty, I hope you can take hope in knowing that it's ok to show up bringing your nothing.  God has enough sufficiency for us both to have abundance!

“Be strong. Take courage. Don’t be intimidated…Because God, your God, is striding ahead of you.  He’s right there with you.  He won’t let you down; He won’t leave you.” 

Deuteronomy 31:6

We wish you and your family a very happy NEW YEAR as we enter into 2015....