Isn’t it fun and amazing when we realize God given talents that we have?  passions and gifts that He gave to us individually?  see, for a long time I thought everything had to be about me [ ok let’s be honest, i still do sometimes] I thought starting some amazing company/non profit/ministry/becoming a missionary sounded so glamorous.  then I walked alongside of people who did those things, and realized how freaking brave they are.  how passionate, bold, and risky they are.

that’s about when god started to show me that maybe my role was to come alongside these brave risky friends of mine and be their support.  take the backseat.  serve them.  encourage them.  build them up.  i love, like love, to connect people to each other.  I love to be able to bring light and a breath of fresh air to a weary soul of someone who’s knee deep in living their dream and serving people.  I like to serve the one who’s serving others.

I spent time recently emailing my friend Heather [with Love is Waiting] a list of so many of my adoptive mama friends, to connect her with them.  so she can serve them and help them raise support and funds for their adoption.  she said things like “thank you for coming alongside of me in the journey” and “the timing is great, I was just about to run out of steam”.  and I LOVE that.  I want to do that for people.

I have another big big god sized dream, that God stirred in my heart last summer in Ethiopia, to have some sort of way to minister to missionaries in the field.  To help them get respite.  To help raise funds for them to get away as a family, to find someone to “babysit” their ministry while they are away.  and also I [and my friend Whitney] dream of having a place in Addis Ababba, Ethiopia we’ve nicknamed “the hub” that’s a place, an actual home, where missionary families can come together and connect.  drink coffee, watch movies, bring their kids to play, have bible studies, game nights, check out books, snag some american snacks, and the list goes on.  It’s actually a big big dream that when I write down my vision and dreams for my life is one of the things at the top of the list.

I don’t know what all this means.  I don’t know how God wants to use me, or where or when.  but I want to be used.  and so here I am.

and I wanted to tell you about something really amazing.  another really cool God story – my gal pal Alison was telling me and Jenna one day about a passion she had for ministering to women and this idea of “empowering” women in our generation.  as she was pouring out her heart, God put my other gal pal/adoptive mom/creator of give1save1 friend on my heart.  and I just blurted out…”you should email Beth!”  Alison has learned to just do what I tell her [hehe!  it all started in Rwanda!] so she did.  and what transpired was a crazy thing that God had already started to set up.  Beth had painted something with Alison in mind [they didn’t even know each other] and they both have similar hearts and passions and now….