A Story inside A Story

I think reality can be found within the plots of our favorite stories.

Like how much God loves you. And how much His love can transform you.

Yesterday I watched the movie Blood Diamond.

At the end of the movie, this scene unfolds:

The father looks up. His son - hardened and detatched by the RUF solder's brainwashing and abuse - is pointing a gun towards his father. He's been trainined to shoot anyone and everyone who is not RUF.

But as he stands there, his father stands up and slowly begins walking towards him. Tears forming in his eyes, the father says,

"You are Dia Vandy of the proud Mende tribe. You are a good boy.

You love soccer and school. Your mother loves you so much! And the new baby!

And the cows wait for you, and the wild dog that obeys no one but you.

I know they made you do bad things, but you are not a bad boy.

I am your father who loves you, and you will come home with me and be my son again."

Dia melts in his father's arms, his gun down, tears streaming down his face.

It was this reminder of who Dia is, who he really is, and where he belongs, that melted away the hard shell around his heart, and returned him to his father's arms.

God does this with us. The enemy would love for us to believe that God doesn't love us, or that we are unworthy of His love. He wants us to think that his way is better for us than God's way (LIES!).

So your Father, in His never-ending, unconditional love, comes to you, and tells you who you REALLY are, and where you belong! Drop your defenses, and fall into His arms of love.

God speaks to us in many ways. One way is through the Bible - His love letter to us. It's chock-full of verses that identify who you are in Christ. Here are just a few from Romans 8:

You belong to Christ, and are freed from the power of sin and death! vs.1-2

You have been made right with God! vs 10

You are adopted into God's family! You are His son/daughter! vs 15-16

(that means you were CHOSEN! He doesn't have to love you - He wants to! You are His amazing creation, and He desires a deep relationship with you!)

You have overwhelming victory through Christ! vs 37

Nothing will ever be able to separate you from God's love! vs 38-39

And that's just from one chapter in one book of the Bible! God has a lot of love for you, a lot of good things to say to you, and a lot of great plans for your life. Ask Him - He'll tell you!

Enjoy His love and presence! It's why we were created - and nothing will ever compare to it.

African Safari

28 hours in a bus.

Africa is nothing like I expected.

This is what I pictured:

Desert like conditions with savannah grass and such.

Extreme heat.

Really slow internet - not easily accessible

Crazy dangerous.

I expected to have to fight off a ton of blood-thirsty bugs at all hours of the day and night.

I expected to ride old busses, crammed in with a bunch of Africans and livestock.

I expected to eat only ugali for every meal.

I expected to "rough it".

Africa is nothing like that. Ok, maybe in some places, but not where I've been so far.

Kenya is pretty cold - especially in the evenings. So far Rwanda is too. There are plenty of places in the city where internet is fast and accessible. The food here is delicious!! So far we've stayed in houses with our ministry contacts and their families, had bathrooms with REAL toilets, and mattresses to sleep on! We roughed it way more in Asia - but we were also in the middle of no-where our first 4 months.

The bus ride from Nairobi, Kenya to Kigali, Rwanda was nice, easy, and beautiful -

and there were no chickens!

I am so surprised by how beautiful the landscape is here. During our 28hr bus ride, we passed by open, green, lush valleys filled with rice and corn fields, dormant volcanoes and craters, mountains that could have been the Rockies, and rolling hills that reminded me of Virginia. It's gorgeous!

On the way to Rwanda, still in Kenya, I looked out the bus window and saw this crater in the middle of a huge, green valley surrounded by beautiful, blue mountains!

This is Rwanda. It's a BEAUTIFUL country!

You! Yeah, that's right, YOU!

In the blog Follow the Leader, I asked you these three questions:

Do you believe you are a leader?

Do you think there are specific qualifications

one needs in order to be a good leader?

If so, what do you think those are?

In my last blog, And the walls came tumbling doooown!, you followed me through the Bible to discover that you only need one qualification to be a good leader:

The presence of God with you always.

If you know the Jesus Christ personally,

and follow Him as Lord of your life, I have good news for you:

THE LORD IS WITH YOU!!

Jesus' last words to the disciples in Matthew 28:20 say,

"...and be sure of this: I am with you always,

even to the end of the age."

Now, only one questions remains:

do you believe you are a leader?

As I shared with you in the first blog, I did NOT believe I was a leader. However, after 3 months of leading, and reading through all the varieties of leaders in the Bible,

my opinion of leadership has changed.

I now believe ALL people are called to lead

and influence others in some way!

Yes, that includes YOU.

What kind of leader is God calling you to be?

Maybe He's calling you to be a leader in your home, or at work, or in your church. Maybe He's calling you to lead your peers, or your city, or even your country.

Pray about it.

God has a purpose for your life,

and I guarentee it will include leading and influencing others in some way.

For me, I know God used the last three months to teach me that I am a leader. Now that I know this, God - in His ironic way - has paved the way for me to step down from the title of leadership and allow another teammate the opportunity to step up as our team leader!

This doesn't mean I'm not a leader anymore.

In fact, there are 6 leaders on my team!

Though Nikki now has the title TEAM LEADER, all 6 of us are equipped by God to lead in specific ways! We each have different strengths and weaknesses, and I know God will use those to encourage, challenge, and grow us into the women He's calling us to be!

And the walls came tumbling dooooown!

Follow the Leader

what makes a great leader?

In an effort to answer this question, I began reading up on the great leaders of the Bible,

to see if I could find a common thread, or gift, that made them so great.

What I discovered changed my perspective completely!

Welcome back. Let's take a look at a few of these Biblical role models:

Joseph

GIFT: dreams/interpretaion of dreams

PAST: He was his dad's favorite,

therefore his jealous brothers tried

to kill him. Instead of death, he was

sold into slavery, then imprisoned for

something he didn't do, then was called

on to interpret the king's dream.

God interpreted the dream through Joseph,

so the king put him in charge of saving

Egypt and surrounding areas from famine.

Joseph became the 2nd most powerful man

in all of Egypt!!

Moses

Well...the Bible doesn't mention any gifts :GIFT

that Moses might have had. In fact, it says

he was fearful of leading, and stuttered.

As a baby, he was saved from death by the :PAST

grace of God. Through a crazy chain of events,

he was raised by his Hebrew mother in the

Egyptian palace. As an adult, he commited

murder,and ran away to hide out in the desert.

40 years later, God called him to go back to

Egypt and lead His people to freedom!

Wait a minute.

Moses didn't have any pronounced gifts or qualifications?

He was fearful and whiney?

hmm...maybe gifting has nothing to do with it...

in that case, what did these two leaders have in common, if anything?

Genesis 39:2

"The Lord was with Joseph,

SO he succeeded in everything he did..."

Exodus 4:12

(The Lord is speaking with Moses)

"Now Go! I will be with you as you speak,

and I will instruct you in what to say."

THE LORD WAS WITH BOTH OF THEM!

At this point, I excitedly began looking through the Bible to see if this was true of other leaders. Could it be that their qualification came from the fact that God was with them? Is it really that simple?

Joshua

led the Israelites to the Promised Land.

Joshua 1:5-7,9

(God is speaking to Joshua)

"No one will be able to stand against you as long as you live.

For I will be with you as I was with Moses.

I will not fail you or abandon you...

This is my command - be strong and courageous!

Do not be afraid or discouraged.

For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go."

David

became the King of Israel;

God called him a man after His own heart.

1 Samuel 18:14

"David continued to succeed in everything he did,

for the Lord was with him."

Jeremiah

was a prophet to the nations

Jeremiah 1:8

"Don't be afraid of the people, for I will be with you

and protect you. I, the Lord, have spoken!"

Yes. It really is that simple. Not to say it's easy to lead - cause it's not - but if God is with you, then you WILL succeed as a leader.

Wait. There's more.

But you'll have to read the next blog to find out what.