Seagulls, Stillness and a Sweet Savior

I'm at the beach this weekend....a self-declared "time out" before we head to Bosnia in two weeks (from today!). At the pace my life has been going for the past few months (Bosnia team leadership duties, crazier than normal job workload, maid of honor in an upcoming wedding, leading a women's small group, family commitments, etc.) I knew that I was going to go SKIDDING into April 19th (the day we leave for Bosnia) with no reserves (emotional, mental, physical OR spiritual).

In true fashion, the Lord's timing is impeccable. One of the girls in my small group is getting married today (Sunday, April 5) in Amelia Island. The timing was perfect to take several days to get alone with my Father. Nothing besides the grandeur of mountains reminds me of how huge my Father is than the ocean. He has met me here. He stopped the noise and the clamor of my busy world in Atlanta, and He met me on a beautiful coastline. He gave me the gift of quietness to hear a child's laughter as she runs from the waves nipping at her heels....the gift of watching sea gulls bicker over cracker crumbs...the stillness to just grab the coarse sand with my toes. It's been quiet. Quiet is good.

Quiet has helped me hear Him more clearly...to allow Him to love me by experiencing Him in nature. He led me to Psalm 42 and to a "panting" for more of Him than maybe I've wanted in a while. He's helped me remember his power as the mighty waves crash and the wind attempts to push them the other direction sending a beautiful white spray of water in the air. He's reintroduced me to my favorite author, John Piper, as I read Piper this morning saying what my heart must already know and has seen more clearly this weekend...."God is glorified in His people by the way we experience Him.....nothing shows the direction of the deep winds of the soul like the demand for radical, sin-destroying, Christ exalting joy in God." If it takes a six-hour drive to sit on a beach alone to be reminded of that, then so be it. He's worth every mile and an eternity more.

In another two weeks, we'll travel a few more miles as we head to Bosnia-Herzegovina and the dear people that we love. As I spoke with Pastor Bernard last week over Skype, he expressed his anticipation of how we can encourage each other. His plans for us to come and worship with him and the church, to reach out to the community (especially the women of the community who are much more open to the gospel than the men) and to pour our hearts out together in prayer served to stoke the fire in my heart even more for what God is doing there. He's moving and working and stirring in ways we, and especially they, have never seen before. Bernard is encouraged...all the while, fighting discouragement at every turn. The spiritual and financial oppression is palpable there. But our God is bigger, and this is where we place our hope.

I'm so honored to go with this team of eight amazing individuals. God has so greatly gifted each one, and in ways that will uniquely minister to the people in Capljina just as He's ministered to each of us already as we've met for the past 3-1/2 months. I've loved witnessing God take eight very different individuals with our own doubts and insecurities (although a fierce love for Him and a passion for His fame throughout the world)....and form us into one team that together, will pack up every ounce of love and hope one can expect from a GREAT God and take it to a country that desperately needs this love and hope. This kind of luggage is too heavy for us, but we trust in a God that makes the waves crash....that can count the grains of sand....and cares enough to put laughter in a child's lungs. This is the Savior we take on our trip. This is the Savior we believe will be more famous than Allah or the Pope in Bosnia-Herzegovina soon and very soon!