Release

One of my goals this year is to RELEASE.

RELEASE.

The definition of release is: allow or enable to escape from confinement; set free.  Also to allow (something) to move, act, or flow freely.

God has brought this word to my heart and asked me to RELEASE Casey and RELEASE my family.

Release Casey to fully serve in ministry.  Release my family to be all they were created to be.  Release my home to be used for His purposes.  Release my own plans to allow His full will.  JUST RELEASE.

Oh it hurts even to write about it.

I HATE release.  I like control.  I like manipulate.  I like planning.  I like to withhold.

RELEASE is not natural.

BUT RELEASE is the word and the vision.

So it’s something I am really praying into.  I want to release my sweet husband and my family and my LIFE for all God has intended it to be.  I don’t want to hold anything back or anyONE back.

We are HIS.

These verses have come to my heart as I am praying about release:

“Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.”  -Galatians 6:7

“”But for you who fear my name, the Sun of Righteousness will rise with healing in his wings. And you will go free, leaping with joy like calves let out to pasture.”  -Malachi 4:2

I want to sow release and surrender.  I want to live free.  I want to be filled with joy.

So RELEASE.

Will you pray for me and our home, that we will fully release?  And maybe there is something you too can release?  SomeONE you can release?  It hurts, but it will FREE YOU.

RELEASE.

Why I Can't Blog

Our home and and lives are FULL.

Full of people, full of conversations, full of ministry, full of heartbreak, full of celebration.  Just FULL.

But I don’t share some of it on the blog.  Actually I don’t share MOST of it on the blog or social media.

Thought it would be good to share why.

Our lives and ministry have always been intertwined and the same is true here in South Africa.  We live our lives in a balanced way and make space for family time and renewal, but our home is often a place where people pour out their lives and heartache to us.  Friends are family and are often ministry here.

So I can’t blog about that.  I want to protect the privacy of those who share their hearts with me.  It’s their story to tell, not mine.

So often I CAN’T blog about most of the stories that I hear.  I hear of heartache and tragedy and pain.  I hear of hope and vision and transformation.  But they aren’t my stories to tell.

BUT.  I still blog.

There are some stories I can tell.  Mostly when I share I am telling of how these tragedies and transformations are changing ME.  Sometimes I wonder if God will ever show up and do something.  Sometimes I am in awe and wonder at the power and truth of God on the earth.  And most of the time I am in between.

These stories of South Africa, this ministry, it changes me.  It shakes me to my core and it lifts me to the heavens.  God is alive and God is real.  The people of Ocean View (and beyond) are a living testimony of that.

But it is THEIR TESTIMONY to share.  Not mine.

So often I can’t blog, but when I can share I will.   Trust me when I say that there is so much here.  God is alive.  Maybe you should come and see it for yourself??

Christmas in Africa

January 6, 2014

Christmas in Africa is pretty similar to Christmas anywhere else in the world I would suspect.  But ONE thing makes it really special and memorable for me.

THE PEOPLE.

Christmas in South Africa is all about family and community.  The day is packed with visits, and greetings, and presents, and eating, and gathering.  You see all the people you love and spend time together.

The longer we live here the more special Christmas becomes to me here.

Christmas day is hectic and honestly a blur to us, but something I cherish.  In Africa it’s very important for people to ‘greet’ one another by coming to visit, and so our home was filled for much of the day, and then we went to another family gathering with a home also filled to the brim.

Being in all these homes with people filled to the brim fills my HEART to the brim.  Our Christmas-time here reminds me that God has blessed us with an incredible community.

We share life, food, family, and Jesus.  It is rich and it is hard and it is SO GOOD.

Thank you Jesus for sending us your SON in the form of a small, vulnerable child.

Thank you for allowing us to celebrate that perfect and tiny gift.  Thank you for coming to us, and thank you that we can come to one another.

Thank you Jesus that you have come among us once again.