My ambition...

Cheerio from across the pond!

I’ve been back for a while and thing are back in full swing. I’m working Monday through Friday in the EMI office here in Colchester working on project drawings, renderings, the funding brochure and whatever else is needed. Please be in prayer for our work as we have what seems like a mountain to climb before August 6^th when we leave. I’ve really enjoyed continuing to help out with open door, to be able to interact with the people here in Colchester, people whose lives have been harder than I could imagine. It’s hard to see how broken many of them are, but also amazing to see they still have hope, some more than others, some on a better track than others. I’ve also learned a lot about how mental illness is a really devastating thing, someone who had lived a completely normal life could lose it all and become homeless all because of a simple accident that caused brain damage. God is working here. God is showing me how to love people, people who may always let you down, people who many would say are a lost cause. There is no such thing as a lost cause to Christ and so, no matter their story or their sin (because, let’s be honest we are all sinners), I can only listen love and serve them tea.

AFRICAN DREAM ACADEMY 3d VIDEO. This is a link for a video of the work we’ve done so far, it's an entire view of the site and long term vision. The dream of African Dream Academy is huge, but it is to be built in sustainable phases, first with the housing for orphans and the school. This project is something which would create opportunities for children which simply don’t exist at all in Liberia. African Dream Academy runs off the principle that children in Liberia deserve the same opportunities as children elsewhere. Imagine creating more than just a school out of mud and thatch but creating a school that lasts, where students have their own desk, books and a library to study in, playgrounds, assembly and worship spaces, music rooms, science labs and even a computer lab. Schools like these are few and far between in Africa, and almost never made available for orphans and poorer children yet, with the help of EMI and other donors this school can be a reality.

Since being back there are so many memories and stories I wish I could tell all of you. I’ll start with telling you about something I’ve been learning lately. I want to encourage each of you to live with an ambition. Not the kind of ambition which includes a large paycheck, perfect grades or a better car but, the kind of ambition which offers more than anything you could imagine. In Romans 15 Paul talks about his life’s ambition: to go and tell people about the love of Christ where it has not been known before. His ambition was his joy, even if it ended him in prison, beaten or worse. He literally could not rest in one place, could not help but speak of his passion because he knew so clearly his call: to go. I want all of you to remember that you each have a call to go, it may not be to go across the world but it is still a call to love, to live for more than your own personal gain, to live in a way so opposite than everything the world tells us that people stop and stare. Be one who seeks attention not by the kinds of things you wear, the vocabulary you use, the jokes you can tell or any other empty thing, seek attention for God by the way you love, how you react when you are wronged, how you reach out to the homeless, the mentally ill, the orphan, the depressed, the sick, the broken. How you reach out to one another.

Pray for me as I am feeling a resistance of sorts lately, pray for God to break down barriers

Pray for the EMI staff here in the UK, we have all been tested in different ways this summer, some more than others.

Pray for continued opportunities to share the gospel and encourage the body of Christ while I am here in England. I volunteer with Open Door on Wednesdays, so if you could, remember me on Wednesdays!

-Jess

Romans 15:30,33 "I appeal to you, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to strive together with me in your prayers to God on my behalf,"... "May the God of peace be with you all. Amen."

As Time Goes By...

A blog I wrote in Casablanca, please read on!

DAY 16 Sunday June 20^th 2010

Well here I am at last, sitting in the Casablanca airport, between two worlds missing one and longing for the other. There is no other place that has the ability to break my heart like Africa. I realize now as I leave that my thoughts are constantly turning back, to the poverty, the pollution, the children, the way the sand and sea smells and the way the slums cram together humanity in the most broken way. All I can turn to is Christ, because every good thing I have seen, every moment of hope and joy in this land is clearly because of him. He is the one who gives strength to the woman, threatened by abandonment to rely on more than just the temporary. He is the one who lifts up the hands of the father who feels useless to provide in prayer and who gives him hope. He is the one who gives laughter and smiles to the small child who knows little of life but trash and dirty water. In every instance he is there and gives comfort even if it’s through the help of a stranger.

As you walk through your lives as you live each moment in your comfort I can tell you without a doubt many people here have more than you. They have faith that moves mountains, they have hope that gives them joy, they have trust in something infinitely more fulfilling than material possessions. They hold on to One who is ever constant and good. Should we call them poor? Yes in one sense, but to those who hope in Christ in this land of brokenness it is clear that God has defied all circumstances, entered into their broken lives and made them whole, perfect and joyful despite their condition. What God could do such a thing? What God could make what I thought was hopeless the biggest encouragement my faith has ever seen? What God could make a life I would say is barely worth living the happiest of all? God does more than provide for material possessions, he provides for the heart. As I look at my life I have so much, a family, education, a place to stay and an abundance of food, yet in his wisdom God has planned to give me something greater, a chance to be saved from the fickle life of materialism. There is nothing fulfilling in being the most successful, the most beautiful or the most intellectual, all those things prove empty over time, when we are honest we know that this is true. Yet if you give Christ a chance to show you what life is worth and what putting your trust in him means then come what may, death, poverty, sorrow and pain you can never lose everything because you have a constant, you have a savior from all things who loves you.

Soon I’ll board the plane and leave this continent, soon I’ll be back to a more familiar place, in a land where most people look much like me, yet I hope that you will know that I am changed.