tears and anticipation

the church praying over me as they sent me out

Last Sunday was a sad and tearful day, yet one filled with anticipation and excitement as my church family commissioned me to go carry the gospel and build the kingdom of God. Three and a half years ago, God led me to become a part of the specific body He had called together as His church.

Lately, I have seen this whole new view of the church. I am seeing that God uniquely builds the body. He calls the hands, eyes, ears, feet, etc. and unites them under the head, Christ. He knows what the body needs and specifically fits people together so that the whole body will be equipped to do the work He has called the church to do.

Why am I going into all this? Because when God called me three years ago to become a part of His body in Birmingham, Alabama, He didn't just call me to a church to go while I was in college. He called me to a people, His people, to play a role in a specific story- the story He is writing through His church in Birmingham, AL. That story reaches far beyond Birmingham, and even the United States, into the nations. It's God's story of Him choosing the local church to be the one through which He works to carry the gospel to those lost in the world.

I am humbled and honored that God is using me as the part/ extension of the body to be based in Australia and go into all the world with the good news. I am not going alone. I am still connected to the body! How amazing is that! They are making sure that I am equipped and benefit from and am encouraged by the rest of the body so that I will be effective there for His glory!

His church has been obedient to the call, and has said "Yes, we will send her. Yes, we will be a part of what God is doing in Australia. We, too, will go." I am truly blessed and amazed at the sovereign purposes of God unfolding in all of this. He has birthed something amazing, and what He started, He will complete!

Sunday was a sad time, but also a time of joy and celebration. I could almost feel the anticipation of what God is going to do through this partnership between me as a missionary there and the local church as the sending ones. This is only the beginning and the foundation of something beautiful. Yes, I am blessed, and we as a church have a lot to look forward to in the coming couple of years.