1 Country + 7 People + 1 City + 3 Villages = 1 Awesome Missions Trip!

I had my passport. My bags were packed and checked in. I had my plane ticket. I was ready to start an adventure of new and exciting things. I was leaving the USA for the first time and going to Romania for a missions trip with my church for two weeks.

Over the eastern United States and Canada, over the ocean with a quick stop in London, we arrived in Bucheresti, Romania our first stop in our missionary journey. In Bucheresti, Romania's capital, is Maranta Baptist Church which is a sister church to the church I attend: Parkway Baptist Church in McKinney, TX. Maranta Baptist Church was like our base for the next two weeks. 

In Bucheresti, Odobesti and Sentesti, we did children's program in the morning and evening, visited in people's homes in the afternoons and had evening services for the adults. For the children's programs, we had games, crafts, music and of course Bible stories. There were so many adorable children! They have the. most. beautiful. eyes. ever. I love, love eyes like a whole ton, so I was basically in heaven!! 

During our afternoon visits, we visited with families of the church who had different needs, such as those that needed encouragement or had a family member who was unsaved that we could witness to. This was a completely new experience for me. Visiting with a family that I had never laid eyes on, in an unfamiliar country, with a language barrier, as well as a different culture was quite a challenge. The Lord really used these visits to teach me valuable lessons, but more on that later. ;)

The evening services consisted of sharing the gospel, music and testimonies. All of our team shared our testimonies as well as several of our translators. I always love hearing testimonies! They just prove what an amazing, awesome God we serve. He does indeed change lives in supernatural ways!!

My trip to Romania was not only an adventure of seeing new places and ministering to children but also an adventure of learning. God taught me so much on my first international trip. For the rest of this blog post, I would like to share a bit of what God taught me.

One lesson that began the second day and continued to the end of our trip started with my first home visit. The first family I visited I had absolutely no idea of what I was to say or do. I am a detailed person who loves to know what the expectations are so that I can meet those expectations as well as know what I am doing. Well, very few details were shared about what we were to do. All I knew was this family had a member who was not saved and who was my translator, that's it!

 That visit was hard as well as a bit awkward for me. However, it started me thinking. How do you connect with a person and share the gospel in a real and personal way when you have never seen them before? How do you prepare yourself to say all the right words in the right way? I asked these questions to the two ladies who have been coming to Romania for roughly 10 years. They both had the same answer. "I don't ever know what to say beforehand. You just have to rely upon the Holy Spirit." 

Well, that answer was nice and all, but I didn't think it helped me any. It seemed that during the visit I went blank and it didn't seem that the Holy Spirit was helping me. Which was wrong, but that's what it felt like. Then I was able to watch one of those ladies visit with a family whom she had never meet before. She was so full of love for this family in her words and actions. After watching her, God showed me that I had walked into these visits with the wrong focus. I was focused on saying everything perfectly, giving perfect answers and asking perfect questions. Instead, my focus should be showing them my love for them and even more importantly, sharing God's love for them. Then I should depend on the Lord to give me the words to say to effectively share that love. The Lord gave me the huge blessing of being used by Him to lead someone to Christ. This was during a home visit which was just next door to the church so I had no time to prepare at all!! The Lord gave me the words to say. When my focus was correct, God took the lead. It was a powerful visit!!

While I was in Romania I felt like I got a tiny taste of heaven. I made so many awesome, amazing friends with our translators. Here I was a young woman from another country who does not understand a single word of Romanian, have no idea of the Romanian culture and I have never come in contact with another culture before and yet I was able to connect with the Romanian young people. Why? Because we both had the same foundation. Christ ruled our lives so we all had a common bond because our passion and mission in life was the same.

It was amazing! We could share what God was doing in our lives and encourage each other in the Lord. They convicted, challenged and encouraged my walk with the Lord and I hope and pray I was able to do the same. This is what heaven is going to be like. Every culture, language, country will come together glorifying God. We will exchange stories of what God did, how He saved us from our sins and how He used us. Romania made me even more excited for heaven and how awesome it's going to be. 

This is just a taste of what God did in my life in Romania. I was so blessed to be able to go and Lord willing, I will be going next year!!

Solo Deo Gloria,

Carissa

God of the Impossible!!

“Why would you waste your life doing great things for God when He invites you to do the impossible?”

“To do the impossible you have to get your eyes off the circumstances. Circumstances will paralyze you from doing the impossible.”

Circumstances:

1. I signed up for a photojournalism trip to New Zealand with IPS. I had prayed about it and God had given me the okay as well as provided the money needed for the deposit. The deposit was paid so there is no turning back now or I would lose that money.

2. Now this trip to NZ costs a lot of money...like a lot!!! I don't have that kind of money just lying around so I needed to earn money. But to earn money you kinda have to have a job. I had one job that was every other week. It was a good job with good pay, but not enough hours. I needed more work!

3. I tried finding a job with no success. Well, actually that's not exactly true. I got two house cleaning jobs which I was thankful for. However, this was a biweekly or once a week jobs. Once a week jobs are not going to get me to NZ!! 

4. I was working with a ministry called Commit. They work with girls 12-15 years old, just the age group I love working with. They were doing a conference in Nashville, TN and I wanted to go and minister to those girls. But there was a little problem. I had to pay my expenses for traveling, food and lodging. Wait a minute! I can't spend money!I am saving for NZ! Right?

All these quotes and circumstances are swirling through my mind and heart one Saturday morning when my dad returned from a men's breakfast at my church and started sharing what he had heard from the speaker. The speaker had been sharing his life verse and how God had used it in his life. His life verse was Matthew 6:33 "But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added to you." He shared that when he put God and ministry first, God provided for the other things he needed. It was a great challenge for me! I decided I would go to Nashville, spend the money to get there and leave NZ in God's hands.

The week before was full of struggles. Struggles to get my eyes off my circumstances and turn them on my God. However, as I prepared to leave for Nashville I made a discovery that open my eyes. With my few jobs, I had earned the money I needed for Nashville. I realized what God was doing! He was providing for the needs I had right now and asking me to trust Him with the needs down the road. I was so excited at this discovery! I could indeed trust my God! He did indeed know what He was doing! I had no idea, but that was just the beginning!!

The Saturday I left for Nashville, my grandfather came to visit us! One of the first things he did was pass out birthday money to all of us. He gave me $50.00!! I was so shocked and so excited! God had just provided money that would cover my food expenses at Nashville! I was in awe of God's ways. But that wasn't even the end of it!!

I took a train Saturday afternoon to Oklahoma to meet up with some friends and drive to Nashville with them. On that train I meet a brother in Christ, a pastor heading home. He saw that I was reading C.S Lewis and he asked me what I thought about it. We talked about Lewis, the conference I was going to and much more! He told me about his children, grandchildren, his church, the youth ministry and lots more. I told him about my photography business and my trip to New Zealand. We probably talked half the train trip.

When we were almost to my train station, the pastor gave me his card and asked me to pray for him. He also gave me a $100.00 bill and said, "My wife and I want to give this to you for your New Zealand trip." Wow!! This was absolutely incredible!! God blessed me again in the most amazing way! Guys, I didn't spend any of my own money during the conference in Nashville. God had provided it all! I now know that I am going to New Zealand. I don't know all of the how, but I know my God will provide,.

"Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not." Jeremiah 33:3

"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord." Isaiah 55:8

P.S. It has been three days since I have returned from Nashville and God has continued to provide for NZ. I will try to keep you updated on what God has and is doing. For example, I now have jobs coming out of my ears!! Now the trouble is keeping all of them straight!! Isn't God good? Does He not still do miracles?

Joni and Friends 2011

This summer I had the honor to serve at a Joni and Friends Family Retreat (JAF). This is a retreat where families who have a member that has a disability such as Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Down Syndrome etc. can come and have a camping experience the whole family can enjoy. The family member with a disability has a Short Term Missionary (STM) assigned to them for the week. This STM does everything with that disabled family member including eating meals together, doing camp activities etc. This gives the parents some much needed time to relax, knowing that their child is in capable hands. This was my second year serving at JAF.

I was a STM to a 9 year old autistic boy. He was verbal and a very sweet boy. I had a great time with him. The Lord taught me many things as I worked with him. For example, I had to learn to be patient and flexible when working with my little guy. He enjoyed doing most of the camp activities but he was also easily frustrated.

He was upset when he was unable catch a fish. If he couldn't get his craft just perfect he would tear it apart and throw it. After lunch he would start to become overwhelmed with all the activity, the people and all the newness he was experiencing and we would have to go to a quiet room and watch a movie for about an hour. We missed several activities everyday and I had to be okay with that. 

A couple of times he would become upset and try to find his mother. As he searched for her, he did not want me nearby or following him. He wanted to be alone! I had to learn to talk in a gentle and quiet voice and find creative ways to distract him to do other activities. These are just a few lessons I learned in working with my camper.

Throughout the week God placed a question in my heart to ponder over as I worked with my camper and watched other campers at JAF. I realized that every single one of these kids/adults that had a disability were made in God's image. That made me realized that God made them as they are because they could most glorify God as they are. So my question that I pondered over was...How do these people glorify God in ways that I, as a "normal" person, could not? I began looking for answers to that question throughout the week and I found several ways.

One way is how they enjoy the simple things in life. One camper with Cerebral Palsy was absolutely overjoyed when his STM sprayed someone with a water gun. He was unable do it himself yet he loved it when his STM did. We "normal" folks must do it ourselves if we are to have fun. 

Another way were the smiles of the campers. They were beautiful. But think of it, what would you do if you could not talk? And you couldn’t control your hands very well to do sign language? How do you communicate? Lots of them do it through smiles. And they are the most beautiful smiles that you will ever see. Their faces just glow! I sometimes get a picture in my mind of one of the campers smiling and I get chills. It’s just so precious!! 

Now that I am at home back to my "normal" life I want to continue to hunt for ways that people with disabilities glorify God in ways I cannot. I challenge you to do the same. Do not look at people who are different with eyes of scorn. Look at them the way God does: human beings made in His image and likeness. People who are made to glorify God. Find the ways they glorify God in ways you cannot. You will be surprised at what you find. 

Here is a slideshow I made of the pictures I took at JAF to show at my church. It gives you a taste of  JAF.

For God's Gory!

Carissa

God-Stories...Will You have One?

Imagine being in heaven surrounded by all the great men and woman of the Bible, Noah, Joseph, Hannah, Esther, David, Samuel, Paul, Peter, and oh so many others. But not just people of the Bible, Corrie Ten Boon, Amy Carmichael, George Muller, Jim Elliot and the other great men and woman of history who gave their all to God. It's story time in heaven, all these great men and woman are telling their God stories.

Joseph tells his story, "My life was full of hardship and heartache. I was the favorite son of my father out of twelve sons. This made my home life hard because my brothers were jealous. One day driven by their jealousy, they sold me into slavery. My very own brothers sold me into a life of extreme hardship that could even cost me my life!! I was sold to Potiphar where I was tempted day after day by his wife. By God's grace I withstood that temptation. The result was being cast into prison. I was there for years before I had hope that I would be released. But that hope was snuffed out because of a forgotten promise. Then God revealed to me the interpretation of Pharaoh's dream and placed me second in command over Egypt. Those hard circumstances in my life brought me to a place of saving nations from starvation. God's sovereign plan was at work in my life."

Esther's story is next. "I was just a little Jewish girl who was taken from my Uncle Mordecai to the King Xerxes's palace. I became his queen, the queen of a tyrannical king. My people were going to be destroyed by my husband's right hand man. I was the only hope of rescue for the Jews. To rescue them meant that I had to go before the king without a summons which means death! However, God had placed me as queen for a reason. I had to trust God with my life, take a step of faith and walk into that throne room. The Lord spared my life and the lives of my people!!"

George Muller shares, "I purposed in my heart that I would not tell anybody about my needs except to God in prayer. God had placed in my heart a passion for helping the orphan children in London. So I started an orphanage and the Lord provided for literally everything that was needed, even the children. God answered prayer after prayer and supplied for me and the children even to the simple things as breakfast. The Lord used me to show the world that God does indeed answer prayer."

One by one each person shares their God-stories. Stories of submission to God's plan, complete lordship over their lives, stretched comfort zones. Through their willingness to serve God, lives were changed, God was glorified, people brought into the kingdom and the world standing in awe and without an answer except to praise God.

Before you know it the whole room is looking at you, waiting for you to share your God story. The question is...What kind of story will you have?

Will your story be of giving yourself as a living sacrifice? A changed life from a life-changing gospel? Will it involve stepping out of your comfort zone for a God who is worth taking a risk for? Is it a story of reaching out beyond yourself to people who are hurt, lost, in darkness, lonely, unlovable? What about prayers answered, lives changed, work done that lasts for eternity? A light that pushes back the darkness? The world asking what makes you different? The world standing in awe at your response to hardships and suffering? God's strength made perfect in your weakness?

Or is it a story of I asked Jesus into my heart to save me. I go to church and I pray, but that's it. Doing something scary for God? No way!! Get out of my comfort zone to serve others?!? Not going to happen. Instead I'm going to do as little as I can for God and live life the way I want to. I'm going to make sure that I dress cutely (or coolly), get a good job, find a great husband (or wife), try to keep myself safe and be completely "normal." I'll have a light, but I'd rather the world not see it. Weakness? I'm going to hide it and wave my strengths under people's noses. Life is about me living a safe, risk-free, comfortable life and going to heaven when I die.

Which story are you living out? Ultimately the question is...What is your goal in life? Glorifying yourself or God? Will you take risks for God? Will you go where He sends you? Will you pray for the impossible? Will you do the seemingly impossible?

"For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him." 2 Chronicles 16:9