BURNING BUSH!

So... I'm an awful blogger. I have been thinking about blogging, but it just hasn't happened! Ugh.. life..
And also, I wanted to continue my blogs about Africa, but I wanted to put my daily journal writings as the blog entries and that journal is in Birmingham. So, hold the phone on that... I will definitely finish the amazing God story of Africa!! Ahh... Africa... I love thee.

Okay... God stories in America, my life, my marriage, my family, my church... AMAZING! There are many, but I think we FINALLY found our burning bush! ~me and my BFF always joke about finding our burning bush to tell us what God REALLY wants us to do!~ This happened while me and Jacob were studying the Bible, Matthew chapter 10. WOW! This is when Jesus is sending out the 12 disciples. I absolutely LOVE this passage because Jesus is so hardcore. He isn't the sweet, glassy blue-eyed, pale skinned, painted Jesus we see now... He is the God of all, sending workers out into an unsure, dangerous world. So... Jesus is sending the disciples out, explaining who they are and their mission in the Kingdom work. Jesus then says:

11"Whatever town or village you enter, search for some worthy person there and stay at his house until you leave. 12As you enter the home, give it your greeting. 13If the home is deserving, let your peace rest on it; if it is not, let your peace return to you.

Jesus is prepping His best friends and closest companions for the hardest adventures of their lives. He wants them to leave EVERYTHING and rely on Him provide housing accommodations along the way. Wow! That's what many missionaries are doing all around the world even today. Forsaking everything that's "NORMAL" and surrendering to ministry, to God's specific and radical calling on their lives. 

Jacob and I read the entire chapter and were floored with everything that Jesus was telling His followers. When we finished reading, we prayed, and then we were just talking. Jacob had to go the restroom and I continued just talking to God about everything. My heart kept going back to the verses above and verse 42, "And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is my disciple, I tell you the truth, he will certainly not lose his reward."  I felt connected to those verses. I wanted to offer a worthy home that a missionary could find rest at and a place where we could serve the servants. When Jacob came out of the bathroom he was just bursting at the seams to tell me something (you know, men do their best thinking in the bathroom, ha). He said... "ya know, I think we should offer missionaries a place to stay."  WHAT?? Wow! Definitely the Holy Spirit working in our two humbled hearts! How crazy! We both got giddy, like two middle school girls get over Justin Beiber! (haha) We talked for hours about God's plans for our lives and here is the preliminary goals:

We want to create a missionary home/camp with a central dining room and grand room and numerous rooms/cabins available for missionary families. This home is available for missionaries in transition, on furlough, or ministering here in America. It will be a family-oriented environment. We want to offer these missionary families a support system, daily meals, housing for LOW OR NO COST, babysitters for date nights, worship nights, Bible studies, REST! We want to call it.... RESTore Missionary Home!!! I'm so excited I can barely make complete sentences! How awesome is our God. It encompasses everything we love: MINISTRY, foreign missions, CAMP!, eating, worship, serving, loving, family! I love every facet of it. 

Now, how will that happen? Only God knows. Obviously, that takes alot of money, people, and resources. God is in control and we completely trust Him. We know it will require lots and lots of hardwork, but we are so willing! So ready! Please be in prayer over the process of getting it started, for us as we work together, for any future missionaries who will stay at our home, and that God will direct us CLEARLY and BLUNTLY!