Who's Missing? .... uh, me!

Howdy, everyone! It's been a very long few months.  Where have I been? Well, you wouldn't believe it, but I'm back!

Before I let you know what is on my mind, and in case you are new to my blog, it is just that - my blog.  I am a year round volunteer for Operation Christmas Child, a division of Franklin Graham's Samaritan's Purse, and I lead an incredible group of other volunteers here in Northern Kentucky.  Most of my writing is related to OCC as it is what I enjoy most!  Some of what I feel God saying to me is not.  I hope you enjoy funny, touching, incredible moments that God gives me each day!  This blog is not to highlight any one person other than my Savior, Jesus Christ. It is not my purpose to offend anyone, but just let you know how God is using this very plain, very ordinary, sin filled child of His and hope you hear something from Him yourself as you read.

So ... with that introduction, here's what He has placed on my heart today ...

God has given me the most incredible journey so far in 2012. I was fortunate to be asked to go on a distribution trip with OCC and spent 5 days in Uganda, Africa.  Those 5 days changed my life.  In the days ahead more and more stories of God's abundance, God's provision, His sovereignty and His grace will be revealed.

Today my mind is on the little girl I left behind in Uganda ... Hilda.

I met Hilda on our third shoebox distribution - this one to an orphanage and school.  We had an instant bond!  We were able to play with the things in her shoebox and laugh. I got to watch her dance and was able to walk her to school after the distribution.  I think saying good-bye in the rain and leaving her was one of the toughest things I've had to do in a very, very long time.

BUT, here is what I know.  God sent me to Africa with a purpose - His purpose;  God placed THIS girl in my path; and God keeps His promises.  I do not know what He has for my family and this precious child, but for now, she will be going to school, getting many letters from my family and hearing Bible stories and how much Jesus loves her.  Hilda may not be my child from my body, but she is certainly my child from my heart - God's heart.  Everything else is in His sovereign power.

It makes me think this morning about my own relationship with God - my Father.  He chose me. Isn't that an incredible statement? To be "chosen" by God.  God chose me! Why? Out of His love.  Certainly not out of something I did, something I am, anything I accomplished.  Simply out of love.  A very close friend of mine recently did a little study on some scriptures that talk about this idea of being chosen by God.  Here are a few of my favorites ...

"My sons, do not be negligent now, for the Lord has chosen you to stand before Him and serve Him, to minister before Him." 2 Chronicles 29:11

"So I am willing to endure anything if it will bring salvation and eternal glory in Christ Jesus to those God has chosen." 2 Tim. 2:10

"You have been set apart as holy to the Lord your God, and He has chosen you from all the nations of the earth to be His own special treasure."  Deut. 14:2

Think about your own adoption into God's family today.  I know it's on my mind.  We are born into our families not through our own choice - God chose that for us.  But, He chose US to be in His family.  How could you ever want for anything else ... His promises and His blessing, His birthright, His Son has already been given to you - His chosen child.

Victory in Jesus!

In my downtime this month from OCC, I have been trying to catch up on some reading and set some new personal goals for 2012.  One of the best books that I have begun reading is “Battlefield of the Mind” by Joyce Meyer.  So far I have a lot of things underlined and highlighted and I am only up to chapter 6.

While reading I came across a verse that I have read hundreds of times and could probably almost quote word for word, yet it has never spoken to me as it did the other day.  I started really looking at the words and wondering how I could get these thoughts, these things God wants me to think on, really into my head.  You see, our minds are the battlefield.  What we think is what we do and what we say! If God doesn’t have control of my mind and what I think, then how can I expect Him to show through me?  

Philippians 4:8 says, "Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable - if anything is excellent or praiseworthy - think about such things."

Hmmm, yeah I get that, but what does it all mean?  I decided to dig a little deeper and get out the ole Webster’s Dictionary and pick the words apart. (My preacher friends and professors in college would be so proud!)

Phil. 4:8

true - in accordance with fact or reality; without deviation

noble - possessing very high or excellent qualities

right - being in accordance with what is just, good and proper

pure - free from moral fault or guilt

lovely - delightful for beauty, harmony and grace

admirable - deserving of highest esteem

excellent - superior, eminently good

praiseworthy - laudable, commendable, to recommend as worthy of confidence or notice

So now here is what Philippians 4:8 is saying: Instead of listening to the lies of the world, this is what God wants us to think about - Whatever is in accordance with fact, without deviation; whatever is possessing very high qualities; whatever is in accordance with what is just, good and proper; whatever is free from moral fault or guilt; whatever is delightful for beauty, harmony and grace; whatever is deserving of the highest esteem; whatever is superior or eminently good; and whatever is laudable, commendable, or recommended as worthy of your confidence of notice.

God gives us so much to be thinking about that there shouldn’t be time for the devil to interject his lies.  Is this an easy task?  Of course not, it takes practice. It takes time. It takes grace for ourselves! It takes effort.  Moment by moment; day by day; thought by thought.  Hey, I'm just starting ...  

We have an ace in the hole, though! God knows we cannot do this on our own! He is just waiting, patiently, for us to ask for His help. He want us to be thinking on Him and the things that please Him, for He knows the freedom that awaits us, the victory!  He’s is chomping at the bit to help, to guild, to speak, to comfort, to counsel us.  All we have to do is ask. That’s it! No conditions, no trials, no tests, no hurtles … just ask.

One of the biggest lies that I have discovered satan has been working on me for years and years, since my childhood, has already been shown to me by God through this process.  That is in the area of prayer.  The stronghold that satan has had over me has gone something like this, “Your prayers are not good enough. You haven’t asked forgiveness for your sins enough or in the correct way. Your theology is all wrong so your prayers can’t reach God, He won’t listen. You prayed in the wrong order and your attitude is not perfect. Why bother? You know you’re going to just commit that same sin again so why should God believe that you are sorry and forgive you? You’re not feeling God, so He’s not listening. You are such a mess and so full on imperfections that God just can’t be reached by you. You’re on your own!” 

This has been the conversation in my mind, little by little, since I was a child kneeling every night in prayer with my family.  I remember vividly being about 10 years old or so and having one of those nightly family prayer times.  I said something when it was my turn to pray that my father thought was not theologically correct.  He stopped me mid prayer and lectured for 20 minutes … all of us still kneeling … before I was forced to continue and finish my time “talking” to God.  This happened over and over! I was a child! Why would I want to pray as an adult if I can't do it perfectly?

Thus began the lies of the devil.  Those lies have built up thought by thought since that time.  Satan doesn't hit us, wham, with his lies. He's very clever and he is very, very patient.  He is willing to invest the time it takes, years, to make us ineffective, unusable and unhappy children of God.  I know it will take God reminding me over and over and over to come to Him as a child - not the child kneeling in fear of being wrong - but the child as He created me. He just wants to hear from me. He just wants me to speak to Him and then listen so He can speak to me because He has so much He’s been dying to tell me!!

What lies have you been listening to?

No more lies. It is time to find victory in Jesus. Because, my friends, once you do, once you surrender and start believing in the Truth, satan can no longer follow.  God WILL take us through the door where He alone can reach us! Will we have setbacks? Sure - we are human and we do live in the world. BUT we won’t believe the lie that we have failed! 

Victory in Jesus - not just a song to me anymore.

Learning to Surrender

I love, Lord, how you bring verses to me at just the right time.  You touched me with these three and I want to know why.  I don’t know what you have for me, but I want to follow wherever it leads me.  I’m human, so I will admit that it scares me a bit.  What if I can’t do it? What is I don’t have the words? I am without much courage … but it occurs to me that you haven’t called me to serve you because I’m so amazing, but because You are.  All I have to do is show up and be obedient and have a willing heart.  Will I make mistakes? Yep. Will I stumble? Yep. Will I have periods of doubt? Only if I give satan purchase and remove my focus on You.

So find me willing and obedient and present; and thank you, Lord, for the journey and the teachable moments along the way, even before I take the first step.


Ps. 10:17 - "Lord, you know the hope of the helpless. Surely you will hear their cries and comfort them."
Prov. 8:17 - "I love all who love me. Those who search will surely find me."
Rm. 10:14 - "How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?"

Just .... WOW!

Ok, so I am not often awestruck by people that I meet ... not really.  Not the fainting, wet your pants kind of thing ... usually, but today was certainly an exception!!

I am in Atlanta, Georgia working at the Operation Christmas Child Processing Center inspecting and, of course, praying over and touching as many boxes as possible, before they are put into cartons and forwarded to 5.8 children around the world.  My brain does not hold the words that would be necessary to give you the feelings, the atmostphere, the relationships that make up the Processing Center!  It is an experience like no other and is one that must be felt in person!

So today we are just processing our little bodies away and we realize we've worked for three hours and need a lunch break, and, of course, the bathroom! So I'm standing in line at the ladies room (ok, really, why is it we can send men to the moon but we can't build bathrooms in buildings to accommodate the fact that we, as girls, pee a LOT???)  Anyway, so I see a man walk by and I think, "Oh wow, that was Randy Riddle."  Nah, it can't be. Why in the world would Mr. Third only to Franklin Graham, Mr. OCC himself, be in Atlanta Processing Center?  A few minutes later, no lie, my mouth falls open and I turn to Debbi ... "Holy crap! That IS Randy Riddle!!!"

We have lunch. Go back to the line and on my way I ask Kate.  "Did I really just see Randy?"  Sure enough, not only is he in the house, but so is Jim Harrelson ... Mr. SECOND man to Franklin Graham and even bigger Mr. OCC!  Ok, now I'm really in awe! 

I kid you not, 30 minutes later, this is what happened ...

I did actually keep my pants dry, but it was not easy!  Ok, all humor aside, let me just tell you that Randy and Jim are the most humble, down to earth and fantastic men! They clearly have a love and passion for Operation Christmas Child, and even as important, for the volunteers.  They did do the usual "hi, how are you", but stood talking with me for over 20 minutes! Right in the middle of the Processing Center!  My respect for these two men just skyrocketed to a whole new level ...

Anyway, so obviously it was a very good day here in Atlanta. I'm tired, blissfully so, therefore you'll have to excuse this crudely created post, but ...

It would only be topped by Franklin Graham himself ... there just wouldn't be any dry pants ...

Hope for the Hopeless

It is time for one of my favorite things to do every year ... PROCESS!  No, I don't mean something as lofty as sitting with my coffee and contemplating life, but working in the Operation Christmas Child Processing Center.  There are 7 across the U.S. and this year, we are headed to Atlanta, Georgia.

Though I love the activity, the work, the travel, the companionship of 1,000 other volunteers as obsessed (uh ... passionate) about OCC as I am, that's really not what is on my mind this morning, just hours from leaving for the airport.  I am thinking this morning about being hopeless.

We live in a country with such abundance.  I've been in several conversations just in the past week about what it is to be in need.  I like to think that I can grasp what it is to be needy, to be truly hopeless, but I cannot, and neither can you!  I hear excuse after excuse from people every year about why they don't pack shoeboxes for children who live in some of the most forgotten parts of our world.  "We have so much need here in the United States."  "There are so many children here in our own country that we need to help."  Yes, those things are definitely true!

What I am talking about is true hopelessness.  There are children, 3, 4, 5 year olds, living on their own because their parents have died of AIDS; 12, 13 and 14 year olds out on the streets, or in garbage dumps, scrounging for food for themselves and their families because war has completely ravaged their village and there is nothing left; children of all ages who are sick themselves from diseases easily cured by antibiotics here in the States, but a death sentence in Africa, living out their remaining days in a "hospital"; tiny boys and girls in orphanages who have been left, and are unloved -- with no solution for any of these circumstances. No government program; no church doing a "mission project" to help; no community raising money to meet the need ... hopeless.

I received this verse in an email this week:  Psalm 10:17, "Lord, You know the hopes of the hopeless. Surely You will hear their cries and comfort them."  God knows where every shoebox is going - every single one!  He has a plan for how the needs of each single child will be met.  Will the items in the box change the physical circumstances of these children? No, of course not.  But God will use those items to bring hope ... HIS hope.  Just knowing that, finding comfort in that, the peace that comes from knowing HIM, is what will change each child.

Hopeless to hopeful.  Wow!

Pray for those of us traveling today.  Pray for each and every single shoebox we will process in the next few days.  Pray for hundreds of thousands of little boys and girls who KNOW the definition of hopeless, that they will meet my Jesus in their shoebox and find freedom, peace, love and HOPE in Him.

"... how can they believe if they have not heard, and how can they hear if no one preaches ..."
(Rm. 10:14)

Use me, Lord, to preach, so every child will hear, and every child will believe!!!!!!

Grateful Praise

Thank you, Lord, for your provision during National Collection Week! Thank you for good friends, safety of those bringing shoeboxes, generous hearts that packed boxes and for the record breaking response here in Northern Kentucky this year!  I ask, God, that you are already preparing the 14,886 hearts that will hear about Your hope, Your peace, Your freedom, Your love because the people of Northern Kentucky sacrificed for 14,886 children they'll never meet this side of heaven.  I ask that these 14,886 "seeds" fall on fertile soil and that your harvest is ABUNDANT!

I come to you today with grateful praise for the power you have shown in the last few weeks.  I am grateful to you, Lord, for binding satan along the way and for reminding me that YOU are in control and already know what is coming!

"Let everything that has breath, praise the Lord. Praise the Lord."                 Ps. 150:6

"The Lord is my strength and my song; He has become my salvation. He is my God, and I will praise Him, my father's God, and I will exalt Him."           Ex. 15:5

As the trailers pull away from our Collection Center in Alexandria this morning, and as another OCC year comes to an end, I am very reflective.  Yesterday, my dear friend and "sister", Debbi, reminded me that God has blessed this area and my team in so many, many ways.  That we have been praying all along that God would have us send the shoeboxes He purposed for us and that He needed from us.

So, in the spirit of Gratefully Praising God this morning, here's how He has worked in us this year:

• 14,886 Gospel Opportunities - a 7.8% increase over 2010 (13,810) and 1,076 more shoeboxes and also a new all-time high record for NKY!
• I still have two groups of Collection Center paperwork to enter into the database, but already we added 5 new community groups and 18 new churches participating in OCC for 2011!!!  That already blows our goal away!
• We added 5 new team members with the potential of 2 more already in talks
• We added a Media Coordinator, a Prayer Coordinator and will most likely add a Community Relations Coordinator after the first of the year!
• We added a new County for our area - Gallatin County, and
• A new Relay Center for that new County - Warsaw Baptist Church, and
• An energetic and full out fun lady to Coordinate that Center - LoraMae Sullivan (you'll see more of her in 2012, I predict!)
• We saw a few churches across our area break unbelieveable shoebox records:
• Walton First Baptist - 160 in 2010 to 511 in 2011!
• Latonia Baptist Church (Go, Doris!) - 500 in 2010 to 605 in 2011 - out of her house!
• Oak Ridge Baptist Church - 1,074 in 2010 to 1,533 in 2011!
• Calvary Baptist Church - 12 in 2010 to 145 in 2011!
• Team unity and organization.  In 2011 this group of people working at multiple purposes and separate and apart really came together in their love of this ministry and grew as a family that loves each other and is excited to see one another when we get together!
• We were fortunate to increase the speaking opportunities in our area:
• Churches
• TV appearance for Doris and myself!
• Latonia Small Business Association
• We were able to have booths at several community events:
• The anniversary celebration of Potter's Ranch
• The Pumpkin Festival in Warsaw, Kentucky
• The Fair in Gallatin County (where we picked up our RC!)
• We had record attendance at our Countdown Event in September!  We increased attendance over 2010 from 114 to around 140 for this year!
• We sent out 309 letters during Affirmation Campaign saying "thank you" to churches, community groups and individuals who participated in OCC for 2010!
• We had 8 of our team members attend our annual Connect Conference - training in all things OCC!
• We had our first annual Prayer Walk (Drive) to every Relay Center and our Collection Center.  We prayed for NCW as well as the other ministries and staff at each location.

I dare someone to say we didn't meet our goals!  We not only met them, God blew them away!

Satan - 0

God- 14,886 and counting!!!!

Yes, we had a lot of adversity this year in our personal lives ... family members passing away, illness, some turmoil in our Regional Office, tough work environments and circumstances, etc., but God blessed over and over and over again even in the midst of those distractions!  

God wins! He is faithful.  We serve a mighty and powerful Savior! 

He deserves praise for all the things that were accomplished in Northern Kentucky for 2011.  For HE is the reason we serve; reaching children across the world for Jesus is our purpose and our goal!  

I can't wait to stand before my Lord and be surrounded in 14,886 faces that are there with me because Northern Kentucky heeded God's call to "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you." (Mt. 28)

Rest up, everyone! 2012 is just around the corner and this tired mind is already awhirl with ideas!!!

Love to you all and THANK YOU for all the sacrifices, the time, the talents, the shopping, the wrapping, the packing, the working in collection to make the 14,886 Gospel Opportunities possible!

"Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus."  I Thessalonians 5:18

Wherever He leads ...

I have a lady in my church that has been offered an opportunity to write her story of her journey with OCC for a money saving website.  It's an amazing opportunity for her and it got me to thinking about my own journey, and that of my church, in this ministry.  It's good, I think, to look back at times and see where God has brought me so that when I am down in a valley I can remember that He never left me and He won't at that time, either!  So here goes ...

In 2001, my friend, Angie, and I were teaching MissionKids on Wednesday nights.  I can't remember now if this was our first year teaching or our second, but we decided it was time to clean out the classroom.  As with any church, there are rooms that seem to become the collection sites of anything that doesn't really have a home and there were 2 huge cabinets in our classroom that had become such places!  Armed with large, heavy duty trash bags and lots of energy, we attacked the room!  It didn't take long to fill our trashbags with junk and our hair with dust, but the job was about done.

We were down to the last shelf or so and we found a brochure.  It was green and red with a photo of a child holding a Christmas present.  The brochure was titled "Operation Christmas Child".  Hmmm, we thought, we need a Christmas project for the kids.  As we read the brochure, God began tugging at our hearts and we knew this would be an easy and fun missions opportunity for the kids - a great lesson in giving back!

Today I cannot remember what we packed, what we wrapped or even how we got the job done, but I know we packed 138 shoeboxes.  Talk about excited!  So, we had such great success the first year, why not do it again!  Year after year we would gear up for Operation Christmas Child in the fall and year after year God blessed our kids, our congregation and, of course, us!

Angie and I were fortunate that first year to be invited to take part in a trip to Boone, North Carolina to the Processing Center where many of the shoeboxes in this part of the United States end up for inspection.  I look back now in wonder at two ladies hopping a bus at 6:00 in the morning only knowing each other and not even knowing each other all that well!  We had no idea what God had in store for us on that trip!

To this day I cannot describe what we saw when we walked through the doors of that Processing Center.  Enormous posters lined the walls and hung from the ceiling - all smiling faces of children hugging their shoeboxes; the "smiling faces" song that was popular for OCC that year playing over and over until you just couldn't hold back emotions any more.  God was definitely in that place.  I can remember Angie and I turning to each other, eyes wide, as it started to sink in a little that we had "stumbled" into something fantastic!

Our first job at the Center was not glamorous.  Of course, we were so excited, we just didn't care!  We had the arduous task of sorting and boxing through the inappropriates - glass, liquids, food and chocolate, war toys, etc. that are removed from the shoeboxes and replaced with more appropriate items.  All items that come out of these shoeboxes are put to use in other places, but they must first be sorted.  Not an easy job or easy on the back.

I can remember the first time we were allowed to walk up to the inspection table and reach behind us and pull out a box from the bin and open it up and inspect it for some of those inappropriates!  Between the awe and wonder of what God was doing right there in front of us and that heart tugging song playing over and over - WE WERE HOOKED!  And ... we've never looked back.

A few years later God led Angie to another church and I lost my OCC partner, but she was with me when God started something amazing in our hearts and I have missed her every year since.  But over time, God brought other people in our church to work alongside me in this ministry and it has grown into something that doesn't even resemble what it was that first year we packed 138 shoeboxes.  This year, 2011, we will pack over 1,500 shoeboxes!!  Actually, that is not the truth ... GOD will pack that many shoeboxes - that many Gospel Opportunties to share His Son with children all around the world.

Creating that many "seeds" to be used by distribution teams in over 100 countries around the world, to 8.2 million children who are the forgotten, the children trying to live in some of the world's darkest places, would be enough, but, again, God had other plans!

In 2008 while delivering our shoeboxes to the Collection Center, the Coordinator at the time turned to me and said, "Have you ever thought of doing more? Have you ever considered being a Relay Center?"  I have to stop and give you a bit of background.  God is so funny!!  While driving to the Collection Center that day, I turned to the lady who was with me and told her how I felt God was leading me to do more with Operation Christmas Child but that I didn't know what.  I told her of the desire He'd placed in my heart to take a step of faith into something that He'd been preparing me for.  So, you can just imagine the look on my face just a few moments later when the comment, "Have you ever considered ...." was uttered!  I love when God answers us so loudly and so immediately.

Of course, I couldn't say "yes" fast enough!  So in 2009 Oak Ridge became a Relay Center for OCC and I it's coordinator.  So very cool, but, you guessed it, that wasn't all.  That spring I was also given the opportunity to become the Church Relations Coordinator for the Northern Kentucky area team of OCC.  There was a lot of paperwork and organizing, both right up my alley!

I enjoyed Church Relations very much through most of 2010, but in the late summer of that year, God began talking to me again.  This time about leading the NKY team! Me? Lead? Surely there is someone a lot more qualified to do such a thing!  But, by January 2011, I was Area Coordinator of Northern Kentucky and I wouldn't have traded this past year for the world! I am the luckiest of girls because I have now 17 other people who love OCC, who love Jesus, who love the children around the world whom they'll never see, as much as I do, and we work tirelessly together to spread OCC through 7 counties in NKY!  I've met and worked with some of the most amazing people and cannot wait to see what God does through this opportunity to serve in the next year!

So, my own ministry has gone through a lot of changes, but so has the ministry at Oak Ridge.  God has brought people in and out, but each person has left their mark.  2012 will bring more changes, but good ones.  We have a lady in our church who has a heart for homemade items that some of our older members, who can't do as much of the shopping and the wrapping and the physical labor that goes into a project of this size, can do so they leave their mark on these shoeboxes.

God has brought another lady along to form a relationship with a local clothing store that has graciously agreed to keep shoeboxes coming our way all year long!  She picks them up, keeps up with the count and makes sure these boxes get wrapped for the fall when we start filling these gifts.

God has brought a small group of ladies that love to shop and find the best deals - even the free items - to make sure that we had not just a quantity of boxes, but a good quality of boxes!

God has taken a group of women in our church that didn't know each other very well and made them into a team - a team that loves reaching children for Jesus and loves serving the Lord all while bonding together as Sisters in Christ.

Last year when I took over leadership of the NKY area team, God brought my "sister", Debbi Mallory, to take over coordinating our Relay Center!  She is an amazing asset to the team and a dear friend to work closely with me!

I don't know where God will take this ministry He began so many years ago at Oak Ridge Baptist Church, and in the hearts of two lowly MissionsKids workers, but I'm ready for what He has.  "Wherever He leads, I'll go. I'll follow my Christ who loves me so. Wherever He leads, I'll go!"

I just want to serve my Savior in the way He calls me.  If I'd been called to be a packer of shoeboxes, a seed-maker, I was honored.  But He wasn't finished with me yet and He wasn't finished with Oak Ridge, either!

As I've said a lot lately, I'm a very, very lucky girl!  Don't you think???