Six Months

Six months ago I hugged you for the last time. It's been six long months since I heard your voice or listened to you sing or play. One hundred and eighty days since I heard the passion for your people in your voice.

Nothing prepared me for this moment, no amount of knowledge or information would have changed how broken my heart was when I got the phone call you where singing with Jesus. No matter how many days pass I still miss you, I still look forward to the next time we can talk. Even though I know that day will never come here on earth.

I can hear your voice as you sing to the Lord. I can see your face as you praise your husband. I can feel your arms around me as you give me a hug. The number of days between when I saw you last and now keeps getting larger. The memory of that day looms large in my mind, yet is overshadowed by the hundreds of memories from the last five years.

I still wear the kuspuk you made me, and share your story. Just a few weeks ago I spoke to a room full of elementary school students and shared with them all about you, your people and how your deepest desire was to see them love Jesus.

I fondly look back on the weeks I spent in your house eating native food, listening to you and loving every minute of our time together. I cannot wait to return to Saint Lawrence Island with Daniel to once more love on the youth of your home.

Over seven years ago I placed a sticker on my Bible that daily brings my mind to the Yupik people. It has brought purpose and joy to my life to work towards the goal of seeing the Yupik people come to a saving knowledge of Jesus.

Four years later I stepped foot on Saint Lawrence Island for the first time. I saw you love your family in the midst of deep pain. I watched as you challenged them to rise above what they have been told they are, and to rise up into who Jesus has made them to be!

It has been over a year since I was on Saint Lawrence Island, but my heart is still in Western Alaska. Life is changing, yet my purpose is still to see your love for your people shown through me. To see them find their hope in Jesus.

Ms. Dorcas, you may have left this earth, but your legacy lives on. If only I could put into words how deep your influence runs, but years of mentorship, love and challenge is impossible to write down. My only hope is that I am not the only one who sees how deep your love for Jesus and those around you ran. That your reach continues to grow and show the world just how powerful Jesus is in changing lives!

What is ministry

What is ministry? This question has been rolling around in my head for a while now. 

Many would say it's making a living by sharing the hope Jesus has and meeting needs. There are many ways that can happen. Being a full time pastors, worship leader, youth or children's minister. Traveling overseas to do humanitarian work alongside sharing about Christ. 

Webster's says it is

• The office, duties, or functions of a minister
• A person or thing through which something is accomplished

I am sure there are many other definitions as well. However, just as important, if not more, is the mindset behind "ministry."

Over the last three years I have been actively involving myself in "ministry." I began working with college students on campus at the University of Oregon. Then I moved to Alaska to work with a construction ministry, that focused on villages in the Norton Sound Region. Then it was working alongside a church plant in the Anchorage area. 

Each of these things where great contributors to who I am today. They each brought challenges, blessings, changes and growth. Then over the last six months I have not been involved with "ministry."  I have instead worked in a secular job, simply earning a living. 

I have several friends who are working as social workers, investigators, child care advocates, family support, foster families, doctors, and nurses. Each of them love the Lord with their whole heart and seek to use their job to share the hope Jesus gives. 

I have always considered them in "ministry" I know they have difficult jobs. That they need support, encouragement, prayers, and love.

But I never saw myself that way. I  was working to pay the bills. Waiting for the summer so I could go back to "real" ministry. I was using the idea of ministry as an excuse to become complacent. I stopped getting out of my comfort zone. \\

Then I realized I wanted to see God working. So my perspective changed. I began to see God moving around me. I began earnestly seeking to recognize how he moved in lives around me. 

I was hit by a ton of bricks when I realized I was hiding, using the idea of ministry as my ultimate goal. Losing sight of what God had in front of me, because I was looking past now into the future. 

Ministry is as much as the attitude of actively seeking God to move through us as believers as it is a title. 

As I heard on a podcast recently "stay uncomfortable." Actively ask God to use you in YOUR life. Do not miss the present looking towards the future, or back at the past.  

No Longer Slaves

There is a popular Christian song with a line that says “I’m no longer a slave to fear. I am a Child of God.” This song, and specifically this line have been important in my life over the last months.

As I began working through new stages of life I realized, I am much more fearful, than I would have believed. I wrote a blog about it fear in my life a few months ago. Read it for my that background on fear. 

My phone lock screen

Needless to say I have much to learn about being a Child of God. About no longer being a slave to fear. Each New Year many create resolutions. While I did not sit down and create a resolution list this year, the first few days of the year have been full of thought on where I want my life to go this year. 

One of those things is being fearless for Christ! No longer tied down with what people think of me. I’m no longer tied to what I think of me. I am a Child of God! I am His! What do I have to fear, except fear itself. 

Phone Background

I don’t know what the future holds. I am uncertain exactly where I am going. But this I know. I am a child of God and I am His. I will move forward in life fearless for Him! 

No longer slave is my motto for the year. Whatever life may bring I can stand assured that I am in the hands of my Mighty God. Whether it is through my job where excellence is expected and life is insane for two months. Or in my business. A team business which I have named “No Longer Slaves Team.” 

This is for multiple reasons. I believe 100% in the path God has placed me on with Rodan and Fields. I believe in God’s ability to free those who are slaves to the “normal” life through R+F. That He can provide time, finances, and opportunities to be used for His glory. Anyway he wants to. In my life, that way is Rodan and Fields. An amazing company that is changing skin and changing lives. 

What are you a slave to? What is God going to free you from this year? You are His Child! Made in His Image!! Let’s act like it! 

Me with my "Why" at Rodan and Fields Convention 2015

"To see the world through Christ's eyes! To show the world who They are in Christ. Share the hope Jesus gives freely!"