Teabag Tamborine

The group of teens from Iowa had left.

My heart was full with things that God was speaking to me and showing me.  I turned on the music in my living room and began to hum along with the worship music.

The words to the music slowly sank deep into my heart and at the same time bubbled right out of it as I made my way to the kitchen to prepare a cup of tea.  Halfway through the tea process I could contain myself no more.  I began to sing, lifting my hands in praise and worshiping the One True God with the only instrument I had on hand--- a box of tea bags! 

The box of tea bags thumped along with the beat of the music, my body swayed in time.  I was lost in my expression of love to the God who gives liberally. 

As I glanced down I saw my two-year-old son who had come to mimic me.  He had his own tea bag tambourine and was thumping away, his voice strong, his words always lagging behind the words of the music. 

And there we were.  Talking to God for so many things that even now I find hard to put into words.

This year has brought so much change, so much growth, so many dreams, and so many opportunities that I find that it is altogether too much.  It is too much for me to comprehend.  It is too much for me to reason.  It is too much for me to handle.  As I try to rationalize it all I find it is all consuming and all together too much. 

Where do we go from here?

If ever you have prayed for this ministry, please do pray  now.

Another school pleading for us to come and teach.  An orphanage asking for our return.  A church begging for a retreat for its children's workers.  Teams wanting to come.  More families to join our programs means more resources needed.  Dreams to enlarge our feeding center.  Hopes to reach out to the youth.  A burning desire to continue reaching the mountain schools. 

All this and more turns circles in my heart, waking me at night and calling me to prayer. 

How can we possibly handle all of this with our limited resources?  We have limited staff.  We have limited funds.  We have limited time.  It seems that we are trying to do an eternal work on a temporaral time scale.  Impossible.

And so as I am faced with all too much on the one hand and oh, so Little on the other I am left with nothing other than falling to my knees and crying out to God to send in abundance the wisdom, strength, staff, finances, supplies, and everything else we need to accomplish the task before us. 

It is a place of total dependence on God because nothing else is enough. 

As the music came to an end Cohen and I both were silent, contemplating the still quiet voice of the Lord as He breathed over us. 

If this year has already been so radical and life changing for me as a person and for us as a ministry- then I cannot even begin to imagine what next year will bring.