to Thailand with the Shepherd
The Lord is so good. He has told us, "I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh." Ezekiel 36
He acts for His holiness to be known.
These are the days of Ezekiel...
I am headed to Thailand today. Really looking forward to meeting some of the other MTI staff who live in other countries. We are going to have sessions in the mornings to be encouraged and we are going to take time to relax. Sometimes of late I have been discouraged and ask, "What am I actually contributing here?" But the Lord is faithful to show me in the moments of rest, waiting, that I need to seek Him for every direction, in weakness and in strength. I'm not sure what the next season holds - I may be in Singapore for awhile. Whereever I am, I want to know the Lord more. I am thankful He is able to give us a heart for Him. It is good to wait with Him.
"For thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I, I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out....I will feed them with good pasture, and on the mountain heights of Israel shall be their grazing land...I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I myself will make them lie down, declares the Lord GOD." Ez. 34
posted by Asha @ 3:37 PM
5 Comments:
Good stuff Ashe-Face! God is teaching you so much, He is drawing you nearer. Love it! I am experiencing the same things miles and miles away here in Cairo. Yes, Ez. 36-37 Dry Bones no more, becoming an Army for the Lord with His breath (Spirit). Powerful stuff I have been meditating on as well. He is doing it, across the globe. -Heather
ok, this is nuts. i am so serious- i've been marinating in Ez 34-37 for the past few weeks too! it's my current life theme. :) Ashe, i'm totally praying and cheering you on. i miss you! - sarah julien
I am praying for you dear friend. Your heart is so like the heart of our Father. Much of your ministry, I am imagining, is the ministry of presence. Your light shines so brightly that all you have to do is be present with people and you are a blessing to them. Do not let discouragement take ahold of you. "Doing" is not your main task right now, it is staying In Christ. Just being present with people is ministering the Love of God to them.
There is an article on line that hit me the other day, here is how it starts
"Sometimes I feel overwhelmed by the brokenness. News of earthquakes and hurricanes, friends whose eyes fill with tears when I ask how their lives are unfolding, haunting photographs of children picking through piles of trash in one of the many slums which now dot the sprawling urban centers around the globe." http://www.ransomfellowship.org/Conv_Ashworth_Andi_Caring.html
Later she says, "As I understand it, the ministry of presence means being fully present with another person, paying attention to them, listening, and being interested in who they are."
Asha, you are so gifted at this type of ministry. I have learned so much about this from you and love to watch it grow in myself an others as I model Christ's love that I see in you.
Here is what I wrote on my blog after reading yours. I had tried to comment on yours earlier, but it was deleated. Sorry.
www.corrinsloveseat.blogspot.com
I was reading Asha's blog today and was reminded about the importance of "ministry of presence." What is that? Well, I tried and tried to find a quote on line that would summarize it nicely, but I failed. I have heard this term so often, but I can't figure out where it came from. There are some authors who have written about hospitality that use the phrase, like Christine Pohl and Andi Ashworth, but I doubt that they were the originators of the term.
What I think it means is that simply being a Christian in the world is HUGE. We image God as redeemed people in a world that doesn't know Him. We are a testimony to who He is just by grocery shopping, loving on kids, and being faithful to our spouses. Heather's ministry in Ukraine is not measured "successfully" if she was able to convert a certain number of people. God used her normal life (riding the metro, buying paint in a store, meeting a new person) to expand His kingdom. We are like little statues that point to him. We are not Him, but we image Him in whatever location we abide in. Now Heather is having a ministry of presence on Lookout Mt., GA. It doesn't stop just because she is in another country, her home country, but it does mean that there are more people around her doing the same thing. There are a lot more Christians in GA than there were in Ukraine.
It can also be more specific. A ministry of presence can mean being present in one person's life in small, seemingly insignificant ways...You see them everyday on the street as you walk to work and you smile or greet them warmly. You wave to them across the street as you pick up your mail. You listen as they share with you about their day. You sit with them as they cry. You offer them a cookie or a drink. You share your yogurt. You don't have to do much except have the time to be present.
Don't get too bogged down by feeling like you can't DO enough. Be. Be united to Christ and He will work through you, even if you don't have enough resources, time, energy to be everything to that person.
Asha can't feed everyone she meets in Asia. She can't bandage every knee or listen to every story, but the Father is using her, simply her presence, to do amazing things in the hearts and lives of people in large cities and remote villages where her presence alone sometimes doubles the number of people imaging our Savior to that community.
What truth Corrin! I'm so encouraged by your words and amazed how the Lord has been impressing these things upon my heart, through encouraging and difficult struggle. Presence-authentic Love, seeing sin as it is-our own and others', being radically impacted by our Savior's healing, relating our real experience to our neighbor's story, and bringing hope of the gospel in love-filled truth. I'm convinced this is the power of Life and healing worked by the Holy Spirit through us. But only as we yield to His heart in confession and joy-filled worship.
Here's a quote from a guy named Jean Vanier that my small group leader sent us about Presence:
“I do not believe we can truly enter our own inner pain and wounds and open our hearts to others unless we have had an experience of God, unless we have been touched by God.”
So go the words of Jean Vanier, patriarch of the L’Arche (literally “The Ark”) communities, communities founded for people with mental disabilities. They began by his simply feeling called by God to care for two mentally disabled men, Raphael and Philip. Now, there are over 90 such communities in 24 countries around the world. The following is an excerpt from his book, From Brokenness to Community:
“People may come to our communities because they want to serve the poor; they will only stay once they have discovered that they themselves are the poor.
And then they discover something extraordinary: that Jesus came to bring the good news to the poor, not to those who serve the poor! I think we can only truly experience the presence of God, meet Jesus, receive the good news, in and through our own poverty, because the Kingdom of God belongs to the poor, the poor in spirit, the poor who are crying out for love.”
Our small group director at Northshore, Al Alison, said, "I’ve often written and said to you that we hope for our small fellowship groups to be our front line of pastoral care and mission. You’ve probably often wondered just what I meant when I say, “Jesus came to bring the good news to the poor, not to those who serve the poor!” Safety is born in honesty about God, oneself, and others. The truth bears the fruit of freedom. So be a person who relates to others honestly, honest about your own poverty. This will help them feel safe enough to be honest as well. This is my hope for you as shepherds and our best chance at loving one another…approaching one another’s hearts. This is my hope for us to be a front line of pastoral care and mission."
Note: A Christmas letter from Jean Vanier to one of the L’Arche communities in the US (written in 2005) can be accessed at the following site. http://www.larcheusa.org/newsletters/Vanier_Letter_November_2005.pdf
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