This is a god dream
I don't really know who will read this. I'm not too concerned. Writing is good for me, perhaps reading it is good for you. It certainly helps me to process things. I don't know if you have your own faith, but I believe that every person has a dream inside their heart that they cant quite explain - they want it just because. It's like a spark, like a tiny flame that is fanned into a huge flame with every open door and rush of air. My dream is a God dream.
It's a God dream because it doesn't make sense to me. But I know it's what I need to do.
This trip is kind of a big deal to me... something that has been inside my heart for a long time. Even before I began my nursing training, I believed in my heart that one day I would serve in an African nation. I had no idea what that would look like, how I would do it, or what skills I would need to go. I just felt it inside of me that I would one day visit that continent to nurse.
That pull got stronger as I became qualified as a RN and looked at my career trajectory. God has called me and graced me to nurse and to love people, but I know there is a purpose that is bigger within my calling as a nurse. And it has nothing to do with me - it's all to do with Him. I love my job and I love working with the people I do, but I get disillusioned with how fortunate we are to live in New Zealand, and how many millions of people are in situations I couldn't possibly imagine.
God has placed a big, scary God-dream within me, and it calls me to Ethiopia.
I always thought that I would need to wait until my children had grown and left the coop before this experience could happen, but I have been given an opportunity for a short medical mission trip to serve in Ethiopia for two weeks. After a lot of prayer and contemplation, some weeks of wrestling with God over it, and then some weeks fasting and praying for revelation of His will, I feel in my spirit that I need to do this.
I know that this short trip will be a change catalyst, both in my personal life and career path, and in the lives that are reached through basic medical provision and education in Ethiopia. I can't even begin to see it all, or predict what will happen, but I know that where God places us, He graces us.
Through a series of incredibly uncanny events (which aren't that uncanny if you know God's nature - all those "coincidences" that are actually the Big Guy just nudging you in the ribs), God has continued to prompt me to put myself forward for this trip. It was all topped off by a series of sermons entitled "This is a God Dream" - all preached at our incredible home, Harbourside Church, in the month I had set aside to seek Gods decision about taking up the opportunity to go to Africa.
My job as His servant isn't to wonder why, or try to justify my way out of it because it doesn't suit me to go - my job as Gods servant and ambassador is to just be obedient.
If I put it off for the "right time", the right time will never come. But for two short weeks I can go into a nation that is so in need for Gods supernatural provision, and I can be His hands. I asked God once to break my heart for what breaks His. Suffering, hopelessness, injustice, desperation... they make us weep. But I was called to be a Nurse to be able to do something about it.
So here I am, seeking support in this venture - the cost of a medical mission with IMR (a charity) goes towards accommodation and meals, local guides and security, as well as purchasing a large amount of medical supplies to take into the clinic in Ethiopia to donate to the desperately under resourced medical centers they have. The team travelling over for this trip will be providing basic health care, education and health promotion to the local people, as well as training local staff. This cost isn't something I can shoulder alone, and I am so incredibly grateful for every dollar that is given in support of this trip.
My wonderful family and friends will kindly care for my three girls during the time that I am away from home. I know that this trip will change not only how I view life, but how my daughters view their worlds. It will change more than I can even predict. Yes, its only two weeks - but it will be two life changing weeks where I will be privileged to serve God with the vocation He has called me into.
"Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth. For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God."
Colossians 3:2-3 NLT
It's a God dream because it doesn't make sense to me. But I know it's what I need to do.
This trip is kind of a big deal to me... something that has been inside my heart for a long time. Even before I began my nursing training, I believed in my heart that one day I would serve in an African nation. I had no idea what that would look like, how I would do it, or what skills I would need to go. I just felt it inside of me that I would one day visit that continent to nurse.
That pull got stronger as I became qualified as a RN and looked at my career trajectory. God has called me and graced me to nurse and to love people, but I know there is a purpose that is bigger within my calling as a nurse. And it has nothing to do with me - it's all to do with Him. I love my job and I love working with the people I do, but I get disillusioned with how fortunate we are to live in New Zealand, and how many millions of people are in situations I couldn't possibly imagine.
God has placed a big, scary God-dream within me, and it calls me to Ethiopia.
I always thought that I would need to wait until my children had grown and left the coop before this experience could happen, but I have been given an opportunity for a short medical mission trip to serve in Ethiopia for two weeks. After a lot of prayer and contemplation, some weeks of wrestling with God over it, and then some weeks fasting and praying for revelation of His will, I feel in my spirit that I need to do this.
I know that this short trip will be a change catalyst, both in my personal life and career path, and in the lives that are reached through basic medical provision and education in Ethiopia. I can't even begin to see it all, or predict what will happen, but I know that where God places us, He graces us.
Through a series of incredibly uncanny events (which aren't that uncanny if you know God's nature - all those "coincidences" that are actually the Big Guy just nudging you in the ribs), God has continued to prompt me to put myself forward for this trip. It was all topped off by a series of sermons entitled "This is a God Dream" - all preached at our incredible home, Harbourside Church, in the month I had set aside to seek Gods decision about taking up the opportunity to go to Africa.
My job as His servant isn't to wonder why, or try to justify my way out of it because it doesn't suit me to go - my job as Gods servant and ambassador is to just be obedient.
If I put it off for the "right time", the right time will never come. But for two short weeks I can go into a nation that is so in need for Gods supernatural provision, and I can be His hands. I asked God once to break my heart for what breaks His. Suffering, hopelessness, injustice, desperation... they make us weep. But I was called to be a Nurse to be able to do something about it.
So here I am, seeking support in this venture - the cost of a medical mission with IMR (a charity) goes towards accommodation and meals, local guides and security, as well as purchasing a large amount of medical supplies to take into the clinic in Ethiopia to donate to the desperately under resourced medical centers they have. The team travelling over for this trip will be providing basic health care, education and health promotion to the local people, as well as training local staff. This cost isn't something I can shoulder alone, and I am so incredibly grateful for every dollar that is given in support of this trip.
My wonderful family and friends will kindly care for my three girls during the time that I am away from home. I know that this trip will change not only how I view life, but how my daughters view their worlds. It will change more than I can even predict. Yes, its only two weeks - but it will be two life changing weeks where I will be privileged to serve God with the vocation He has called me into.
"Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth. For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God."
Colossians 3:2-3 NLT