Joining Him . . .

He hears the cries of His children, and He answers. As you know I went back to the Quip this past weekend. The surprise was a success, great time and fellowship with friends was had, and conversations that were prayed over, only by God's grace also took place. I told you I would update when I got back, so here it is: I'll be headed to the Quip long term no later than Nov. 1.

There are some pretty heavy things that happened this weekend that I feel like I need to share. I have been praying over this trip hours upon hours and I also know others were praying for me as well. It is by no mistake that I saw the people I needed to see and talked to the people I needed to talk to. My prayer throughout this has been, "Lord speak to me." Simple, but so powerful. This weekend I felt as though He spoke once again; through the eyes of our 78 year old neighbors from the summer, through a 7th grader who asked me to be her mentor, through oh so innocent yet extremely tough questions asked to me about the love of God (I will get into this in a second), through a young girl which I built a relationship with over the summer who ran up to me with her arms wide open for a hug, through hearing a personal testimony of a former drug dealer, through seeing Angela walk the streets, through having that gut wrenching feeling of leaving, and through looking into the eyes of individuals who are so loved by God, but don't have a relationship with Him YET. As I said, He has spoken. There is much to start thinking about and working out, but my number one focus is continual prayer for preparation. I will explain more of this in a later blog.

I was faced with some really heartbreaking questions in a conversation had while still in the Quip, concerning the love of God. Does God really love gay people? Does God love people who hate black people? To be quite honest with you in relying on the Holy Spirit to speak through me I don't really recall in detail how I answered those questions. I can say the first question was a lot easier to answer than the second question even though the answers are the same; Yes. I have had this awful feeling of sickness in my stomach since then. Why? Because I feel as though God's love will never be fully understood by believers and unbelievers alike. I'm just trying to be real here. I know as believers we have encountered the love of Christ, but still don't come close to grasping the love of the Father. I can't imagine what is going through the heads of those who do not have a relationship with Christ yet. It hurts. It hurts that they don't know the Love. As I personally continue to seek after the love of Christ and the characteristics of His love, I ask that you join me in prayer for those who have never encountered this beautiful gift. Love deeply.

More to come, concerning details of the Quip.