Goodbyes and Hellos

Well, I’m still here in Richmond. But not for much longer. Our commissioning service is two weeks from today. As excited as I am to see my family and friends in South Carolina and then begin my new life in Zambia, I also know I’m moving into another season of transition and goodbyes. It’s hard to explain the bond I have with the people here at training, but I really do consider them my family now. I’ve grown so used to doing every part of my life with them—eating meals, studying the Bible, grocery shopping, sitting in sessions, watching movies, and everything in between. We’re together all the time. And I love it. (Well, most of the time). And I’m about to return back to doing life without them. Well, at least not with them physically with me all the time. But I do know the bond I have with people here is one that is not broken by being in different places. And I know they’ll be walking by my side in prayer every day.

And then after I say goodbye to this family, I’ll spend two weeks in constant goodbyes. Goodbye to friends. Goodbyes to family. And to say I’m not dreading that would be a lie. I’d appreciate your prayers for me as I prepare my heart for those weeks and walk through them.

Goodbyes are hard. There’s no way around it. But the thing that brings me great joy as I head into this season of goodbyes and transition are the hellos that I know are coming. Hellos to the Langstons, a family that my heart has grown to love and can’t wait to join in Zambia. Hellos to Zambian women who will be my close friends over the next two years. Hellos to Zambian children who I know will flood my heart with joy. Hellos to new experiences that will grow and stretch me in ways I can’t even imagine now. Hello experiencing God in ways that are different than any I’ve known before. Hello to mosquito nets and all kinds of critters. Hello to a new “family” in a new country. The joy of all these coming hellos floods my heart with hope and excitement and far outweighs the sadness of saying goodbyes. Each day I think I could not possibly be more excited about moving to Zambia and begin building relationships with the Tonga people. And each day I’m more excited than the day before.

I’m just 30 days out from taking a step onto a plane in Atlanta and beginning a new adventure with the Lord. And though I know those 30 days will be full of emotional highs and lows, I know He will be faithful through each moment of it. He will sustain me. With each goodbye, He can remind me of a hello that is coming. He’ll provide me with all I need.

Here’s how you can be praying specifically in the coming weeks:

·      Pray for God to continue to prepare my heart for the season of transition I’m heading into. Pray my time with family and friends would be full of joy and not sadness.

·      Pray I would really soak up everything in these last two weeks of training. We’re spending all of next week in our affinity group (mine is Sub-Saharan Africa) so I’ll be learning a lot more about African culture and how to share the gospel there. Pray I would be like a sponge to soak up all the information.

·      Pray for the relationships I’ll be building in Siavonga, Zambia. Pray God provide a national woman who can be my close friend and walk through life with me during these next two years. Pray the Lord would already be preparing hearts for the work He intends to do in Siavonga in the coming months and years.

Break Our Hearts

The very first day of my orientation here in Richmond, our main speaker said something along the lines of "If you feel deeply about the things of Christ, you will feel deeply about the things Christ feels deeply about." Something like that. He was talking about God's heart for ALL people. He talked about how if we loved anything less than all the peoples of the world, if there were people in the world we did not love, then we did not have the heart of our Father. Anyway, it reminded me of the song "Hosanna" and how we cry out in that song "Break my heart for what breaks Yours." What do we mean when we say that? When we ask God to break our hearts for the things that break His, what are we asking of Him?

One of the things I love about the IMB is the vision: Our vision is a multitude from every language, people, tribe, and nation knowing and worshipping our Lord Jesus Christ. It comes straight from the Bible:

After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.” (Revelation 7:9-12 ESV)

From every language: around 6,900 (Ethnologue)

From every people and tribe: 11,341 people groups; 6,422 unreached people groups (IMB)

From every nation: 196

It breaks shatters (that doesn't even seem strong enough) my heart to think there are so many places where the gospel has not yet been taken. Places where whole people groups have never had the opportunity to hear the name of Jesus. Not even once. They're real people, real lives. And you can no longer claim ignorance because you now know how many people have not heard. Did you catch it up there? 6,422 unreached people groups. Unreached means that less than 2% of that people group are believers. And over half of the world's people groups are unreached. Let that sink in for a minute. Think about how much God loves every single one of those people. He loves them all immensely. He loved them so much that He sent His Son to live a perfect life on earth, die a humiliating death, and then raise Him from the dead. He did that for them, just like He did it for me and you. And. they. haven't. heard. Let your heart break for these people like I believe the heart of our Father breaks for them. Commit to pray for them. Pray for God to raise up people to go and tell the gospel truth to them. Maybe you need to take it a step further and go. As God breaks your heart for these groups, maybe He'll call you to go to them. Be open to that.

Yesterday, we watched a video about the Taliabo people, a formerly unreached people group. It moved me to tears. It's a little over 30 minutes long, but I promise every second of it is worth it. I watched most of it through tears. I found it in 4 parts on youtube. You can watch it here. Realize their hunger for the gospel before they even knew what it was. And realize their joy when the truth of the gospel was revealed to them.

Lord, break our hearts for what breaks Yours.