The Airport

The airport is an interesting place. I'm waiting for the first of my two flights for Zambia. There are so many different people. As I type there's a man running sprinting down the terminal with his rolling suitcase nearly in flight behind him.  Another middle aged man just did a dance move for his wife and two daughters. I'll save you from having to picture it in your head. There's an elderly couple to my right who look very confused. There's a woman crying, what I think are tears of joy because she's smiling from ear to ear. There's a girl on the other side of the terminal doing yoga... or something. There's another family of four directly beside me. The mom is giving the two girls medicine and they do not like it at all. I must say, despite a few tears, they handled it like champs. And there's the precious British toddler named Ella entertaining all of us. (She has the cutest British accent.)

Airports are interesting because everyone is on their way somewhere. And everyone is so different.  Some are traveling with a large family. Some with a spouse. And then there are many people like me, traveling alone today. For some it's their first flight. For others, it's their hundredth. Everyone is doing different things while we wait to board. Some are reading, most are consumed with their phones, others are watching TV, some are on their computers like me, and some are just sitting. And I wonder why they just choose to sit.

And I think about my story that got me here, to sitting in the Atlanta airport en route to Zambia, and I wonder what everyone else's stories are. Are they returning home to London? Going to London for a holiday vacation? Just passing through on the way to the next place like me? Where is their next place and why are they going there? I'm sure I don't have even close to the most exciting or interesting story of the people waiting at this gate. And so I wonder the wheres, whats, and whys of everyone's trip.

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Just a few minutes to go before boarding! I can't thank you all enough for your texts, phone calls, face times, e-mails, tweets, comments, and messages today. Many of you have brought smiles to my face throughout the day and I'm thankful for your prayers and encouragement to me and also to my family.

Zambia, here I come! :)

Come, Jesus, Come!

Merry Christmas!

For Nothing Is Impossible with God

Luke 1:37-38: "[And the angel answered her] 'For nothing is impossible with God.' And Mary said, "Behold, I am a servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.'"

Nothing is impossible with God. There is nothing that is too tricky or too complicated for Him to do. A virgin bore a child. 33 years later, that child died on a cross and 3 days later, God raised Him up from the grave. God shut the mouth of lions in the den. He kept 3 guys from being harmed when they were thrown into a flaming furnace. He enabled a young shepherd boy to kill a mighty Philistine giant. He made the sun stand still and gave victory to the Israelites over the Amorites. There is absolutely nothing God cannot do.

Oh, may I live a life that shows I have faith in the Most High God who can do anything. One thing we know about each of these people is they walked with God. They had faith in Him. They walked with God in their normal daily lives and that enabled them to walk with Him through some seemingly impossible situations. I want to walk just as closely with God when things are routine and good as when they seem impossible, because that's how I know I'll cling to God in the impossible. It won't be impossible because I'll be walking with the God who calms the winds and seas with a single command, the God who brings life to the dead, the God who saves, rescues, and redeems, the God who makes all things work together for good. That's the God I serve.

My prayer is that I'll remember this as I meet people in Zambia, well really that I'll remember it always. May I remember that there is no one I will meet in the next two years (or ever) that God cannot save from their sins. There is no one too far gone. Be it a witch doctor, a tourist, a middle-class American, or a beggar on the street. None of them are beyond His reach.

I don't know all the things my eyes will see over the next two years. I have no clue of the beauty and the tragedy I will encounter (we never do). But God knows every bit of it--every person I'll cross paths with, every child I'll share a hug with, every sunset my eyes will witness, every death my heart will mourn over, every tear I'll cry over orphaned children, every HIV positive woman, man, and child I can tell of the true and only Hope, every frustrating day I'll have, every joyous day I'll have, every woman and girl who will sit in my house to study God's Word. God knows all of it.

And that's why I can trust Him. Because even when it will seem impossible or hopeless, I can remember Luke 1:37: "For nothing is impossible with God," and pray my heart responds like Mary's: "I am a servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word."

11 days until departure!