"Don't tell people your dreams - show them."At the risk of sparking memory to a famous speech, or setting you off on a musical rendition from Tangled , I am going to tell you something:
I have a dream.
There! It is done - now if you need to go quote M.L.K. or sing at the top of your lungs with Rapunzel and the Thugs, be my guest - just come back!
Okay, you're back? Good. As I was saying, I have a dream - I have had this dream for years. I'm taking you back with me to 2009 - the worst year of my life when some of the best things happened. That summer I was at a camp in Oklahoma with a wonderful bunch of people. There was much going on in my heart that week - but I want you to see one moment in particular:
Forty or so students sat around a camp fire, sharing with each other how they felt God was moving in their lives at the time. I was crying by the time the circle made its way around to me - I knew, for sure and for certain, that God was calling me to follow Him to the ends of the earth. I was a two year old Christian, and that next step was both terrifying and thrilling. Where was this going to take me? How on earth was a thirteen-year-old going to be a foreign missionary? I didn't even have a steady babysitting job, how would I pay for it? Would my parents support me?
All I knew was that I would be obedient, I would answer that call. My dreams were only beginning. From 2009 to present day God has called out of my home country five times, to three different continents, and I've seen some 2,000 people come to Faith in Jesus Christ. It has been incredible (and an incredible growth process - I'm just not the person I was). But let me take you back to that camp fire:
I was remembering some musicians who had performed earlier that day, a vocal worship group from Zimbabwe. The men were telling us of their home. They never once spoke about its poverty; never mentioned the high rate of its orphans and low rate of wholesome orphanages. Their request was not what we are accustomed to here in America: the request for the wealthy white citizen to come heal all the brokenness in the poor, destitute, African country. (I could talk for ages about that, but I will refrain). Their request was something different entirely.
They spoke only of one thing: their countrymen's thirst for God and the truth of His word. These men stood in front of 1,000+ students, broadly smiled, and asked that any one who loved the Lord and was willing would follow Him and spread his love in America, in Zimbabwe, in Russia - to the ends of the earth.
There it is. The beginning of a dream that has held out for nearly six years.
I'm going to save the rest of my story for the next post, but want to wrap up with this thought:
When the Lord plants a dream in you - when that dream begins to take root in your heart - when you can't ignore it any more - take notice of it. Nurture that dream. If God is calling you - if he's standing in the markets of India whispering your name, if He's shouting at you from across the street - answer him.
May the Lord Bless you!
- Bekah S.
Smiling
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