angels gettin' crazy

Ok, so I was talking with a friend today about how I sometimes struggle with teaching ESL because there are more important things in the world than getting your commas in the right place, knowing the difference between an adjective and an adverb, and understanding subject-verb agreement. I love that I get to be surrounded by people from around the world nearly everyday of the week. I love that they love learning (most of them). I love that I get to challenge, inspire, motivate, and equip them, and who knows what they'll do with those skills later. But really, in the grand scheme of things, who really cares if they can write a good paragraph!? Sometimes I struggle to motivate myself to "waste" time learning the grammar or figuring out creative ways to teach it when I am constantly thinking about the bigger picture. I want to live for more. I want to give people hope. I want to see people come alive. So, my friend who was totally digging what I said, gave me a great pep talk on how I'm making a difference. Ooh yay, somebody thinks it matters...but still... It's not that what I do doesn't matter or isn't important, but I want more!

Well, apparently, God was listening to my plea for greater purpose. One really cool conversation (the listening ear from above), was followed by another, and yet another. With a few friends, we spoke of all the craziness in the world (namely Uganda and Sudan), why it matters to care about all that, and how we could make a difference. I'd say that's inspiring. I leave that office and crash into a couple other friends. We got to talk about Ramadan and fasting. Again, a conversation that made a couple of the individuals really think about some things...myself included. Then, trying to go home once again (those of you who have ever tried to leave somewhere with me know how ineffective that can be when I run into people!), I encountered some long, lost Vietnamese friends. I stopped to catch up for a moment, which turned into almost a two-hour conversation. It went all over the place, but we talked about God, Christianity, and Buddhism for quite awhile. Wow, wasn't even trying. But get this, none of that even compares to what's coming...

I get home and Chris Chris comes to visit. See, God's been tugging at her heart for awhile now. She has all but given herself to Him for a couple months. She adjusted her life's path in order to follow Him and serve people for Him. She started letting go of things that were not of Him. He has been rearranging her way of thinking, doing incredible work in her heart...telling her daily, "I want you. I'm waiting for you." She's told me countless times in the last few weeks, "I want to live for Him. I want to be His." Yet something was holding her back. Today, she finally said she couldn't even figure out what her excuse was. What it came down to was the fear of 'no turning back.' She knows He won't let go. After some time, some thinking, some praying, some more time, some more praying...she said, "I want to jump." So jump I did...on Riss and Six who were sleeping. They came in to join us during the first minute (12:01 a.m.) of Wednesday, October 25, as Chris prayed and handed her life over to Christ...completely..."marked in Him with a seal" and now "God's possession" (Ephesians 1:13-14). Freedom...finally, freedom... Beauty, righteousness, purpose, identity, unconditional love, worthiness, no more shame...all through Him. Praise God!

"You saw me before I was born.
Every day of my life was recorded in your book.
Every moment was laid out
before a single day had passed."
(Psalm 139:16)

Happy Birthday Chris Chris!!
Wednesday, October 25, 12:01 a.m.

P.S. I was trying to find a picture of angels celebrating. The picture up top was the best I could do! But hey, it might look something like that up there!!