We all long for intimacy.  That's how we were created.  God longs for intimacy.  That's why He created us.  Being intimate with someone can be really scary.  It requires us to be raw, vulnerable and free to express the deep feelings of our heart.  And the more we intimately give ourselves, the more our imperfections come to the surface.  Yikes!  I don't think there's anyone who will read this who hasn't been hurt by someone who was supposed to love them, who they've been intimate with and then received rejection or hurt.  We all have from one extent or another.  I don't know about you, but whenever that happens to me, I put a wall up.

So we go through life in this messed up cycle of: desiring intimacy, finding it in someone else, getting hurt, closing ourselves off.  We look for intimacy in other people to fulfill us when the reality is, people aren't perfect and their love will fail us.  It's pretty much a guarantee.  And God is there, wanting to love us, wanting to hold us, wanting to be intimate with us and fulfill every need we have, and yet we look the other way.  Why?!  It only brings heartache. 

It saddens my heart to realize that in recent years the church has failed to lead people into an experience of God and really knowing Him.  We have taught a lot about God - not that this is wrong, but we have failed to then lead people into a heart experience of Him.  According to George Barna research, nearly two-thirds of regular church attenders say that they have never experienced God's presence in a church service.  48% of regular attenders have not experienced God's presence in the last year.

Now I don't want to put all of the blame on the church.  It's our own fault too.  I think some of us believe that others have let us down, so we assume Jesus will act the same way.  Or we have been hurt so bad from other people it's like there is not even an option of being intimate with anyone else, no matter what.  Or we look everywhere else to find intimacy except Jesus.  But if we can trust Him with our salvation, with our eternal destiny, why can't we trust Him with our everyday life and with our intimacy?  Kind of seems a little crazy huh?!

So to end this blog...I invite you on a journey of intimacy with the creator of the universe.  We no longer have to look to the things of this world to satisfy us or to make us feel good.  God and His love is really all we ever need and if we can grasp that, for real, our lives would never be the same.  There's nothing we could ever do to change His love for us.  He wants to romance us.  He is real.  His love is real.  His love will never fail.  He is our daddy, Abba and we belong to Him.  

At Training Camp, one of the first things we did was give up our expectations.  It became very clear to me what I really expect out of this experience.  Expectations of myself, my team, the contacts we will be making, the route itself, the food we will eat, etc. 

October 2010 World Race Route

(as of today!)

October: Guatemala

6 crazy people. Downtown Atlanta. Heat. Sweat. Hugs. Jesus.

lovebound took a day to see what God was up to and join in however we could.  I must say, it was one of the best days of my life so far.  

It all started by us taking time out of our busy lives, and actually listening.  It was only 10 minutes but it seemed like forever, not gonna lie.  I think I am so accustomed to just talking to God I rarely think about listening to what He has to say.  Am I the only one?  Doubt it.

Well let me tell you right now...when you take time to listen, God speaks.  For real.  Each of us had a piece of paper and a pen so we listened and wrote down what we felt like God was saying.  Some of things written were: barber shop, kids, Centennial Olympic park, burnt orange, plaid shirt with suspenders, fountain, downtown, yellow, free hugs, park, etc.  Sounds pretty random right?  That's what I thought until the day began to unfold and God showed up like woah!

We decided to go to downtown Atlanta and give out free hugs at Centennial Olympic park.  Great idea, eh?!  On our way we stopped by a nearby Wal-Mart to make signs.  As we were walking in the parking lot, low and behold, Paul spots a barber shop.  So Paul, Haile and Sarah venture over to the barber shop while Mac, Angela and I tackle the Wal-Mart.  You would not even believe me if I told you...but...the walls of the barber shop were painted burnt orange and yellow stripes.  What?!  This is real life people.  Paul was able to talk to a woman there with her two sons, encourage her and tell her how much Jesus loves her.  Great start to the day...but wait...there's more!

It's lunch time so we are all hungry.  Where else would we stop to eat in downtown Atlanta?  The Varsity.  Greasy goodness.  In case you didn't know, The Varsity on a Saturday at 12:30pm = nightmare!  We persevered through the line, got our trays of heart attack on a plate and tried to make our way through the sea of people. 

And then BAM!  

All of a sudden, walking straight towards me is a girl with a plaid shirt and suspenders.  I think my jaw may have hit the floor for a few reasons.  When I went to write that down on my list I thought to myself, who in the world wears plaid in the summer?  And suspenders?  Come on!  But I didn't doubt what I thought God was saying so I wrote it down...and boy am I glad I did!  

I think I threw my tray at Mac (sorry!) because I had to follow this girl to talk to her!  I finally caught up to her, plaid shirt, suspenders and all.  Her name is Fiona and she's from China.  She's here trying to learn English for the next year.  I had to speak slow but I just told her how much God loved her, wanted to have a relationship with her and how beautiful she is.  I think she was a little freaked out but she got tears in her eyes and we hugged.  Glorious.

To end the day we spent about 2 hours or so hugging.  We met people from China, Brazil, Switzerland, Mexico, France and people from all over the US.  Some walked out of their way to not hug us while others ran across the field just to get a free hug.  It was awesome.  I'm pretty sure everyone that saw us at least smiled.  

Some asked us "where's the hidden camera", others wanted to know what church we were with.  We just told people that God's love is so awesome and we just wanted to share it through a hug.  That simple.  We were able to pray with a few, sometimes we just listened to what they had to say and some just walked by without even making eye contact.  But...I doubt anyone who was there that day will forget us.  

The best part.  We were contagious.  There's a fountain area at the park and there were so many kids it's not even funny!  A group of them came up and wanted to take our signs and THEY went around hugging people!  It was priceless.  

I am so glad that we took the time to listen to God, find out what He was up to, and jumped in to be a part of it.  I encourage you to do the same.  Your life will be turned upside down.  I guarantee it.

This week I have been in training for this awesome adventure I'm going on in October.  I've had the crazy privilege of meeting the 68 other amazing people I get to call family for the rest of my life!  Being able to actually see them is way better than just getting to know them on their blogs or Facebook.  

We've already laughed together, cried   together, been vulnerable together, prayed together, worshiped together, punched the devil in the face together, exercised at 7am together, slept under the stars together, shared sweaty hugs together, peed in the woods together.  Seriously, we are now family and I couldn't be more honored to serve alongside them for this next year of our lives.

I feel like there are so many, "you had to be there," type of moments that it's a little difficult to explain what has happened so far this week.  I will be blogging again once this process is over because there is so much that has happened.  But I will say that I have never been so excited to do something in my entire life.  There's this anticipation that I feel that makes me want to jump out of my skin!  Sometimes I have to ask myself if this is even real!  Do I really get to be a part of this movement? What?!?!

I'll go ahead and tell you right now that my team WILL see miracles.  We're pretty confidant that a few people will even be raised from the dead.  Yeah, I said it.   So the moral of the story...I would stay tuned to my blog to find out when and where!

I have been praying a lot for this trip, for the team, for the people we'll come in contact with. But the main thing I've been praying for has been for our team to have unity. Everyone knows when you get 50+ people together, live in community, travel the world on little to no sleep, anything could happen!  It would make the 11 months we're gone so much more pleasant if we were unified.  Like...really unified.

Unity is defined as "the state of being undivided or unbroken completeness or totality with nothing wanting."  (Thanks Wikepedia!)    

In Colossians 2, Paul says, "...that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge."

Unity is obviously important.  Hey!  Speaking of unity, I was tuning my guitar yesterday, good times.  I bought a pitch pipe so I don't have to worry about batteries on the field. Anyways...I was tuning my guitar and when I was finished I went to play a chord, and it sounded worse than a cat in heat.  My ears started bleeding.  It was no bueno.  I checked my tuning skills, which apparently I need to work on. 

For those of you who may not know, a guitar has 6 strings, all of them a different note, and I thought at least 4-5 strings were tuned wrong.  I mean, it sounded awful.  So as I was re-tuning, only 1 string was out of tune.  1 string!  Seriously?!  That one string changed the entire tone of the guitar.  1 string.  Once I fixed it, sweet harmonious melodies sprang forth from my fingertips.  It was much better.

All of that to say; team unity is very important.  Even if most of us are in agreement, that one person or small group of people that are not can totally change the chemistry of the ministry we'll be doing.  I definitely don't want to be that person and I am praying that we don't have an "un-tuned string" at all.  Selah.

"Even though I am free of the demands and expectations of everyone, I have voluntarily become a servant to any and all in order to reach a wide range of people: religious, nonreligious, meticulous, moralists, loose-living immoralists, the defeated, the demoralized - whoever.  I didn't take on their way of life.  I kept my bearings in Christ - but I entered their world and tried to experience things from their point of view.  I've become just about every sort of servant there is in my attempts to lead those I meet into a God-saved life.  I did all this because of the Message.  I didn't just want to talk about it; I wanted to be in on it!"  1 Corinthians 9:19(MSG)

This scripture totally makes me think of the movie Avatar.  Go ahead....read the verses again and think about that movie...if you haven't seen it....what are you waiting for?! Go see it, then come back and read the verses again.

When I saw Avatar for the first time, I thought it was a really great movie that was worth spending $14 to see in 3D.  When I saw it the second time it hit me; this movie is all about missions!  Then when I saw it the fifth time....no....just kidding....I've only seen it twice....so far. 

For those of you who haven't seen it, the story takes place in the future on a planet called Pandora.  It's inhabited by the Na'vi, a ten foot tall blue-skinned species.  They live in harmony with nature and worship their mother goddess called Eywa.  Apparently this planet has a valuable mineral that humans want their hands on.  Since Pandora's atmosphere is toxic to humans they have to use breathing masks....to breathe. :)

A group of scientists grow Na'vi-human hybrid bodies called Avatars that are operated through a mental link.  So this crippled guy who used to be in the Marines gets the chance to have his own Avatar and he basically, without even knowing it, is an example of what a missionary should be.  You should really see it.

Pretty soon I will be traveling to 11 different countries, all with different cultures, religions, history, languages.  I can't expect to arrive in the country as an American and think I have all the answers.  Some may go on a mission trip and think, "Well if they would only do it the way we do in America, then their lives would be better."  Guess what?  They're not in America!  

As I watch the movie Avatar, I'm reminded how humble and teachable I must be in the countries I have the honor of visiting so that maybe in the 1 month I'm there, I can build the trust of the people I come in contact with in order to share with them the story of Jesus so their lives may be changed forever!  I'm excited to learn new things, eat new things, try new things, meet new people; but all of that is for one reason: to make Jesus famous.  The end.