Ready.

I think I’ve lost my heart to a group of kids that I haven’t even met yet.

I get on a plane tomorrow (TOMORROW!) to fly to a country that no one has heard of (I can’t even count the number of blank stares I’ve gotten just today when I say “I’m going to Lesotho”), where I’ll be spending two weeks at an orphanage called Beautiful Gate. And the question on everybody’s lips, “Are you ready?”

Am I ready? I don’t know, I’m packed, I’ve had my shots, is that ready?

I didn’t think I was until after last Sunday when Terp (the ambassador for Beautiful Gate) came to my church to talk to the youth group about their trip next summer. It was perfect timing for me, hearing Terp’s passion and love for these kids, it reminded me why it was important. It set my heart on fire, I was so excited to leave.

And then tonight, I went to church with my friend Jessie. Do you think it’s a coincidence that the preacher spoke about God being our Abba Father, we have been adopted into His family, and we are called to show God’s love to the world? I didn’t either. It’s so great when God puts us in the right place at the right time, so we can hear the right thing. I just kept thinking about the kids I would be meeting in just a few days, kids without fathers, or mothers, and I get to have the chance to share just a few days with them.

I was so overwhelmed, I started crying, and then I couldn’t stop crying, even after the worship team came back for some closing songs and the preacher closed us in prayer, and the lights came back on. The tears would not stop flowing. Friends, I do not cry in public, especially in a place where no one knows me! But the tears were an outpouring of the love I felt from God, I couldn't hold it in. You guys, we have been adopted into God’s family! That’s how much He loves us! 

My heart is so full. I want to share the full out, give it all, hold nothing back, sacrificial, everlasting, selfless, boundless, unstoppable, agape love that God shows me everyday, with those kids. I'm only one person, but God has made it clear that He is in control, I can trust Him, and He loves me, and He will help me love. 

Now when I ask myself “are you ready?” I think the answer is yes. I’m ready.

“For you did receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption, and by Him we cry ‘Abba, Father’” – Romans 8:15