loving them off the streets

You may remember previous posts about the World Race ...well, the racers are back at it, and I'm hooked.

Racer Kim Daniels posted that "a generation is asleep. They are breathing. But few are dreaming. And even fewer are moving. Their eyes are closed, and they don't know themselves in an awaken state. They don't know who they are, or who they aren't."

While Kim was most likely speaking of her own generation (the young ones!), I would say that statement aptly describes my generation (the not-so-young ones!). Oh, how we have been lulled into deep slumber by our comfortable, secure, and controlled lives.

Of the World Race experience, Kim states that the racers are "...dropped into a community, forced to get outside of themselves, to serve something other than their own agenda, pride, or fear, and after 11 months, they have rubbed off the sleep from their eyes and are beginning to ask the tough questions. The ones that matter. They are saved of the things that defined them before, and for once, they see life through eyes that believe they can actually change the world."

Here are some vids from the World Race GATO (Going After the One) Team as they describe ministering to women in Thailand. God is SO big...and He is working through girls He loves to save the lives of girls He loves. Don't know about you, but I don't want my inability to "go" to be an excuse for continued slumber. The alarm is sounding; I want to rise and live.


G.A.T.O. - Thailand from Kim on Vimeo.


The Well from Kim on Vimeo.

Follow-up Post (needs/indulgences)

Thanks for all of the great comments.emails.phone calls about my "5 for 50 post."

OK..so since I know you read it, here's my question: Have you decided on any items to move from your "needs" list to your "indulgences" list?

We can all answer easy ones like excessive dining out.entertainment.cherry bon bons...but what else? Is anyone giving your life a good hard look to see where you might cut back so that you can give more? How will you practically apply to your life what you know to be true in your heart?

One item that came to my mind right away for me was bottled water. My mouth thinks our tap water is DIS.GUST.ING. I mean it can thoroughly corrode a faucet in seconds flat so to think of what it does to your innards creeps me out! But I know that I have no clue what disgusting water really is. So I bought some sturdy reusable bottles to use in place of the case of water we buy each week. In total that could save $15-20/month...which would mean a month of meals for 3-4 orphans through Five for 50 or a donation to Living Water International.

A small start? Yes....very small. But I trust that God can take that small thing and multiply it for good.

In my post "in love", I mentioned that I love young adults who live passionately for God. Case in point...my new friend Hannah. She is utterly adorable...funny, fashionable, and on fire for God. Hannah took part in the World Race 2007 and currently works for Children's Hopechest. With her permission, I wanted to share some wise words from her last email. Oh, how I wish that I would have loved God...and had this perspective...when I was Hannah's age!

Like you, I am grateful and excited about the way God changes hearts and shifts perspectives for us in our time of selfish obliviousness. Every now and then, He gives me a wake-up-call that jolts me back into the meaningful, eternal realm of life as opposed to the shallow, petty one. I know that makes sense to you, since you have experienced that shift from sponge holders to suffering children. Smiles. It’s easier to focus on the foxy cream high-heels I spotted last week rather than the overwhelming specifics of human pain and injustice that extends to the four corners of the earth, ya know? : ) But, naturally, thoughts of high-heels and sponge-holders are empty and soul-less and dully disturbing at the end of the day; we’re not meant to be mesmerized by that nonsense. So that’s when God comes in just in time with something more difficult but ultimately more joyful to the core of our truest selves, the part that was created in His image, the sacrificial and compassionate and intensely loving part that reflects Him. God is genius!

OK, so here are my two requests:
1. If you know of any young adults who may be interested in joining the World Race, direct them to this web site: click HERE.
2. Leave a comment to this post sharing your plans to put true indulgences in their proper place. What have you discovered to be the indulgences on your needs list, and how will you give 'em the boot?

Like I've said before, I'm not suggesting that we can't go out to eat or buy a new skirt or rent a movie, I'm simply hoping that we will be mindful that the money God has placed in our hands is for greater purposes than our own comfort, enjoyment, ease...and indulgences!

P.S...my baby is getting too big for his crib: