Travel

We love to travel. Up until now our travel has been limited to work or pleasure. We are now adding LAMb activities to our travels! This blog will hopefully allow you to follow our adventures. Our thoughts, our views, dreams, and adventures. Follow along if you wish. If no one follows that's fine as well. It's just a place for us to remember . . .

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

I Want To Be Like My Jesus

MY JESUS - TODD AGNEW

Which Jesus do you follow?
Which Jesus do you serve?
If Ephesians says to imitate Christ
Then why do you look so much like the world?

Cause my Jesus bled and died
He spent His time with thieves and liars
He loved the poor and accosted the arrogant
So which one do you want to be?

Blessed are the poor in spirit
Or do we pray to be blessed with the wealth of this land
Blessed are they that hunger and thirst for righteousness
Or do we ache for another taste of this world of shifting sand
Cause my Jesus bled and died for my sins
He spent His time with thieves and sluts and liars
He loved the poor and accosted the rich
So which one do you want to be?

Who is this that you follow
This picture of the American dream
If Jesus was here would you walk right by on the other side or fall down and worship at His holy feet

Pretty blue eyes and curly brown hair and a clear complexion
Is how you see Him as He dies for Your sins
But the Word says He was battered and scarred
Or did you miss that part
Sometimes I doubt we'd recognize Him

Cause my Jesus bled and died
He spent His time with thieves and the least of these
He loved the poor and accosted the comfortable
So which one do you want to be?

Cause my Jesus would never be accepted in my church
The blood and dirt on His feet might stain the carpet
But He reaches for the hurting and despises the proud
I think He'd prefer Beale St. to the stained glass crowd
And I know that He can hear me if I cry out loud

I want to be like my Jesus!
I want to be like my Jesus!
I want to be like my Jesus!
I want to be like my Jesus!

Not a posterchild for American prosperity, but like my Jesus
You see I'm tired of living for success and popularity
I want to be like my Jesus but I'm not sure what that means to be like You Jesus
Cause You said to live like You, love like You but then You died for me
Can I be like You Jesus?
I want to be like you Jesus!
I want to be like my Jesus! 

I hear this song frequently. Todd Agnew has amazing songs that I go back to frequently and several really touch my heart. This is heavy on my heart today.

Who do we serve? Who do we REALLY serve? The church today is a mess. We are soooo focused on how we look, how we act, whether or not someone say's hello to us. Concerned about whether or not we will be embarrassed by friends, family, acquaintances. And all of this at the expense of lost souls!!!!! I'm getting tired of it. It's breaking my heart. I look at myself and I'm embarrassed by my behaviors, actions, thoughts of the past and even in the present. How I treat others. How I react to others. I PRAY that I get the heart of Jesus. The heart to love unconditionally.

I recently had a friend share something that was life changing. I knew that my thoughts, actions, etc. were self-centered but I couldn't understand it enough to stop it. But then she reminded me that by obeying the Spirit and following His lead I am not betraying myself and how I feel. BINGO! That is it exactly. I felt like I was betraying myself. I never put it in those terms but when she said it it was like the weight of the world lifted off my shoulders. If I am following HIS leading I'm not betraying myself because myself it living like HIM!
I am was a part of this MESS in the church today. I am was a contributor. But no more! My life is about my walk with Jesus. To reach the hurting, to touch the sick, to hug the lonely. My life is to bring others to Christ to know the unconditional love of a heavenly father that loves me regardless of what I do or say. My life is to stop for the on in front of me and help someone in need. My life is to love unconditionally. My life is to live in discomfort because I am giving of myself for the Kingdom.

My life is to put all I have into LAMb International and serve the missionaries, to help the seniors, to love on the orphans, to touch and hug the disabled men. My life is to find funding for the team, to find supporters for the projects, to find sponsors for the orphans and those who need sponsors.

My heart aches DAILY for those who we met in Kyrgyzstan. My heart aches DAILY for those that LAMb is serving. My heart aches for every missionary struggling to find support to do the work that God has called them to do. My heart aches for those who can't be doing the work because we aren't doing the tent making here FOR them.

I don't know where to start. Yes I do...on my knees in prayer. On my knees in prayer with my husband. His heart is heavy as well. We need to act. We need to do. We just plain need.

I am broken. April broke me . . . like never before. I guess you can say I finally got it. I finally looked beyond ME and my discomfort and my needs and just gave all that I had to those I came in contact with. It's not about what we have here in this world. Our comforts. Our possessions. It's about serving the King of Kings and reaching the lost for His Kingdom. I want to be like my Jesus . . . He wasn't embarrassed or afraid . . .

How can you help? Please pray. Please consider sponsoring a child, senior, disabled man. Fund a project. Send monthly support to a missionary. Just give of yourself and look to HIM and not to yourself.

Simply - be like Jesus . . .

Kim

Thursday, June 14, 2012

How Time Passes

I'm amazed at how quickly time passes.  So much has happened since I last wrote on my blog.  I have come to realize that I have allowed everyday life take me further and further from the experiences I had in Kyrgyzstan. I want to remember. I want to feel.  I want to do.  I MUST figure out how to balance my life activities better in order to do the Kingdom work that I am called to do.  I need to change my priorities even in the midst of all of the change that is going on around me.

Today a young missionary to Kyrgyzstan put this in her blog:

 "it is easier to be ignorant and say I don't know about the problem. But once you know, once you've seen it in their eyes, then you have a responsibility to do something. There is strength in numbers, and if we all work together as a team, we can be unstoppable." -Craig Kielburger


I quickly realized that she was talking to me.  Reminding me that what we experienced in Kyrgyzstan and what God is doing in our lives is helping us reach our goals; To Serve Him and reach the lost, the hurting, the orphans, the widows.

Randy and I MUST stay focused and not allow the world to sink back into our ways of thinking.  We are not the same as we were before our trip.  Our mindset has changed but what I realized is that it is so easy to let the World take back over.  This is why is it sooooooooo important that we support our missionaries.  They MUST stay in the mission field!  They MUST stay focused.  The world can just take over and distract us.  They MUST stay focused on the Kingdom work that they are called to do.  My heart aches.  Where is the support?  Where is the passion?  How can we stay ignorant?  You don't have to travel to the ends of the world to see those eyes.  Look at the missionaries pictures . . . look deeply into the eyes of the orphan.  Into the eyes of the senior.  Into the eyes of the man and the lady.  Each and everyone of them has a story to tell. Hurt that needs healed.  A hunger that needs fed.  A need that needs met.  Trust me . . . the missionaries can ONLY do what is needed by being there and not here.  I have heard their cries.  They don't want to be here they want to be there.  We have a responsibility to support the missionaries.  We are responsible to SEND them.  They are responsible to do the work with the support that we give them.

Can you continue to be ignorant?  Look at these pictures . . . look into their eyes . . . just try to imagine their story . . .