When Lightning Strikes...

Some people have what I like to call lightning bolt testimonies.  You know that the type where God steps into their lives like lightning and things are never the same again.  My  precious husband has one of those testimonies.  He was your average teenage bad boy when God drew him to himself and Nathan was never the same again.  He tells me stories about losing his friends and people not really understanding what happened to him.  He went from pasture parties to leading a prayer group at his high school that was so big it began getting media attention.  I love to hear my hubby talk about what God did in his heart on February 8th of 1998. 
If I am just honest I have always been a little jealous of Nathan's lightning bolt experience with God.  My experience has been slightly more like the evolving of a butterfly.  While I was saved in 7th grade I was always a pretty "good girl" so it has taken a little longer for God to show me the error of my ways and my transformation has been more gradual.
While I love the way that the Lord has knit Nathan and I together knowing that He would be able to use both types of testimonies to reach different people, I have always secretly longed for a lightning bolt experience of my own.

Over a year ago, God in His great mercy, granted my secret desire and did something so unexpected in my heart that it has truly felt like lightning.  I am not the same girl I was before that one late December night in 2009.

What happened?

Throughout a series of events I clicked on this blog....

I saw these faces...

I read the stories of this country...

Right there in that moment my heart was changed...forever.  Lightning struck and I have not been the same.  I once thought going to Africa would be the worst thing in the world...now I love this place I have never even been to with a love I cannot even explain.

In the next few months that followed I was a complete wreck as I wrestled with God on what in the world this new love meant for my everyday life.  Finally, He clearly called us to adopt from Africa!  For a while I thought that might be all He was calling me to do.  But then my husband began preaching about missions and the great commission and I knew that God was calling me to go!

Nathan wasn't sure at first...letting his wife go to a foreign country is a huge step of faith for him!  And what in the world would we do with our 3 precious little boys for 12 days during the hours Nathan needed to be at work?  How would we come up with the money...we are in the middle of trying to save and raise $28,000 to bring our future daughter home?   There were so many questions and unknowns and even obstacles to overcome.

But...It was time for us to practice what we preach!   We decided to say yes! 

So in 15 days I will be boarding a plane to Uganda, the country that started my lightning bolt experience!  I will actually have the opportunity to serve in the very ministry that God used to change my heart and my very life!  Since we said yes God has been so faithful to provide every step of the way.

9 of us girls from here in Malakoff will join a team of 30 people in Washington DC where we will all fly to Uganda to love on orphans in several different orphanages.  We will feed the Karimojong children, and we will even have to opportunity to go into 3 children's prisons to share the love of Christ and just love on and play with the children there.

While saying yes has brought on it's own challenges I am so glad that we did and I can't wait to see what God has planned!!

Uganda here I come!!

Have you had a lightning experience? 

What is God waiting for you to say YES to?