{RVA}

Friends-

I'm into week 4 of training in Virginia. I'm here along with many other families and singles for 8 weeks of training and fellowship before heading out overseas. There are about 200 of us here, including everywhere from bitty babies to 60 somethings. We are from different hometowns, decades, socio-economic statuses and personality types. Some are here with big families of 5 children, some with their spouse, some with 1 child and some of us are here single.

In all of these differences though, we have the overarching unifying passion of love for our Lord. This is a love that has been stretched much deeper than a walk down the church aisle, a decision through prayer with a sunday school teacher or even a street side profession of faith in the midst of a turbulent college lifestyle. God has captured each of our hearts and grown in us a love for a people group or nation and in obedience to that call, we go.

So I intend to post here updates from training and thoughts and concerns about the great unknown of Paris, with the intent that God's faithfulness would be written over it all. I'm self aware enough to admit that my life is not glamorous enough or adventurous enough to merit my own space on the internet but I see this as an opportunity to report back on the Lord's work in and through me here. So it's only appropriate that I thank you all who've invested and loved on me these past 22 (and some change) years. I have seen the love of Christ radiated through your affections, your challenge and your encouragement and I'm privileged to be sent out from such a community.

Blessings

mgw

1 Kings 8:54-61

Salut,

I've conveniently forgotten about my blog over the past 9 months. It could be from a general lack of enthusiasm to remember my password, from my dissatisfaction from the appearance of my site or from my inability to journal consistently in my own time with the Lord let alone craft something up to post. I have resolved, however, to use this as an outlet to write as an overflow in worship.

Approximately 29 days ago I began a journey to dig into the Bible and read it cover to cover with my best and dearest friend, Rachael. Anticipating big changes in the coming months in our lives (she is getting married (07072012) and I am moving to Paris in the Fall to pursue short term missions) we were both compelled to accept the challenge of a 90 day Bible reading plan. I have always been mesmerized by the Bible in it's entirety, but all too often I push of my interest in a family-line or a Jewish tradition or an OT reference in Paul's letters with the expectancy that it will be mentioned and explored in some sermon or blog post or in conversation with friends. Additionally, I have lacked the obedience to discipline myself in spending quality quantities of time meeting the Lord through Scripture. The discipline I was challenged to learn in the Fall needed to be pushed and I needed to learn to hunger for Truth and to be wrapped up in God's marvelous and mysterious plan, from the beginning, and to push through finding the meaning and relevancy for my life.

Since April 1 I have been overwhelmed by YHWH's wrath and mercy, his providence and his distance, but ultimately by his withstanding and radiating Glory as evidenced through Scripture and I am so excited to press on.

In reading in 1 Kings 8 tonight, I was struck by a particular passage.

(Background note: King Soloman had been given the task of building a permanent dwelling place for the Lord to replace the tabernacle of the wilderness. So he had it built, in 7 years, and is dedicating it before the House of Israel (HoI in my shorthand journalling!))

1 Kings 8:54-61

"Now as Soloman finished offering all this prayer and plea to the Lord, he arose from before the altar of the Lord, where he had knelt with hands outstretched toward heaven. And he stood and blessed all the assembly of Israel with a loud voice, saying

'Blessed be the Lord who has given rest to his people Israel, according to all that he promised. Not one word has failed of all his good promise, which he spoke by Moses to his servant. The Lord our God be with us, as he was with our fathers, May he not leave us or forsake us, that he may incline our hearts to him, to walk in all his ways and to keep his commandments and statutes, and his rules, which he commanded our fathers. Let these words of mine, with which I have pleaded before the Lord, be near to the Lord our God day and night, and may he maintain the cause of his servant and the cause of his people Israel as each day requires that all the peoples of the earth may know that the Lord is God; there is no other. Let you hearts therefore by wholly true to the Lord our God, walking in his statues and keeping his commandments, as at this day."

Now, this isn't the first prayer that has struck me in my chronological reading of the Bible, but I especially love this one. (I bolded some phrases that struck me)

"that he may incline our hearts to him"- acknowledging that it is the Spirit that reigns in our hearts
"I have pleaded before the Lord"- a mighty King humbling himself before YHWH
"may he maintain the cause of his servant and the cause of his people as each day requires"- it is God who maintains and sustains our work

We must have servant hearts, but it is God who sustains and validates our work. He inclines our hearts and his love compels us. We plea before the Lord for his will to be done and pray that we walk boldly and worthily with him that all peoples of the earth may know that he is God.

With an inclined heart,
mw

Summer swelter

The fact that I'm posting this clarifies that I'm about the worst blogger ever.

Since we've last spoken I've joined three new forms of online social media networking, had snakes drapped over my car-door handles twice, eaten tex-mex approximately 105 times and formed a (probably) unhealthy attachments to Capri Sun drinks. Yes, this is the life of a youth intern.

This has been my second summer working at Life Community Church in Nolensville, TN and it's definitely been one for the record books. Going into college I decided to give God my summer breaks and trust that He would use them for His glory. Well, I'll be the first to say that they have been such intense periods of refinement for me. Two years ago I worked at a christian summer camp called Pine Cove in Tyler, Texas where God broke me apart and built me back teaching me how to rely on Him as my fountain of strength. Last summer, up here in n-ville, God taught me about how the body of Christ works and my roll in ministry. Through all of these he's shown me and taught me about intentionality and building relationships for His glory. This summer, building on the hard hard labor and loneliness that I felt at some points last summer, God has been faithful to build on those first lessons and flood me with grace abundantly in my ministry here.


1. Discipleship
This summer I've been able to relish the difficult labor of building relationships last summer as the Lord has allowed them to mature and develop over the past year. I've had the opportunity to disciple a special group of High School girls as we've studied the book of Ruth and also as we've met individually throughout the summer. I have been blown away by the faithfulness of my girls at studying the Word and their eagerness to apply biblical principles to their life. Seriously, they are such a blessing and I hope that you would join me and lift up the girls of this ministry as they reach out to their friends and community.


2. Community
One incredibly special aspect of ministry here is the interesting role as an intern in the lives of students. Considering this is a small church, the youth workers spend a lot of time hanging out with the students. In fact, I live with two of the girls as my affectionately termed "seeesters" and adopted family. What this means is that work pretty much never ends- days at the church office working and coming home to prank wars, movie nights, fro-yo at Menchies, shooting off fireworks until all hours of the night, etc. This was a bit strange for me to get used to seeing as how the interns at my church growing up led a pretty distant life from us as students except for the occasional lunch or dinner with a large group of other students. But however exhausting this routine of all day work, all night hang-out, it's an incredible opportunity to basically LIVE with the students all summer. I've gotten to know so many incredible church families simply because we live beside each other. We're in and out of different family's homes borrowing movies, playing ultimate frisbee, blowing up water-balloons etc. What an incredible picture of the body of Christ at work! I'm so blessed to be a part of a community that cares so much for itself!



3. Joy
Man, I just really love to laugh. I work with the weirdest, coolest, funniest friends and they just bring me so much joy. I cry I laugh so hard at least once a day and that's such a blessing. It's also slightly dangerous when I'm the driver and my entire car is blaring and singing at the top of our lungs to "No Air" by Jordin Sparks and I'm about to pass out from lack of oxygen I'm laughing so hard. But that's beside the point, if you're a parent reading this I'm a very cautious driver :)

Me, Landon and Jay. Landon was an intern with me last year. He came up to visit everybody at the beginning of July.


Me and Rob. He's the pastoral intern here. This was an intern v. intern slip-n-slide battle. I'll let you decide who won...

3. Obedience
Though I've wrestled so much the past few months with God's calling on my life, He has made it abundantly clear this summer. I'm called to full-time international missions after I graduate in December of this year. Please pray that I would remain faithful to this calling and that I would continue to seek out and discern the Lord's will for my life.