Reentry, Rest and Revisiting...

It will take time to reenter back into our culture and just the touching, seeing, and holding all the things that filled our lives before we left, brings great refreshment to a wandering, weary, wistful soul. For some of us, it will be a quick turnaround, back into the routine, starting off where we were when we left, but, we will be inserted into that routine with a piece of the transformation that has shaped our last nine days. As I said in an earlier blog, the tales, the purpose and the unfolding of the details to you, our dear prayer partners and friends, will slowly be consumed and digested much like a bagel, a bite at a time. For if we were to share with you by shoving it all into your mouths, you would neither enjoy or be able to take it all in, being choked by the overtaking fullness of salivary glands trying to catch up to an overstuffed mouth.

So, together, patiently, we will unfold with you, bit by bit, piece by piece, the overwhelmingly trans-formative power of the trip God has led us through. Even as I sit here drinking my cup of Cafe Hrvatska, I come to realize that though I purchased the exact coffee we enjoyed every morning, while drinking it here, on my dining room table, in what was my usual setting, the coffee does not taste exactly the same as it did in the quiet of the great meeting room alone with my Lord. His presence, is still here, but somehow, the different air, the lack of my Croatian surroundings recolors everything I do, remember and enjoy from our trip.

It was fun watching Kent and Cheri enjoy my Croatian beer battered fish taco creation with Mexican rice and attempt at refried beans assisted by sous-chefs Stuart and Lauri. The taste of home and something long ago remembered, brought a balm of comfort to weary souls (especially Kent and Cheri) who have given up so much of their comfort to enter into a whole other world in the name of Jesus Christ. Just as now my cup of Croatian coffee reaches into what was once my every day routine, both are relished with deep sweetness and an overwhelming sense of the cost of serving Christ.

Do you get it? Have you been hearing a tug from our Lord to open your eyes to see that the adventure with God is challenging? But nothing, absolutely nothing is more powerfully revealing of His hand, into and from our lives, into the lives of others on this blessed journey. I left a part of my heart there with Kent and Cheri, Jill and Hervoje, Niki and Trent, Denny and the rest of the church, the rest of the people, and the entire nation of Croatia. A part of their hearts are now found in mine, a transforming flame for the life that Christ has set inside me, inside each of us.

God reminds us through Paul that worshiping Him requires us to lay down our bodies as a living sacrifice in Romans 12:1. He states:

Ro 12:1 Therefore, I urgently encourage you, brothers, in view of the powerful transformation of God’s mercy placed into your lives, that you completely surrender your bodies, your beliefs, your expectations, your hopes and dreams, as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this being your spiritual act of worship to He who has redeemed and restored and even created all that you are. (emphasis added by author).

This trip was not only intended for the nine of us who physically stepped onto the airplanes, stepping off into a foreign land, living briefly there, meeting some incredibly faithful ones who have done exactly what Paul encourages all of us to do, but also for you; all of you who read this blog, and examine our hearts now having gone and returned as part of our team.

I pray that God will soon allow me to return, or that He might indeed ask my stunning bride and I to go into the ends of the earth for Him, but only time will tell if that is His will. For now, I have been given a glorious gift from those in Croatia, and from those who went with me, pouring themselves into my life as I walked a difficult road there, without my dearly beloved Carrie.

God has miraculously restored my nearly ruined heart of ten years ago back health. He has indeed healed my heart, both physically and spiritually. He has shaped this heart with a tenderness I often find uncomfortable as a man, yet I am grateful that I allow my heart to be moved, deeply moved, by the stuff of life and living for my glorious Savior. I am thankful that He continues to take me through very dark and difficult times, etching within me His fingerprints as I walk weakly through the turnstiles in life that He leads me through.

There is only one way to transform a nation bent on destruction. To be, live and do the life poured out before our Savior. It will cost us our lives, but in the end bring the restorative, absolutely transforming power of God into the hearts of many who are lost; looking for hope, looking for eternal rest and purpose. Looking for the kingdom that will not perish, though their bodies will.

It is time for all of us to stand and find courage to live, fully live, what we know is truth. Who we know will bring it to our world, and rescue those who we cross in our daily lives, not only on foreign soils, but in the hearts of people here, on familiar soils with hearts of foreigners for they know not of the kingdom where they belong. Before this trip, I could have gone through life, without a care for Croatia and its people. But I return knowing that God wants their hearts, as He does the hearts of my connections here in my community. The mission is exactly the same, wherever He puts us, wherever He takes us, with whomever He allows to cross our paths.

This journey was for you too. You who are now linked with our hearts. You who are our friends and now will be connected to Kent and Cheri, Hervoje and Jill, Trent and Niki, and a host of those who have been called to Croatia, as well as to the people. We took our trinkets of life here to the people and leaders God has called there. We brought home our trinkets as monuments of our time with the people, for as we reenter, rest and revisit from time to time our great adventure of bringing more of Christ to Croatia. Now the question remains...Where and how will we continue to invest the more valuable gifts of God into the hearts of those around us now, where we are, and as He leads us? As we reenter, find rest, and continue to relive all that has been revealed to us on this trip, our prayer is that all of Croatia, all of our friends and family here at home, will connect deeply to the call Christ has placed within each of our hearts connected along this journey we call life. For He is the life, and our lives are to be His.