Stinky Tofu

I love to read. I make it a point to read my Bible everyday (ok, a day will get by me once in a while that I don't but I'm working on that). And I love to read anything by a good Christian author. But the thing I've discovered is that even among the Christian community, people are out to make $$ and can crank out books that quite frankly, could have been summed up in a pamphlet. I have countless books on my shelf that are only half-read because I got the point after the first few chapters & didn't see the need to continue reading the same thing over & over, just phrased a little differently.

But a few years ago, I fell passionately in love with reading about missionaries. I think it all started with Gladys Aylward who went to Ch*na as a young woman against all the odds and finished her life there having suffered greatly to win souls for Christ. That book was quickly followed by Hudson Taylor, Ruth Bell Graham, and several others who served in Ch*na. They are dramatic stories that leave me wondering what in the world am I doing to change my world? I believe it was in those days long before adoption ever came to mind that God planted a love for Ch*na in my heart that would eventually lead to Lucy. The other thing that it left me longing for was to find a family currently in China that I could correspond with and support financially. I wanted & prayed for direct contact...not just through an organization. I researched & came up empty, only to learn that they no longer allow missionaries. So I kind of forgot about that idea, though I was very disappointed.

Years have sense passed and now Lucy is here. Along with the blessing of this sweet girl, God has abundantly blessed us beyond what we could ask or imagine with some of the sweetest friends I have ever known. And low and behold, one of them is a wonderful Christian gal, Lynsay, who is serving with her husband and children in Ch*na to start an orphanage. The minute I first read her blog, I knew immediately that my prayer of years ago had just been answered. Now we email almost on a daily basis. I can't tell you how happy I am to have found my sweet friend, that I prayed for long ago but had concluded was really not there. Oh how God holds the sweetest surprises for us if we only obey Him.

I think the biggest thing that I love about my missionary books....including reading Lynsay's blog is the sacrifice it requires to serve as they do. It isn't a life paved with cushy conveniences but of hardship and self-denial. It goes against everything that our country has become. It is a life fully surrendered to Him and dependent on Him. It teaches me how I should live. I may not ever be a missionary in a foreign country (though I would leave tomorrow if that's what God told me to do), I can be a missionary in my own country and in my own community. Living simply with a humbly surrendered heart.

Thank you Lynsay, for having an obedient heart to serve as you do...it has resulted in my prayer of long ago being answered. I love you sweet friend and I WILL come & visit & even serve with you one of these days.