Sometimes in life an opportunity comes our way that blows our mind, such an opportunity came my way recently.

This past summer I was involved in helping put together the Re:Fresh event at Cornerstone.    Re:fresh’s purpose was to draw people into a time of reconnecting and refreshing their relationship with God through multi-sensory outlets.  We had 2 DJs (DJ Race and DJ Jamin) spinning chill out music as well as mixing visuals.  While the music and visuals were essential to leading people in worship, various interactive stations opened up for participation throughout the night.  The stations were modeled after concepts and other stations used in prayer rooms in the 24-7 Prayer movement.  And it was in the journey of Re:Fresh that God placed me on a path that included leading me to a foreign country.

While we were preparing for Re:Fresh God crossed my path with David Blackwell, the director of 24-7 Prayer in the United States.  Through several phone calls he listened, encouraged, and helped birth the stations that would appear at Re:Fresh.  And through talking to David my path crossed with Dan King, director of 24-7 Prayer in Canada and Clint Dunning, owner of Haylo Clothing.

At the time I thought these contacts were made just for Cornerstone.  I had no idea that soon after returning from Cornerstone I would be sitting in my office at home holding a personal invitation to attend the International Leaders Gathering for 24-7 Prayer in Dresden, Germany.  You see, God crossed my path with various others to show me that He is the God of my journey.

I first shared the desire to go on this trip with the Tastyfresh community on July 23rd.  In order to go I would need to get the time off approved by work, raise $2000 for the trip, and get all the necessary paperwork completed.  On August 17th I took a leap of faith and purchased a plane ticket, with no place to stay and no confirmed spot at the conference.  It was one of the biggest leaps of faith I think I have ever taken.  On August 23rd I registered for the conference and started to wonder if I could make the suggested deadline of having everything taken care of by the end of the month, a mere 6 weeks after the invitation was extended to me.

In the 8 days after I jumped out in faith and purchased a plane ticket, $836 had been donated.  I was shy $434 from having the total amount raised.  At 8:41pm on August 25th after sending out an email update sharing how much God had showed me the difference 8 days can make, God showed me the difference 11 minutes can make.

11 minutes after I posted the update a member of this community donated the remaining $434.  Honestly, when the email came I did a double take and once my eyes believed what they saw I busted out into tears.  In one month and 2 days everything that I needed to go was taken care of.  I don’t know how many of you have ever experienced something coming true that you really thought was a pipe dream, but that is what I felt. 

Me… a little ole’ nobody from Cincinnati… invited to attend a leadership conference for a ministry I deeply respect half way around the world… funded by friends, family, and a ton of people I have never even met… it all seemed a little unreal.

And so on September 22nd I boarded a plane in Chicago to head off to the conference and I doubt my life will ever be the same.

In an attempt to keep this article from being super long I won’t be updating you on the happenings of each day.  If that is something you are truly interested in you can read those kinds of updates here (9/22 & 9/23, 9/24, 9/25, 9/26).  But my intent is to share with you how God is God in my journey and to share a few of the many lessons He taught me.

If God wants you somewhere, you will make it there.

There were many times in the process of raising the money that I doubted if I heard God correctly or perhaps I was just going because it was something I really wanted to do.  I learned though that God has a way of leading this child to right where He wants me to be, whether I know it or not.

The joy and the lessons are often found in the journey and not the end destination.

Dresden, Germany was amazing and I learned a ton, don’t get me wrong, but it wouldn’t have been as amazing if I hadn’t enjoyed the process and learned along the way.  I found out that no matter how stressful or how close a deadline was, God was still there ready to provide comfort or show me a lesson in it all.  God is an amazing teacher because He can use even the smallest simplest things to teach us.  The key is to stay moldable and teachable.

I learned that I have no guts when it comes to prayer.  I pray for God's will but I won't just flat out come out and say what I want.

I don’t know about many of you but I truly stink at praying.  (Sounds funny from someone who attended a leadership gathering for a prayer ministry.)  When I pray I often find myself praying the standard ‘whatever your will is Lord’ kinda prayers.  Now there is nothing wrong for praying for God to have his will, in fact it is how I got into this predicament.  The error is when we forget that we can go boldly before God’s throne with our burdens and it’s there we find grace and mercy and the strength to leave our burdens with Him (Hebrews 4:16).

I learned this lesson when I watched people crying out to God begging him to spare America of Hurricane Rita and I sat back praying that God would do what He needs to do.  I didn’t realize I had no guts until we read the news from CNN and found out it had turned away from Houston and had weakened.  In fact, CNN said that Hurricane Rita had gone ‘gentle’ on the states and Pete Grieg prayed that it would be gentle on us.  It was in that moment that God spoke directly to my heart, “Thanks for praying for my will, but it’s ok just to flat out ask.  Remember sometimes you don’t have because you didn’t ask, so ask.”  I almost busted into tears but I held my composure and just muttered back, “Thanks for taking care of it even if I am stupid and don’t ask.”

I learned that I really have no idea what it means to live as the body of Christ or to live in community with other believers.

There were many lessons that I encountered during the whole process of this journey and I believe that many more will surface as time passes, but out of all of them, thus far, this is the lesson that I have wrestled with the most.  What does being the body of Christ look like?  What does living as a community mean?

I would venture to say that a majority of us are familiar with the community model in Acts 2, a group of believers who sold all they had, lived together, and took care of others’ needs (see Acts 2:42-47), but that seems to be as far as our knowledge goes. 

While meeting different people and learning about their ministries I was amazed at how many people lived in community with those they ministered with, I’m not talking about being roommates with people, but truly living out what is modeled in Acts 2.  Hearing stories about their life and hearing what God was doing started in the motion the wrestling match of what does it mean to live in community.

For me, living in community or the body of Christ meant helping people out if they were in need and I had extra.  I never thought about giving or serving that might require a sacrifice.  My perception of living as the body or a community was really based on what I could do or give that didn’t interrupt my current lifestyle.  To be blunt, I would help if it didn’t inconvenience me.

Over the course of the few days in Germany, I couldn’t shake the thoughts about community.  Was it hard for me to grasp because as an only child, having to share my stuff and life was too much?  Was it hard for me to understand because, as an American I have been taught to be independent and community goes against that notion?  Honestly I didn’t know the answer then and I still don’t know the answer now.

But let me share with you what I have figured out, I am tired of living a selfish life and I am changing that.  I may not get all there is to this community thing, but I know I am being challenged to give more of myself and what I have to others.  And I know there is more to all of this than I understand right now, so I will continue to meditate on the lesson and seek what God is trying to teach me.

There are so many more lessons I could share with you and in the interest of space I’ll stop at 4.  Me… a little ole’ nobody from Cincinnati… invited by a ministry I deeply respect to attend a leadership conference half way around the world which was funded by friends, family, and a ton of people I have never even met. It all seemed a little unreal.  But what seems even more unreal is the fact that the God of the universe went on a journey with me and He never once saw me as a little ole’ nobody from Cincinnati. He saw me as His precious daughter and fellow traveler.  He chose to teach me many lessons and be the God of my journey.