And so it begins...

Wow...That's the only word I can think of to sum up these last couple week, and it's completely inadequate.

I had a great last month in the states! First there was a week of incredible Cross-cultural training in Colorado Springs with Young Life staff heading all over the world! 

Next came time at home with friends and family and our annual "big" family beach trip (think 50 ppl, 20 kids under 10 and a whole whole lotta love in one house)!

Then, BIGGEST NEWS OF ALL, two weeks ago yesterday my best friend and the love of my life asked me to be his wife...and I said yes! Yep that's right folks- next summer I am going to be Mrs. Sarah Starr!

My family threw me an incredible going away party where I was overwhelmed with love and support...what a humbling feeling to be surrounded by people that have loved you, thrown in their lot with you and walked with unshaking faith towards this vision God's given us...I really am so thankful for each and every one of you!

Last Wednesday morning I said goodbye to three of the people I love most in this world: Emily, John Michael and Anna. I have no words for that except that I love them more than they know.

 

Then my parents, Cameron and I flew out of Louisburg and headed for Nassau where we spent two days car shopping, getting insurance, my phone set up, etc. Let's just say that we were in the whirlwind of "big city" life...and we were all ready to get to Eleuthera!

Friday we picked Ben up from the airport in Nassau, my parents took the car over on the boat, and we all met that afternoon on this little island that I love! As soon as we got to my place, mom took over and we had everything wiped down, contacted-papered, unpacked and feeling more like home by 10 that night. In Gregory Town, the settlement that I live in, there is a celebration called the pineapple festival. It was that weekend so we went down to the dock and got some dinner from one of the booths and enjoyed the live Reggae music. It was a beautiful but overwhelming experience for my parents and Ben who were seeing everything for the first time.

The next couple of days til my parents and Cameron left Tuesday were spent introducing them to the people and island that I love and watching them recognize the hard parts, but come to love it just the same. Probably one of the best moments of the whole time was when we were riding in Pat's (the ferry driver) old pickup truck on Current island after just visiting the children's home mom was up front hanging on to Pat's every word about the history of the island and dad had his head thrown back laughing at one of the guys tell him about building on the island and Ben and I were just happily taking it all in...thank you Lord for preparing our hearts for Your goodness!

Tuesday I had to say good bye to my parents, I won't talk about it or I'll lose it but all I need to say is that I there could be no better two people to love and raise me in the world that the two that God gave me to!

Ben and I spent the next two days playing, dreaming about all the God is calling us to on the island and praying that we never forget how loved and blessed we are. Putting him on the plane yesterday was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do. Though I know the year apart will be long, we both know our calling is first to the Lord and then to each other and that these plans he's given us will be perfect.

This morning I woke up and looked over at our puppy Allie and realized that we are making a home here. I ate pineapple from my neighbors garden, visited with Crystal the shop clerk and spent some much needed time with the Lord. These next three years are going to be quite the adventure and I am so excited to share this breathtakingly beautiful ride with every one of you!

What is impossible with God?

This blog post is long overdue, but since we’ve finished fundraising I have been sort of at a loss for the words to communicate all of the emotions that have come with it.

I have never been so overwhelmed with God’s goodness and faithfulness, and never been more grateful for the body of Christ-my family, friends and brothers/sisters in the faith-who have taken this mission as their own and laid down pieces of their lives for it…that kind of overpowering, humbling thankfulness is just really hard to communicate!

The best I can do is copy part of my journal that I wrote right after I got the news. We had just landed back in the States and I turned my phone on and got the email with the pledge that made us reach our goal! What does it feel like to be called by God to do something impossible, to be completely broken over how inadequate you are to do it and then to watch in complete amazement as the Lord does miracles and the very thing you called impossible isn’t any more? How do you respond to that? I’ll tell you- it includes lots of tears and phone calls and a whole lot of praising God in a way that makes the people around you think twice about getting on an airplane with you!!

           

May 12, 2012,

“Thankful, overwhelmed, joyful, disbelieving, in awe, fearful, excited, loved, supported, strengthened, humbled, broken, inspired-these are just a few of the things I am feeling right now.

In the last 48 hours I’ve found out that we have raised almost $170,000 in gifts and pledges, traveled to the island and back in a plane the size of my car, hugged old friends and met new ones, begun relationships with each of the three high schools, and I have once again fallen in love with this place and these people! God is good beyond all we imagine or deserve and I am willing to stand by and let God lead and change me every day of the rest of my life if it means being allowed to see God’s glory and faithfulness displayed in such a breathtaking way!

'Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?' –John 11:40

Now this doesn’t mean that this next part of the adventure is going to be easy, it’s going to be really, really hard. I am going to miss my family and friends more than I can imagine and desperately ache to be with Ben. But what it does mean is that God will meet me in that, the way he has done in the things I’ve described to you so far, and for all of my life! And that’s worth it…

This next month of preparation and goodbyes is going to be hard, but sitting here right now I know it is going to be nothing compared to the joy of walking side by side with the Bahamian youth into the arms of Jesus…I absolutely cannot wait!!”

A little of what we're learning :)

The Lord has been teaching us some really cool stuff and I just wanted to share!!

Ben and I are reading through Matthew right now and I feel like, though it is stuff I have read a million times, the Lord is showing it to me in a whole new light! The other night we were talking about Matthew 4, which could be an entire year of study in itself, but we really focused in on the part where Jesus calls his first disciples. We were drawn to it for obvious reasons but what stuck out to us the most was actually not the “Come, follow me” part, although no one can overlook that. What we were captivated by was how Jesus called them. The passage first tells us that the men were fishermen and then that Jesus calls them and tell them that he is going to teach them how to fish for men. He doesn’t tell them that he is going to rework their DNA and turn them into doctors to heal the sick, or lawyers to defend the unjust or even rabbi’s to teach the Scriptures, though he could have. No the God of the universe goes to these men, calls them to follow him and teaches them how to do that in their own language using their own profession.

And guess what…God still does this! Think about your gifts, your vocations. Are you the doctor at heart, maybe Jesus calls you to heal the physically sick and in addition teaches you to heal the spiritually sick you encounter. Are you the lawyer? Maybe Jesus calls you to defend the orphans and widows and at the same time to seek out injustice in your community and do something about it! Are you a teacher, do you love to see students learn? God might just be calling you to extend that passion into his work, the work of teaching people about himself and His goodness!

This gets me so excited!! How awesome that we have a God that doesn’t need us to accomplish anything, but chooses to bless us with strengths and gifts so that we CAN be a part of His work here on earth…what a privilege!!

Earlier this week we got to visit Ben’s parent’s small group as they were studying chapter 4 in the book Radical by David Platt (if you haven’t read it, I highly recommend it!). The point of this chapter is to remind us that we are called to a global purpose, to glorify God in all of the nations. I can’t sum it up better than he does in the chapter but basically the idea is that wherever you are, whatever you do, God commands us to think about the entire world and how you can extend His glory in it using the gifts, strengths and circumstances that He has given you. I love it because it wasn’t all, or even mostly, about people who picked up and moved internationally to share the gospel…it was about people who recognized that taking the gospel to the nations is not a calling for a few, but a commandment for all, and are reordering their lives, wherever they are, to obey Jesus.

This week I am really going to begin to check out what this can look like in every aspect of my life. From how I treat my family to the way I care for the physical world God has given us, from the way I relate to those in my immediate community to the way I can have an impact on the starving children of the world- there is a lot to do! How awesome that God gives us all the privilege and responsibility to be a part of it!!

As always I am praying and thanking God for each and every one of you! I’d love to be able to pray specifically for you all, email me at sarah.stewart89@gmail.com and let me know how I can do that!!