::ten years later...::

Summer 2008

10 years is a long time. In 10 years, pop culture is revamped and "current" fashion goes out of style. In 10 years, wars are fought, won, and lost. In 10 years, a new generation is born while another passes away. In 10 years, a person can go from being a student to being an adult, whatever that means... In 10 years, technology grows by numerous leaps and bounds that it's easy to forget what it was like before. In 10 years, a country could be formed and another fall apart because of war, natural disasters, politics, etc. In 10 years, the best and worst things could happen as well as everything in between. In 10 years, ____________ fill in the blank! There's much that happens both personally and globally. You get the idea.

10 years ago, my family moved from Portland, OR to Deering, NH to become domestic missionaries at His Mansion Ministries. What a ride it has been. I've decided to focus on a couple of the big things (out of many) I've learned in that time. Perhaps they will encourage or challenge you in some way or perhaps simply provide a glimpse of my journey. They are: loving wholeheartedly and seeing God tangibly every day. I've been reminded of both of them as I returned home this summer, something I didn't want to do, to work on staff, something I didn't think would ever happen.

Summer 2018

What I mean by loving wholeheartedly is exactly what I said. It's simple and yet contains profound implications in the long run. To love like that means to invest, to be all there, to see the faults and flaws and love anyways, to walk alongside, to not give up on the person, to encourage, support, and pray for them, and to seek the Lord's best for them through everything. It isn't easy to keep loving and having a tender heart after people continue coming and going out of my life. I've said a thousand hellos and goodbyes. I know most of those people I may never see again on this earth. Our paths crossed for months or years and it was a sweet thing while it lasted. But then they leave, new people arrive, and I'm called to pour into them. Loving wholeheartedly means my heart aching and breaking innumerable times, usually over things outside of my control. It means choosing to love again even though I'm often still picking up those mosaic-like shards of my heart (see my post, my torn, mosaic, scarred heart). As much as it hurts sometimes, I keep on loving because that's how God created me to be and what my calling is as a believer. I'm imperfectly loving people with Christ's love because He first loved me. Being here at His Mansion is truly heart breaking because of what people have gone through and the immense amount of pain and healing that occurs. However, it's also one of the most heart filling places because of the very real evidence of who God is and how much He loves His children. He hasn't given up on us no matter what we have done or how far we have gone from Him.

Our September graduates of whom we are so proud and love so much

Which kind of leads into my second thought on seeing God tangibly every day. I see Christ every single day in the men and women who live on this hill whether they're staff, Servant Leader, or Resident. Watching Residents begin this program, often with dead or vacant looks in their eyes, and attitudes of hopelessness and despair, here only as a last resort. Seeing God transform them is beyond description. The amount of miracles I've heard of in 10 years is astounding. People who should be dead, who should be in jail, who shouldn't have been able to come to His Mansion, and the list goes on. The Servant Leaders and staff who have given of their lives, time, energy, security, homes, and families in order to serve and love as God has called them to do. These are some of the most courageous men and women I know because they face themselves, their lies, wounds, fears, and more every day they're here. That facing of one's self is something I often shrink from, if I'm being honest but they do it every day for a year or more. If that doesn't blow you away, I don't know what will.

The iconic cell tower view on the hill

When I doubt God and ask questions, I only have to look outside of myself and see His work in the lives of the people around me. It's only because of Him that they are who they are today. I see God in these men's and women's tears, their laughter, their conversations, their prayer requests, their worship, their work, their camaraderie with one another. Everything is by the grace of God and we all are so aware of it. Christ's light and power is incredibly evident on this hill, not always in flashy ways and not always in nice, tender ways, but if I can't see it, it's because of my eyes not because He's not here.

I could say a million and a half other things about what His Mansion has meant to me and has done in my life over the past decade. Ask me about it sometime if you really want to know. Otherwise, I leave you, my dear readers, with the challenge to love wholeheartedly and to see God tangibly wherever you are. God is with you in your space just as much as He is with me here. Emmanuel.