What a treat I have for you today. One of my dearest friends, Maggie Ghrist took some time to share about life in Kenya. Maggie is a fellow blogger, wife, mother of 3 boys, but also lives in Mombasa, Kenya. She and her husband Josh serve with Lighthouse for Christ which provides quality eye care, pastoral training and church planting in the Mombasa area. If you’ve followed me any length of time on this blog, when I speak of our mission trips to Kenya, this is who we visit!

What a woman of faith she is! Today she’s talking about dirt and not just any dirt, African dirt… and she’s thankful for it. So, Maggie, it’s all yours my friend –

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This is my message for today. So many times I think I need to muster up enough faith that God will work things out the way I have in mind.

I hear Him asking me to have faith and trust Him even when He doesn’t move the mountains I want moved, part the waters I want to walk through, or give the answer I’m crying out for.

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I feel like I’m stuck in the molasses swamp on Candy Land. Lose a turn. But I can’t get out. Can’t find another color to move on.

I can’t even truly pinpoint why I’m stuck. When did I even draw that card? How long have I been here and not realized it?

I heard Something Beautiful on the radio by Steven Curtis Chapman. It struck a chord in me.

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Please don’t throw your coffee at the screen when I tell you I enjoy running. In effort to relieve stress, some people smoke, some drink, some eat, some shop, I run. I picture it as an old steam engine. Every few miles the engine stops and literally lets off excess steam that’s accumulated as the coal burned.

I seem to burn a lot of coal in this life and it leaves me with some steam build-up. Running helps me blow off things that are bothering me or gives me a chance to yield in areas I feel the Lord working in. I often ask Him to pound the Julie right out of me as my feet pound the road, and breathe His Spirit into mine instead.

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Melting. It’s what a chocolate bar does when left in the sun. It’s what ice does once brought out of the freezer. It’s also what happens on occasion to me. That occasion happened yesterday.

I don’t know who took the ice out of the freezer but I melted just like it into a puddle of tears.

It was one of those wave pools of emotion that ushered in a sadness so deep I couldn’t rise above it. The bell sounded and tears that I held back and held back called over their friends and together they rose and let loose.

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Two weeks ago I watched as my friends and fellow Kenya sojourners boarded their flight out East…without me.

I’ve been three times now, meeting with the Kenyan ladies, listening to their stories, asking how we can best plan for a ladies conference. I love it. I love them. I love sharing my heart and listening to their story and seeing the Lord guide and unite the two.

I’ve been so excited to return and actually be apart of the conference again.

But I wrote these words on my bed on Texas rather than at the airport.

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A couple months ago I joined a small writer’s group that meets weekly about 30 minutes from my house. It has become the highlight of my week to gather with these people as they tear apart sentences in effort to make it the best it can be. Even though I love it, it is always a fight to get there.

There’s lunch to prepare, school work to check, print out copies of what I’m bringing…double spaced…14 pt…pen…I always forget something! And something always calls out to me as I head out the door.

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Faith.

It’s not something I thought I struggled with. I’ve seen God move many mountains that were humanly impossible. I’ve seen Him part my own Red Sea. I thought I easily trusted Him, knowing my life is fully in His hands.

I mean we traveled to Kenya this year. All 5 of us. I knew if we were supposed to go, God would provide the money and the time, and He did. My faith felt limitless in the process.

Then we returned home. It was then I began to notice the holes in my faith. Like rinsing blueberries and draining them in a colander, life was being poured into me and the blueberry juice was bleeding all over the counter. My lack of faith left a stain everywhere I went.

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