This Moment In Time

Boxes packed. Stuff moved to my friends house. Backpack packed. Bills paid. Phone calls made. All the loose ends I was not quite sure would be tied up are tied up.

I will fall asleep tonight in the state of Oregon for the last time for the next three months. Tomorrow Beth will take me to the airport and I will fly to Ft. Wayne to see my old teammates. Then Monday Amy and I will drive up to Chicago and I take off from Chicago Tuesday. I arrive in Vienna Wednesday and my team and I will take part in an amazing race from Vienna to Malenovice where our stuff will be waiting and then we begin training. 

Five years in the waiting and here I go...I am SO excited. I am confident that God is going to show up in huge ways this summer in and through my life. That is the one thing I know I can go expecting. The rest, well the rest will be an adventure. I know God has prepared me for this moment in time. The Emily K. Ford of today is supposed to be in Czech. Not Emily K. Ford of last year or the year before that or any other year since I was there last. Right here and right now. This moment in time. I go meditating on Luke 4:18 "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because He has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom to the prisoners and recovery of sight to the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. (NIV)" May these words be true of my summer. 

So here I go! I will update again after we finish the amazing race, when I arrive to Czech! Thank you so much for being part of this summer through financial gifts and prayers and words of encouragement. 

His and yours,

Em

The art of leaving and the power of love

Its now less than two weeks til I depart from Portland. So the time crunch is on, trying to pack/clean and at the same time see all my friends "one last time" before the summer. There has been some talk of a "going away party" but I'm not sure yet. It seems a bit silly to me right now to have a going away party when I'll only be gone for three months. Its a fine art I think because you're "saying good-bye" but at the same time its only three months. So its more I suppose a "see you in a few month" and to me it doesn't feel the same. Maybe its that I've moved so much, or that I've had so many "going away parties" only to return several months later but this time around, I'm just trying to do this leaving for the summer thing a bit more quietly. Yesterday I had my last Sunday at Evergreen til fall. It was cool to be able to share with them what I'll be doing this summer and then they all gathered around and placed their hands on me and prayed for me, sending me off with their blessing. I am really looking forward to returning to Evergreen when I return to Portland. I really do love this city. It seems there is always more to discover, more to experience and I love that.  So Portland and Evergreen, I'll see you soon. Today I went to lunch with my roommates. I will miss these two ladies. But they will have fun full summers as well and I will catch up with them when I return. 

The power of love. Do you believe in it? What is the power of love? What does it make you think of? For me, to be honest when I first hear that phrase I think of Marty McFly on a skateboard and the opening credits of Back To The Future 1. Hughey Lewis and The News "that's the power of loooove". But really, I think that love has more power than anything else in this world  to soften hearts, to mend brokenness, to bring about forgiveness and to transform lives. I find that sometimes I forget this simple but real truth. I think that sometimes I need to say something. To put in my two cents to shake people awake again. When that's really probably not the point. I think that more often than not love and humility will change lives faster than frustration and bitterness. I know for myself, when I was running from God a couple years ago if somebody had approached me in frustration or bitterness and told me to "get my act together" or whatever it would have probably made me wait a lot longer to come back around to God. But my heart was softened, my life was transformed by love. The love of my friends Eli and Mandy toward each other, toward me, toward their baby girl and the love of God that was shown to me through their love.  I've also been thinking a lot back to past camps. The thing that the students who don't know God (yet) notice the most is the love we have for each other and for them, a love we have because of God's love for us. That is what Jesus said in John 13:35 "your love for each other will prove to the world that you are my disciples" (NLT) Also been thinking on "Most important of all, continue to show deep love for each other, for love covers a multitude of sins. 1 Peter 4:8 (NLT) So it has been good to think again on these truths as I'm seeing a couple friends of mine, who in the past have been huge examples in how to live this life w/Jesus, just choose to make decisions that are not good. There are times when the truth needs to be said, when the truth should be defended, but even then, I believe it should always be done in love. To share truth just for truth's sake is to miss the point.  I am sure I will have more to say on love in future posts but for now I need to go clean my room and get ready for work.

Prayer/Praise

*PRAISE God for bringing in ALL the money I need to go to CZ!!! Thank you guys so much for praying for this. It was amazing to see it all unfold. In a matter of two weeks I went from having not even quite half to all!!!

*Will you now please pray for my teammate Sarah to get all the money she needs to come!

*Pray for me to get everything wrapped up here, to figure out where to store my car and stuff and how to be able to see my family and friends before I take off.

*Pray for me to continue to be humble and teachable to all that God is teaching me.

Love you guys, thank for reading and being part of my life!

Em

Making The Impossible Possible

I had a wonderful dinner last night. My roommates and I had two of our girlfriends over. All of us at the table have been on the mission field more than once so it was really encouraging to talk to them about their experiences and it made me even more excited for my upcoming journey to Czech. Afterward Tiana and I cleaned up the last few dishes and got into our Bible study. We began an old Testament read-through in the end of January and are almost done. We have been reading it in the Jewish Bile order. This week's discussion was on Esther and Daniel. I find it incredible because Lamentations ends with 5:21 "Restore us to you, O LORD that we may be restored; renew our days as of old, unless you have utterly rejected us and are exceedingly angry with us." And then Esther is a story of God appointing her to a position so that tho Haman tries to destroy the entire Jewish race she is able to convince the king to restore them. Mordecai encouraged Esther to have faith and to stand up for her people saying that even if she didn't God would eventually restore His people. And then after Esther you have the story of Daniel. I have always loved the story of Daniel and his friends. Of their faith in the face of a lions den and a blazing furnace. That they all believed that even if they did die, God was still God. 

After our discussion of these two books Tiana and I began to talk more about how God makes the impossible possible. We talked of testimonies of our friends who have beens saved from all kinds of evil and crazy things and brought into the Kingdom of God. And she was saying that sometimes when we don't have wild crazy lives before Christ its hard to remember that He does amazing things to save and restore His people. And as I lay in bed praying for a friend of mine who is going through a really hard time I began to recall stories of God making the impossible possible. I thought back to Abraham, the "father of the faith" and how God chose to enter into covenant with him. And in this covenant He told Abraham that he was going to be a father of many nations. Most people, maybe everyone (actually even Abraham, then Abram) thought that this was an impossible task. An old man with a baron wife becoming a father of many nations, as many as the stars in the sky?! Impossible! But God did just that! He gave Abraham and Sarah Issac. And when it was looking like Issac might never find a good godly wife Abraham sent his servant out to find one. And Rebekah enters into the scene. Not just a godly woman but a woman from Abraham's own relatives. And tho it is seemingly impossible for the second-born child to have any inheritance of worth Jacob got the blessing, got the birth-right not Essau. The God of Abraham, Issac and Jacob. Of course the bible is full of stories like this (I feel I'm rewriting Hebrews 11 right now). God delights in making the impossible possible. When the men who had spent three years following Jesus saw the man who they believed was the messiah, was the Son of God hanging, bleeding. dying on a cross there was no more hope. Their friend was dead. He was buried in a tomb. End of story...but NO! What may have seemed impossible, the most impossible of all things, became possible three days later when Christ was raised from the dead!!! 

So what is your story? What is my story? I am on the verge of this dream I've had for five years now coming to life. I'm about to go back to Czech. At this point I am still low on funds. Yeah, to some, it may seem impossible to raise such a large amount in a short time. Some might say that given this economy and the recession its just "not possible" but I don't believe them. I have too much evidence of God making the impossible possible to buy into the fear around me. Yes the economy sucks. Yes there is a recession. Yes people are loosing their jobs left and right. But the LORD is still the same today as He was in times of prosperity. He is still the one who provides all our needs. He is still, as He has always been a God that delights in making seemingly impossible situations possible. So I want to encourage all of you to asses your life from that perspective. What things in your life right now seem impossible? Is it a loss of a job, a loss of your health, a broken relationship, lack of money whatever it is take time to see it from the eyes of faith. The eyes that Daniel and his friends had when facing the lions den and the blazing furnace. Lets be part of the story that is highlighted in Hebrews 11. Lets be people of faith that believe that God exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him.

Ways to pray in response:

*Pray that God will bring in the rest of the money quickly. That He will encourage the hearts of those I've sent letters to that He wants to participate in this journey by giving financially

*Pray for God to even now begin to pursue the hearts of the Czech students I will meet, some who at this point might not even believe there is a God.

*Pray for my Czech friends who know the Lord to be bold in inviting their friends to camp

Love you guys, In Jesus Faithful Name,

Em

Simplicity and Excitement

Through The Eyes of A Child:

I was able to take a trip home this last weekend to see my nephew for his 3rd birthday. It was so fun to be able to see life from his perspective for a couple days. To see that there is magic and wonder in simple things like train tracks and sprinklers and throwing balls. I hadn't seen him since Christmas but we reconnected immediately. He would ask "where's Em-oh-lee" everytime he'd loose sight of me. I hope to keep that perspective, to see the joy and fun and magic and wonder in all small things and not just the big things. John Eldredge talks about this  in his book "Walking With God" he says we need to see what God is giving rather than focus on what He is not giving. I like that. May we not be too focused on what is missing from our lives to miss the small but wonderful gifts we have right here and now

The Countdown:

In five weeks I will be landing in Vienna! I will meet my team there and we will begin our summer adventure of impacting the Czech students with the love of Christ, with the hope of the gospel. I just found out who will be on my team yesterday. My leaders will be Brad and Lucie Kaspar. I met Brad first when I did my internship in 2003. And I met Lucie last time I was in Czech in 2004. She is a good sister and I am so excited to serve with them both. Also on the team are two new friends Sarah who is 19 and from Illinois and Chris who is 23 and from Minnesota. I can't wait to get to know them. We have a smaller team but I think this will give us more opportunity to get to know each other. 

How to join the adventure:

1) Praise God for my nephew Damian! Pray he grows to be a man who loves the Lord passionately and be a light to his/our family.

2) Please pray for our team, for Brad and Lucie as they get the last of the preparations ready for us to arrive and for the five of us to be united even now, before we meet. That we as a team will be an incredible picture of Christ's love to the Czech students (and to each other)

Love you guys! Til next time...

Em

Its "a'blog" time

Its been a long long time since I last wrote and I'm not sure how to best update you on all that has been going on so I will try and break it up a bit. From here I'm going to try and write more frequently so I can just write and not feel the huge weight to update you on everything...

Stepping Out In Faith:

I am currently in the process of raising support and getting things ready to go to Czech as a summer intern with Josiah Venture. Raising support and trusting God to provide in this way is something I haven't done in so long it has seemed a bit foreign. It seems tho, each time that doubt and fear try to sneak in God keeps opening the doors and asking me to trust Him. He has put a friend  in my life that has said he will give just about half of the amount I need to raise. Another good friend who is a pastor in town invited me to come to their missions Sunday April 26th. The money has to be in by May 1st but at this rate its looking like it just may happen.  

Life and Death and the Hope of Christ:

This past week a few of my friends died. Two of them, Tony and Laura died in a rock climbing accident. Tony was on the police force here in Gresham and Laura's dad is a fire fighter. Laura and her husband (who is Tony's brother) Bobby used to be in my home group a couple years ago and when I was in college I used to hang out a lot with Bobby and his twin sister at their parents home. It was a really powerful funeral. 1500 people were there. And both Tony's and Laura's story spoke to a life of passion of Christ. Afterward there was a small copy of Heaven by Randy Alcorn for everyone to have. FIFTEEN HUNDRED PEOPLE. Many of them who did not know the Lord. May they not be able to escape the reality of Christ now that they have known Tony and Laura and have seen their life and death. On my way to their funeral I read my email and found out my friend Pavel from Czech died of lung cancer. Pavel also lived a life passionately for the Lord. I met Pavel the last time I was in Czech. He was the translator for class and he was also asked to translate my testimony. We had good talks that week about faith and trusting God and believing in His grace. We've kept in touch some through the years. When I bought my one-way ticket to Prague, that as you know, I didn't end up using Pavel was really excited to think of me coming back to serve for a longer time in Czech. I will miss Tony, Laura and Pavel. There are a couple things tho that really stood out to me at Tony and Laura's funeral and thinking about Pavel too, one is that it is so worth it to live passionately for Christ, to live fully and to live lives that are drenched in Christ's love. I'd way rather live a life of passion for Christ than to buy into the American Dream. Another thing is that with these friends of mine, with our friends that know and trust Christ, when they die then death does NOT have the final say. Death does not get the last victory. My brothers Tony and Pavel and my sister Laura are now with Christ! So when our friends, when our Christian brothers and sister die we do grieve, we cry, we hurt, but we also celebrate the lives and the examples that they showed us, we celebrate the passion that they showed us and we hope. We have HOPE. That, is amazing.

Prayer opportunities:

Please pray for me to be able to raise the support I need for this summer. Please pray for the Czech youth group leaders and the Josiah Venture staff who are right now getting ready for this summer. Pray for all the students that are going to come to camps this summer who don't yet know the Lord. And will you also please pray for the Silva family, for Bobby Silva who lost his brother and wife in the same day. Will you pray for the Gresham Police Department who lost one of their fellow officers. Pray that Tony's life/death would speak to the officers that don't yet know the Lord. And please pray for Pavel's family and for his friends in Czech and those who were close to him. Thank you so much!

More coming soon,

Emily

Ch-ch-ch-changes!

Wow guys, its been FAR too long since I posted anything on here. I will try and do a quick recap and then include a bit of what I'm currently thinking theses days.

So I ended up buying my friend Caleen's car right before she moved to Korea. I was able to use the money I got from my car being totaled. I then began to look for a place to live in Portland. I was able to stay with my friend Linsey for the first month that I was here and then after that my friends Matt and Courtney invited me to live with them for September and October (which is quickly coming to a close). Initially I transferred both jobs (GAP and Starbucks) but I didn't get along well with my manager at GAP and Starbucks was giving me enough hours so now I'm just back to being a barista.

I'm finally beginning to feel settled back into Portland life. I am enjoying the friendships I have here and I have found a really good church. Evergreen Community  (I hope the link works for you who want to check it out). The weather here in the North West has definitely cooled off. Many days in the past few weeks the high has not even gotten into the 60's. We've not hit "the rainy season" yet which I'm thankful for. Today as I write this, outside its sunny and brisk. Something about the change of the season, about the cooler weather has helped me process this past year a bit more. What an adventure it's been. In-fact, I think I could say one theme (and the new one of my blog) the past eight years has been adventure. At this point tho, I am feeling the call to settle down a bit. To put down roots and just be. And this is not easy for me. I've moved 21 times in the past 8 years. And there are still so many adventures I hope to have...so the nagging voice of settling is hard. I guess we'll see. I mean, I do think that eventually, and more-than-likely sooner than later I will need to put some roots down. To learn to really live in community. I guess the fear for me has always been (and in ways still is) that in doing that...in staying in the same place (Portland/Boise) I will miss the other adventures. So I guess these are still just thoughts, just processing...no final conclusions yet.

Perhaps part of why I'm still not sure I want to completely settle down in Portland is my heart still beats for the Czech Republic. I still very much want to see if I could belong over there more permanently or if its really just a place that I need to pray for and perhaps visit occasionally but that I need to stay planted in the states. I don't hear a clear call yet either way. I just know that my Prague, and CZ have a very strong hold on my heart still. My friend and I went to a movie a few weeks ago and there was this shot of The Charles Bridge at sunrise and my heart began to beat and I nearly lost my breath...its what I imagine being in-love with somebody must feel like. I can't believe that after four years a few seconds worth of film of the Charles Bridge can affect me that way. So on October 28th Josiah Venture, who I've been to CZ with the three times I've been is having a meeting here in Portland to discuss what God's doing in CZ and in the other countries that JV is in. I am really excited for this evening. I am praying that I can leave with a little more direction. Will you join me in praying for this?

Well there's a bit of an update.  I will try and write more soon and to begin to write more consistently. I hope that this fall finds you well and that you too can take some time to reflect on the changes that have taken place in your life this past year and to see, in all the changes that God remains unchanging. That He alone stays the same.

Life changes in an instant

Its been a month again since I wrote last, and what a month its been. I am struck by how much life can change in a matter of seconds...

June 3rd I was looking forward to my friend Jackie coming to visit me from Portland. She and I were set to drive back to Portland on the 5th. Well I took the morning and did a couple errands and then went to the gym. On my way home from the gym I was in a car accident. I was completely ok. Since I had just left the gym my muscles were totally loose and warm and ready for impact. I was driving straight and I saw this pick up truck comin right at me, so I sped up enough to not be hit right on, but it still hit the rear quarter on the drivers side and my car spun around. I got out and found out the person who hit me was my next door neighbor! Crazy! Well, Jackie got into town shortly after this so I had to have a friend of mine here pick her up at the airport. She and I ended up renting a car to drive back to Portland. The main reason that she and I had planned this trip was to go to our school's film festival. I had worked in the equipment cage at school so was well acquainted with all the students that were a year behind me. It was so good to see all of them again and to also see my professors again. I was able to catch up with some friends and had a wonderful time there.

Since the accident was not my fault, the guy's insurance paid for everything. My car was totaled so they paid off the rest of my loan ($3000) and then gave me the remainder ($1300). When I decided to come back to Boise I came for two reasons. One, to be a light to my family, to reestablish my relationship with my parents and two, to live in a cheap place where I could pay off my car. I decided that as soon as my car was paid off I'd be off to the next place. I figured that would be til next August or September, but my car is paid of NOW! And, I have come to a good place again with my parents, so I'm in the process of figuring out the next steps. Its looking more and more like I will be headed back to Portland in the next couple months. I have established a life there over the past eight years and have built some amazing relationships. I have invested in high school students who still have a year or two left in school. I have such a passion to return there and begin where I left off...So I will keep ya'll updated on the plans as they come together. I am in the process of looking for a cheap, reliable car (close to the $1300 I got back from the insurance cuz I don't want to get into another car loan) and I will also be in the process of looking for a place to live out there.

I hope you each find yourself well and encouraged in the Lord's faithfulness and unfailing love!
Em