Mother to Others

Posted by Laura

Years ago, the church Rachel, Sarah, and I attended did a sermon series on parenting. We all three skipped out and had some great fellowship at Starbucks instead of sitting through the services. It was a painful experience because there was an unspoken feeling that the three of us should be preparing ourselves for the inevitability of childrearing. While all of us would love a married future, it's kinda like rubbing salt in a wound for a single woman to tell her to get ready to parent when she doesn't even have a boyfriend.

Mother's Day is another awkward time for most single people in the church (or even married non-parents). I thought about how this blog needed something on Mother's Day to celebrate all the non mothers out there, but I'll be honest, I didn't get around to it because I was being celebrated that day. I've mentioned before how much I love my family group, but they stepped it up a notch last Sunday by celebrating the moms and the three single women in the group. 

I'll be honest, I set the bar low. I mean, I've had so many awkward and uncomfortable comments that I just didn't want to get my hopes up for being made to feel special on a day for women who've given birth. However, the dads and kids stepped it up and straight up celebrated grown women who invest in the lives of younger people. I fit that category, and there was nothing weird about it. I've taught seven of the kids in this family group, and I'll forever call them mine.

Rachel and I first wanted to write a book (that became this blog) to call out the church on how they made singleness something less than married life. I think we'd both still be quick to admit the church doesn't get everything right, but there're moments that are getting better. This week was one for me. I've never had a previous experience where I felt like I was celebrated for where I am at in life with out a single comment to make me feel guilty for not being married or on my way to having my own kids. It's great. I love where I'm at in life right now, and I think it's wonderful to be celebrated for it.

The Word of the Lord Stands Forever

Posted by Jordyne

I had this thought today that it is IMPOSSIBLE for Scripture to be lost now. God promised that his word would never fade away, and he protected it from being lost even when there were not yet any manuscripts, but only the original autographs. And after that when there were just a handful of copied manuscripts, God protected his word and made sure that it was not lost.

There was once a day when we couldn’t quite see how God was preserving his word. But today, we can see exactly how he has done it and continues to accomplish it.

There are SO many copies of the Bible, not only in the original Greek and Hebrew, but in hundreds of languages all throughout the world. More copies of the Bible are printed, sold, and distributed than any other book in the history of the world.  There are not just Bibles in churches, as it once used to be, but in countless homes, bookstores, dollar stores and Wal Marts across America. There are ones in libraries and storage sheds and in the backs of closets that have not been sorted through in decades. There are old ones in antique stores and thrift stores, and museums, and private collections. There are Bibles in hospitals and printing presses and missions agencies and in the bedside drawer of countless hotel rooms. Bibles left in the trunks of cars and in glove compartments and backpacks. There are copies in schools and business offices. Bibles in shipping containers and underground churches, and Bibles buried with the dead. The numbers are in the billions.

And those are just the complete Bibles….we have said nothing of Scripture that has been quoted in other books. Even if SOMEHOW all of the whole Bibles (or those sad New Testament + Psalms combos) were lost forever, we could reconstruct every single word of Scripture (and put it in the right order) by using books that have quoted even just one passage of Scripture. Not just books, but newspapers, tracts and magazines as well.

And if THAT weren’t enough…. let’s just say that somehow...SOMEHOW every single Bible and every single publication that ever quoted Scripture in any language was wiped off the face of the earth. What would we do?

Well then there’s the handwritten copies.  Portions of the Bible found in journals written by saints, church folk, and seekers alike. Memory verses carefully written on index cards. Encouraging passages mailed in letters. Words of truth and hope scribbled on fragments of scratch paper in a moment of desperate need for something to cling to.

And what if by some unimaginable, absurd, and ridiculously impossible chance EVERY.SINGLE physical copy of the Bible, whether complete or partial disappeared from the Earth? Where would we go to find his Word?

You guessed it. The Internet. 

You can find digital copies in the form of ebooks and apps and a variety of Bible websites such as Bible.com or Bible Gateway. But you can also find it on church websites, and websites of missions organizations. There is a New Testament scholar who is working on making a digital copy of every single ancient New Testament manuscript we have. You can find passages of Scripture on blogs, people’s Facebook pages, Twitter feeds and Tumblr. You can find passages of Scripture decoratively painted and printed and hand-lettered on any number of Pinterest boards or Etsy shops. And each and every one of these digital forms has been transmitted and retransmitted so many times, our brains cannot conceive of the number. The only way to get rid of them all would be to get rid of the Internet entirely or all electricity and technology, like in that TV show Revolution. 

And what if somehow that really did happen? Well then, may I direct your attention again to the immeasurable wealth of physical copies mentioned above.

It would seem that Satan has suffered a crushing defeat!
There is absolutely no way that the enemy can take God’s word away from humanity.

Unless...

Unless he can convince us that the Bible can’t be trusted, that it’s been corrupted. Or that it has no relevance or power to speak into our lives. 

Unless he can convince us that it’s not worth our time to study it, or simply that we are too busy to read its pages.

If he can convince us of that….

Well if he can convince us of that, then all the copies and access in the world wouldn’t matter a bit, would they?

Maybe the defeat wasn’t so crushing after all.

What Soothes Your Fears?

Posted by Jordyne 

I had this awesome moment with Jesus today that I wanted to share with you all. I just sent an email to a friend telling her this story, and right after I sent it I thought maybe it was something you would benefit from hearing:

God is so good, and he loves us a ridiculous amount. Simple truths, yes, but underneath them are oceans.

For the past couple weeks or so, I have been meditating on 1st John 4:18

There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. (ESV)

​

Well, this morning, God used it so powerfully, it carried me through the rest of my day. I was journaling about all the fears I have right now. 

On an unrelated note, for the past few days I have been thinking about the events of the youth camp I took my teens to last summer and what God showed me there. 

Anyways, I'm kinda scatter-brained and tend to change direction without any notice (That’s why Sarah and Rachel gave me the nickname Whiplash in college), so in the middle of my current journal entry, I decided to go back and read the entry from 7 months ago. I can't even remember why I thought I had to read it right then.  And what do you think I found? Take a look; there it is, bracketed in green stars:

Perfect love casts out all fear. His presence will sooth your fears like nothing else in the world can.

I just stared dumbly at it as the presence of God filled the space around me. He led me back to this page right as I was in the middle of talking to Him about how much fear I had. It was as if I had written every single word just for where I’m at right now. It was exactly what I needed to hear. I had no recollection of writing about fear, or that the lesson was on fear (thank you, Phil M.). I just remembered having a powerful encounter with God that week, and wanted to remember the details. With hungry eyes, I kept reading:

It says "3 things" but my attention span apparently didn't get past the 1st one.

His timing is so perfect, isn't it? He knew as I wrote those words down that day precisely what I would need them for. He woos more than any husband ever could. He is more to me than 10 husbands (is that weird to say? Like how Elkanah frequently asked his wife, Hannah if he wasn't worth more than 10 sons to her? I don’t know. It makes sense in my head.)

So, I'm done with fear. Yes, most likely, fear is something we will always have to fight. But Jesus is the solution to my fears, and he is the solution to yours. The only solution.

Glass Houses

Posted by Rachel

Its been a while since I posted, but I have lots to say.  I've started this blog no less than 3 times and erased what I had to say.  Sometimes, my mind and heart are not in good places and today its finally looking up to finish this. And I know we cover this subject quit a bit, but like the college we all went to, I'm just going to keep rehashing it until you all implement it into your life and heart.  So here goes.

I am a youth group leader.  I love being a youth group leader, I love mentor ship and I love multi-generational small groups (Thank you to those who accepted and cared for me during my college years, that was an amazing and trans formative time, you know who you are).  Back to youth group, I have been doing it several years now and the one thing that has been so apparent to me is the fact that students and young people don't seem to know what community or the church really means and how it applies to their life.  But they are trying desperately to find it whether through social media, television, clubs or even poor choices in their own life.  I didn't understand it when I was their age ei
ther, so I can't blame them, but I also had an amazing family who taught me the basics and then amazing college that instilled it into me and then amazing friends and mentors who lived it out and taught me what it really means.

So here's what it means:

• Living a life free from secrets, somebody knows everything about you, cause then Satan has less of a foothold to do tragic work.  Its scary knowing that other broken people hold a part of your heart and sometimes they don't treat it perfectly, but that is where the grace of Jesus restores both the people and the relationship.
• It means choosing to do uncomfortable things, like tell 14 year old girls you mentor at youth group -appropriate- but sometime vulnerable things.  
• It means choosing to love people so much it sends you into an ugly cry every time you say goodbye, which is far too much, because each of you know you are where God has called you and that is unfortunately many miles apart. 

It means so many things more...  

But here is truth, sometimes it sucks being single.  You look around and  you see happy couples(trust me you don't see the miserable ones when your single), couples who have someone to go out and do stuff with on Valentines day or New Years or just cause.  Sometimes you look and you yearn so deeply nothing but Jesus can carry you through that moment.  But here is the cool part, singleness actually doesn't suck that bad...most of the time.  Because I choose to live my life as a glass house, a temple where the Holy Spirit has made his dwelling.  Therefore nothing is mine to keep anyway.  

All my stories are actually his and therefore I speak them, because someone needs to hear them, someone needs to see God through the Holy Spirit's story.  Because the Holy Spirit is actually also in my Pack or flock or Community as well.  He in some great mystery resides in all of us and binds our hearts together even from great distances.  This is the great miracle,  I am a glass house to expose whatever selfish sinful shenanigans myself or Satan is up to in my life but even better is to expose the world to God, which is only done through the church and through my community. Living your life as a glass house sounds a lot worse than it actually is and trust me its a rush! 

Family Small Group

Posted by Laura

Small groups, community groups, missional communities, or whatever you want to call them have become increasingly popular in the modern church. I love the idea. Community is so central to the Christian faith, and sharing life together with a group of Christians is super important. The church I grew up in didn't really emphasize groups like that a ton, but they did have small groups for middle school and high school students. I joined one in middle school and participated in one during my junior year of high school. Those groups definitely had value, and I became a youth leader later in life in order to facilitate that kind of group for young people.

The church I was at as a young adult had a big push each year for members to join a community group and share life with the people of our church. I joined the one Sarah and Rachel were in at first, but couldn't continue being a part of the group during my undergraduate years. At one point while I was in college, the church tried to create a singles group, and somehow I got roped into it. For about a year, the singles group at our church was me and the two leaders who happened to be two of my close friends at the time. The three of us hung out anyways, but our hangouts somehow became church functions, so we watched High School Musical in the church auditorium because all three of us had church keys (well, two of us, and the third one knew how to break into the building in a pinch). A couple years after that singles group fell apart, I joined another community group that was me and four wonderful couples, three of whom had kids in our youth group. I loved sharing life with them, but I also occasionally felt a little out of place as the only single person in a group of married people (there was also one older woman who briefly attended at the start who was at the time single but had grown kids and young grandkids so I felt alone in my place in life).

I was recently invited into a family small group here in Germany, and after my first visit, my excitement small groups was reinvigorated. It was the first time I was in a small group since starting grad school when I had to leave my last one because the meeting time conflicted with my night classes. This group, however, is far from small, and the significant difference from the community groups I've been in before is that it's a family small group. The kids range from middle grade school to seniors in high school (plus a few college students during school breaks). The parents cover a range of ages as their kids' ages suggest. I'm one of three single women who's ages are spread out as well. The format of the group is gathering for a meal that's eaten spread across whoever's house we're in before rounding everyone up into one room for a short game or activity followed by a devotional led by one of the adults. We then split into several small groups and discuss - as equals - some questions given after the devotion. The kids' input is just as valued as the adults, but they also are regularly exposed to the adults' critical thinking and personal responses to deep questions.

What a cool experience for these students to grow up with adults modeling how to grow in their faith while also receiving affirmation for processing what they think and feel about their faith. That stood out to me right away as a benefit of this model of family group, but I also recognized that as a family group, I didn't feel awkward as a single person. Instead of sticking out, I felt like I more easily blended in because there is such an emphasis on intergenerational value.

Love On!

Posted by Sarah

It’s Valentine’s Day! The day of love. The day when the single population takes a collective, depressing sigh. It’s Hallmarks favorite holiday and the least favorite of anyone who has experienced heartbreak or loss.

The internet is buzzing this Valentine’s Day: Bloggers and commentators are weighing the virtue – or lack thereof – of the newest horror film out just in time for the holiday (aka: 50 Shades of Grey), there are countless articles on how to ramp up your love/sex life, every couple on Facebook is posting pictures of dinners out and beautiful bouquets of roses, and a large c contingency of single people are gathering in honor of S.A.D. - Singles Awareness Day – the title speaks for itself. And that is just the beginning.

I’ll pause here to remind you how much I love holidays and celebrating. Each one holds special (and some hard) memories. Any reason to celebrate is a good one and any chance to gather with family and/or friends is A-OK in my book. And while I admit that this holiday is a little more difficult than some (as anyone whose waited all day to see if their crush will, in fact, acknowledge them can attest), it’s still a holiday and, therefore, a good day.

In fact, my biggest beef with Valentine’s Day isn't the day itself but how sexual it has become. Why does the one day we purposefully celebrate love have to be about sex - it’s sad really. What a better place this world would be if we took this day to celebrate love in all its forms – to intentionally tell the people in our lives how much we love, value and appreciate them. For example, yesterday I got a surprise visit from a dear friend and her son with a note reminding me that they love me. It made my whole day.

This year for Valentine’s Day I am not sitting around in the muck that is my relationship status on Facebook, I am having a girl’s day with my 5 year old niece, Ellie. And honestly, I can’t think of a better way to spend my holiday then being with my sweet girl.

Someday I look forward to being married and celebrating love with the one God has for me – but my life isn't on hold until then.

Love is going to get the heck celebrated out of it this year!

So go do something fun with someone you love today, whether it be your husband/wife, boyfriend/girlfriend, mom/dad, grandparent, dog, your bestie or your niece! Love On!

Underachiever

Posted by Laura

I teach at an international school with teenagers who come from host countries all over the world and multiple different passport countries are represented. On Friday, I had the daughter of a Wycliffe Bible translator teach the class - she's way more of an expert in biblical translation theory than I am. Based on her knowledge of her peers, she created this fantastic activity where she picked a verse in English to have a Korean volunteer translate into Korean followed by another Korean speaker translating it back to English. It was then given to a Mandarin speaker to do the same with another student who could translate back to English and pass it on to a German speaker finally having it translated a sixth time ending in a barely understandable sentence and aptly demonstrating the difficulty translators face when trying to convey the message of Scripture across languages.

I love the activity so much I tried it in my next class, but I only had one student fluent in Korean, and no Mandarin speakers. I just had three German speakers, one of whom was also able to speak and hear Lao fluently though he couldn't write it. I did have three fluent French speakers as well, so we completed the activity English-French-English-German-English, and I discovered that I only have one out of fifteen students in that class period who is monolingual. Oddly enough, the girl who can only speak English is a full German citizen with German parents and a German passport raised in Germany - on American military bases.

As the verse was being translated in each class, I chatted with the students about languages. The two Korean volunteers in the first class also each speak a third language after Korean and English - one Arabic and the other Russian. 

"So not only do you speak three languages, but you know three alphabets." I said, "This is incredible to me."

"It's not that big of a deal," the girl said, "The concept of alphabet is still the same, so you just learn another one as easily."

No way. 

The next class period I had a student tell me how embarrassing she found it to come to our school and only know two languages. "Well so many people know three or four. I mean Hannah knows like five," she explained. 

I'm so impressed with my students' grasp on languages that it often makes me feel like an underachiever. Some of these kids knew three languages before they hit puberty, and what have I got to show for myself? Sometimes I desperately need a reminder that I had a masters degree at 24, but even if I didn't have that, I've still done a lot by my mid twenties. And I'm still doing a lot. I've also always surrounded myself with these sort of overachievers at life who are constantly busy doing multiple incredible things. Sarah, Rachel, and Jordyne are those type of people. The four of us are living awesome lives, and we feel compelled to share some of that here on this blog, but we also lead such full and rich lives that there isn't always a chance for each of us to sit down and thoughtfully compose a reflection of our day or an insight worth reading.

We noticed a lull in posts here last month, but I promise you that it's not for a lack of excitement in our lives. Stay tuned, because we are anything but underachievers.