A HUGE God "Mommy Moment"

We all talk about having a God moment, a moment in time when the God of the universe reaches down and touches us personally in some meaningful way, and it reminds us that He loves us, He is in control no matter that the circumstances are screaming otherwise and He does care about the DETAILS of our lives! Oh, how I love that about Him!!!

Last night I went to First Baptist Church-Kings Mountain with Angela, the precious young woman I'm mentoring right now. She was invited there by one of G.A. (Girls in Actions for those who weren't raised Baptist) leaders. The leader is the Mom of one of Angela's dear friends. Since this was an opportunity for a "Real Live Missionary" (aka RLM) to be in their midst, they included all of the G.A. classes to come, ranging from 1st through 6th grade. There were between 25 and 30 girls there.

Angela did a wonderful job sharing with these girls about what it takes to become an RLM: love God with all of your heart so that you can hear Him when He "calls" and then obey, be willing to try new things like living in another culture & learn a new language & finally, pray for those you are being a missionary to because without the Holy Spirit's work in a person's heartt, they cannot be open to receiving Jesus. What a blessing to hear a young woman of 26 share from her heart these Biblical insights, knowing she has already given 2 1/2 years of her life and even plans to go back overseas at some point to do more work.

It was simply amazing to sit there and realize that God would use Angela's testimony as she scattered the seed across those young, fertile hearts! Angela may never know this side of heaven what her specific impact was, but someday in Heaven or on the New Earth, I imagine that a woman or women will come up to her and say, "Hey, do you remember when you came to speak to a group of girls on March11, 2009?....."

All of the above was a big enough blessing, but God chose to pour Himself out on ME in such a profound and personal way that I could scarely take it in as it was happening. I'll explain...

On Tuesday of this week, I had a very hard morning when I was missing Blair & Haley, my 2 daughters who don't live in Charlotte. Blair is overseas serving as a "worker", and I've not seen her since October of 2008, and then, only for a few days. She and her husband James left for the N.A.M.E. region in April of 2008. Blair is expecting their first baby, my first grandbaby which makes it even harder not to have her close. I will not likely see her before October of this year, a full year or more since the last time.

Haley lives in Wilmington NC with her new husband. Although she's not terribly far away, we don't get to see one another except about every 2-3 months. For a Mama who has lived just about her entire married life raising kids, I still have moments when I'd give anything to go back in time when they were younger. I truly loved and love being a Mom!

While driving the car on Tuesday morning to do a "Control Freaks" job with my partner and best friend, I was listening to a Bebo Norman CD, and the song, "A Page is Turned" came on. I was immediately transported in my mind back to 2006 when Blair & I were planning her wedding. We were working on the music and what songs would be sung, etc. She got out her IPOD and we sat on the sofa together, her with one earplug in and me with the other.

I distinctly recall crying as I listened that day to that beautiful ballad, knowing how short my time was with her before her Daddy would walk her down that church aisle. As I listened to the song in the car, you can probably guess what happened......the tears started streaming down my cheeks. I called her on my cell on their Skype number, but didn't get her. So I left a message.

Then I called Haley, who I knew was at work, but I just wanted to hear her voice on her voicemail. And then I left her a message also, letting her know how much I love and miss her too. Thankfully, I had a very busy day planned, and the rest of my day was filled with purpose-filled work. I was so grateful. Nothing like staying busy to distract the mind!

Now, fast forward to Wednesday night at First Baptist Church- Kings Mountain. At about the middle point of Angela sharing with the G.A.s, she anticipated they would probably get antcy, so she had wisely planned for each of them to come up to the front where she would write their name in Arabic on a card that they could keep. They were thrilled!

As the girls began lining up, Julie (the mom who invited Angela) called out several names to remind them it was their turn. I was just sitting there on the back row taking it all in when I heard her call out "Blair". Because Julie has met my Blair and knew she was my daughter, she made a point to tell me, "We have a Blair too." I thought to myself, "That's really neat." And then I thought about how faithful G.A. leaders at the church we were a part of for close to 25 years had probably played a key role in preparing my Blair's heart to do the work He's called her to do alongside of James. Wow. Thanks God. You are so precious to speak to my heart. And thank you so much for those leaders!

That too would have been a big enough blessing, but that's not the end of the story. The girls continued lining up, and since there were quite a few for Angela to do, it took about 10 minutes. And then I heard Julie call out another name....but when she said it, I thought to myself, "Did she just say....surely not! I must be WANTING to hear..." So I whispered for her to come over and asked her, "Julie, what is the name of that little girl in the pink shirt in the row in front of me, the one sitting right NEXT to Blair?" She nonchalantly said, "Haley".

Does ANYONE else out there have "big hair" (my Blair's name for goosebumps, glory bumps, etc) besides me?! Oh glory! Hallelujah! In my house, we call these kinds of moments "Sigmund Hoppers"...(that will have to be for another blog), but suffice it to say this was a gigantic Sigmund Hopper for this gal, and I KNEW that I KNEW that I KNEW that MY God understood how much I was hurting the day before and missing my daughters...my Blair and my Haley. So He lovingly reached that mighty but oh so tender arm of His down to one of His daughters and simply blew her away!!!

P.S. It was the middle of the night where Blair lives, so I couldn't call her, but I did call Haley afterwards to share what had happended. She was so precious to say, "Oh Mommy, guess what color shirt I have on tonight?" Any guesses???!! "PINK!" I say GLORY & PRAISE THE LORD!