There's no minute like the last minute!!

Great news friends.....

WE GOT OUR VISAS ISSUED!!!!!

50 visas got approved and issued after nearly four months of struggle and difficulty. This is a very, very, very good thing. The crazy thing is we got the news this morning and SBS starts tomorrow. We have 60 new students who arrived not knowing if they would have a visa for the entire time, many of them budgeting to fly out of the country multiple times but all coming in faith because we believed that what God said to us, he was going to do.

Wow....what a way to start a school, with the favor of God and a miracle for us all to experience!!

We dive in tomorrow morning. I'm super, super excited. This school is full of students who feel they have a long-term calling to missions and God has shown me that my presence in this school and these particular students are not an accident. I want to be a part of seeing people walking out that calling, no matter how costly or difficult it may seem. We have a great staff team and we've enjoyed getting to know one another during out staff training time.

So.....here we go!!!

An ever-expanding heart

The above two pictures represent what is going on in my heart these days. The first are the mountains of Afghanistan and Tajikistan. I climbed this mountain one day and just had a sense of worship and thankfulness as I stood on that mountain and gazed at the rugged landscape around me. The land was harsh and a bit uninviting, but it had become home to me. I love the people. I love the smell of the kababs on the street and the taste of green tea at a good friend's house. The language just feels good in my mouth now where at one time it was like spitting out cotton balls. My prayers and tears have soaked into that land.

Now I find myself physically in Taiwan, a much different country. (the second picture above) I have an apartment surrounded by busy city streets. People around me are constantly on the internet on their phones. I'm surrounded by temples and parades in which the people carry their idols down the streets. I wear shorts in the summer and I have the freedom to go for a run or sit at a coffeeshop and study. My local friends are dealing with issues about dating and getting a good job rather than will my family let me go to school or will our family have enough money to heat the house all winter or will one of the daughters get married off to pay for fuel.

It's a different world.
And yet, each has been home in that season.
I am called to be where I am at.

Yet, my heart really misses Central Asia. I know that much of who I am now is tied to that place. My heart is forever connected. This year, I am called to staff SBS and teach and grow in teaching. I know this is the season. There will be students to disciple, friends to be made, and people with whom I get to share the gospel of who Jesus is.

But, my heart is constantly pulled toward the Muslim world, especially central Asia. I have been encouraged to be totally 100% focused on where I am, and I believe I am doing that as best I can. God is ever increasing my heart for the people of Taiwan and I have been so blessed to see the beauty of this culture, to see how God is moving here and get a vision for the future of this nation and people. What a privilege to know God's heart for people and be a part of it!

So, for now, I keep these pictures both in my heart. I have truly become a citizen of nowhere and where I put my feet, there is home for that moment. My journey continues and I really am not sure where it's leading come December 2011 (when my visa expires). There are many options. So for now I invest where I'm at. I hope those of you who are interested and invested in my journey (supporters, friends, family, people who read my blog and updates and think of me) will just pray that I'd follow the one who is walking the journey ahead of me. I don't want to just figure out the next step of my life plan, but rather, I want to follow the one who has authored it.