Hi friends!
Tuesday Thoughts is now moving over to Thursdays. I’ve learned with the tour schedule, I’ve got more time to write content to post on Thursday. Plus it sounds better. Thursday Thoughts versus Tuesday Thoughts. Ya know? :)
Check back Thursday for a new post. For today enjoy this video.
One of the lessons the Lord continues to teach me is that He is a God who gives abundantly. If you read my blog on the Compassion site, you know that I used John 10:10 as an example of how He did that in my life recently.
In true Papa form He blew us away this past weekend. Most of the time, I’m quick to talk about the lessons I’m learning through hard situations. But today I just want to take a moment to celebrate the amazing things the Lord has done in the past couple weeks.
Like with any new project, we’ve been slowly gaining momentum and buzz as people start to hear what this Mobile Experience is about. I’m not going to lie, seeing two big blue trucks with a large tent outside of it can intimidate even the strongest of us. Sometimes people are hesitant to come through.
So this past weekend we had the privilege of being at the Willow Creek Global Leadership Summit. Thousands of leaders gathered for two days of sessions. We were parked right outside the main entrance. We had so many people come through, it was awesome. But where we were blown away was Sunday morning.
Bill Hybels (the senior pastor at Willow) gave a plug for us during the services. We noticed that all of a sudden people started lining up. And they queued up outside the door. And down the sidewalk. And into the parking lot.
From our vantage point inside, all we could see was we were full to the door. One of our staff members came in and explained how far the line went and showed us a picture.
My mouth hit the floor. I quickly exited to see for myself.
My heart leapt. All of these people. They want to experience this.
I walked up and down the line answering questions and thanking people for waiting. They were more than gracious as our wait time extended further than we had ever known.
Eventually I ended back up in the room where the sponsor packets are. They were flying off the shelf! People were drawn to these stories and these kids and the Spirit was moving.
I felt a holiness and joy in that moment like I had never felt before. It was like I could feel the Father’s heart cheering us on. I could feel Him shouting for joy that His children were answering the call to rise up and change a generation.
And for hours it continued. Right up until about 20 minutes before we were due to close the doors. As we started our tear down process, we all looked at each other in disbelief. We waited in anticipation as the numbers were counted.
77
77 individual kid’s lives were changed.
And to double that (conservatively) includes the lives of people who made a decision to change their own stories by entering into relationship with these precious kids.
I saw three year old Chandler come into the sponsor room and pick out a little boy who was about his age. I heard his mom say, “we want them to grow up together.”
I saw twenty-something Emily who is right out of college and starting her first job beam as she picked out a little girl in Ethiopia. She finally gets to sponsor her own child.
I saw a couple who seemed skeptical Saturday night, come back Sunday morning and sponsor two kids.
I could go on and on about every story. But what I want you to take away from this, my friends, is that God is alive and moving on this Change Tour.
This week will you pray for the new sponsors and the kids that were sponsored?
If you were at the experience at or sponsored a kid recently, will you share your story with us? We’d love to hear it in the comments below.
When I took this job a few months ago, the full implications of Change the Story didn’t come together. But slowly, especially after the last few weeks, I’m seeing real stories changed. I’m seeing people walk through the experience come out with tears in their eyes, unable to speak because they can’t NOT do something now.
I’m seeing hundreds of kids’ stories changed because someone chose to sponsor them. True, I’ll probably never know the details of every Pablo, Oniel, Manuel, or Rosa, but I know Julian’s story. I know Ruben’s story. I know Brinda’s story. And those stories are what remind you that change is happening. I’d like to share two very contrasting stories with you all.
Julian
If you’ve come through the mobile experience, you know that one of the stories you can walk through is a young woman named Julian. I’m not going to give away any of her story, but it’s pretty powerful. On Thursday last week, our first day open in Parker, Colo, we got wind that she was coming up from Colorado Springs with a few other LDP (Leadership Development Program) students. All of us girls were obviously excited to meet her. I (Rachel) was maybe a little overly excited :).
She rolled in about 3pm in the afternoon with roughly 10 other LDP students. They walked inside of the experience and you could feel excitement and apprehension. They had time to go through two tracks. I placed myself at the end of the tour to watch their reactions as they finished the stories. “This is MY story” “This is the story of my friends, my cousins, my siblings.” “I know this story.” Over and over I heard their amazement and disbelief that we had captured their lives in twenty minutes and 3100 sq ft.
As Julian walked through, she was noticeably overwhelmed. She went through two stories and then we asked her if she’d be willing to talk to us on camera. I don’t have her video to share but I do have this picture of her being interviewed.
I stood back with tears streaming down my face as I remembered that this, Julian, Lois, Abel, Innocent, Wesley, Ruben, Brinda, THIS is why we do this. This is why I miss birthdays and weddings. This is why I sometimes get up when the clock has a 5 in it and stay awake into the next day. This is why I’ve been called. And I was humbled and amazed by the goodness of our Father, who would allow me the privilege to help people experience her story, as well as the privilege of helping to change two other stories of my own – Anitha and Manuel.
Here’s the tour staff with Julian.
Whew. Okay, ready for the next one?
Buddha
Here’s a pretty different story from Julian.
Because the trailers are pretty intense to set up and tear down, we’ve been having around 8-10 guys come help us out on those two days. We’ve had some amazing help who’ve made our set up time go from 13 hours to around 8 and likewise with tear down. We’ve managed to go from 8-10(ish) to 3-4. That’s a huge win for us.
This past set up, again in Parker, we met a gruff but incredibly kind and hard worker nick-named Buddha. He told us a little bit about his story. He was 29 days sober as of that work day. He was doing some odd jobs until his full time job could start back up. His nephew went to the church we were setting up at.
He was so respectful and kind, especially to us girls, as well as to everyone he worked with. We were all drawn to him. But at lunch, we noticed he was sitting by himself and he got very quiet. Later I was told he pulled aside one of the pastors and asked him if he could go in the prayer room. Steve joined him and that was where Buddha had an awakening, that he wanted to return to the God he believed as a young man.
We learned more about Buddha’s story over the next few days. When he returned on Sunday to walk through the experience he helped set up, we captured his story on video. Here he is being interviewed by Erica.
After we had torn down and we heard Buddha’s commitment to return to Christ and stay sober, we drove him home. Before he exited the car, we laid hands on him and committed him into our Father’s hands. That he would be covered and sustained. As we finished our time of prayer and I saw a rainbow over to the west of us, I thought about his story.
Change the Story changed his story. And it changed his story in a way we never could have predicted. I never thought about the ripple affect this tour has. That Christ will change stories in a way that goes beyond what we expect or imagine.
So will you pray for Buddha? Will you pray that he knows the party thrown when the prodigal son returns to the Father? Will you pray for the countless other stories that will be changed without us knowing they will be changed?
How has your story been changed by the Mobile Experience or Compassion?
It’s getting to be well past my bed time, but I’ve felt a little bit bad on my lack of communication the last week or so. My goal has been to blog much more frequently, as well as updating with videos, pictures, etc. Hopefully that stuff will come soon.
We’ve been hitting the road hard. We’ve had back to back days of tearing down, driving, and setting up. For those of who are willing to help us with set up in your local city, you’ll get to see how heavy and physical the set up and tear down is. I’m thinking I’ll have awesome muscles by the time this two years is up.
Right now we’re in Knoxville, TN. We were running for a few hours today and had several people walk through the experience. I’ve been getting some great videos and stories from you all. There have been several times you all have made me feel emotional while you communicate the way God is stirring your heart.
It’s a beautiful beautiful thing to see our great God work on the precious hearts of His children. I think that’s been my favorite part of this job so far, getting to see what moves you all. I love getting to spend a few minutes asking questions and hearing your answers.
I’ve been asked quite a bit if this is my full time job, traveling around the country telling your stories. When I quickly nod in affirmation, the response in return is sentiments of slight envy or amazement that this job is real. While I completely agree, there are times this job is very hard.
Today two of my friends got married. Tomorrow another dear friend is getting married. Next Saturday another close friend is getting married. It’s going to be much harder to go to weddings, birthdays, anniversary parties, and get togethers. It’s a sacrifice that I chose to make when I said yes to this job.
Please hear me when I say that I wouldn’t trade this job for anything in the world. But, I’m learning that there has been a trade off in what my life looks like. I’m learning to adjust to new community and new normal. I think we all are learning that. I’m so grateful for the people I have on the road with me. I couldn’t do it without them.
Our heavenly Father knows what He need and He knows how He’ll provide it. He’s providing for me by giving me the most incredible team who can lift me up when I’m weak. I’ve seen our team in all different types of situations and I am so proud of them. These are some of the most incredible people I’ve ever met let alone had the privilege to work with.
So tonight, I’ll get some rest and know that this moment is where God has me and His plans are always always always best.
What about you? What are some of the hard things about your job?
I’m sorry for the lack of updates the last few weeks. Hear me when I say, I feel like we’ve been living in the trailers! Our first show is this Friday, July 13. The atmosphere around the shop (where we’ve been building the trailers) is thick with anticipation. We’ve still got work to do but we all feel the rapidly approaching deadline.
I have to confess, I’ve never worked a job where I’ve had this much physical labor. When I was interviewing for this job, I was asked how I did with heavy lifting. I assured my now bosses that I was strong and capable without understanding the literal load of what we’d be lifting. For a city girl, it’s been refreshing to roll up my sleeves and get my hands dirty. Now, if the paint will ever come out of my fingernails is another story.
I was asked to run to a store and get some specific light bulbs. Wandering around the lighting section I was muttering under my breath, “I’m paid to blog and tweet, what do I know about light bulbs?!” And I had to laugh because I’ve become involved in every aspect of this tour. Lighting, painting, troweling, A/V and tech, decorating, AND blogging. I’m becoming immersed in all aspects of the trailers so I understand everything about it.
Now, granted, if the generator goes out, I’m probably not your best bet to get it re-started. BUT if you want to to turn on the generator, I can definitely do that. Before this week I didn’t even know where the generator button was! And now, I can turn the trailers on without setting fire to anything or anyone.
It’s funny because this is exactly how Compassion works in the lives of kids. We address ALL components of a child. We see them as whole beings and not pieces of a puzzle. I had to chuckle to myself that the very way I’m working on the trailers is a mirror of how the ministry we’re serving operates. God orchestrates things down to the tiniest detail, no? Sometimes we just need to take time to see it.
Will you continue to pray for us? Pray for a hedge of protection around our tour crew, our workers at the shop, our bosses, and the trucks themselves. Pray for strength and stamina as we give a final sprint towards the finish line. Pray for our hearts to be knit together. We believe in the power of prayer and believe in the power of YOUR prayers.
Change Tour 