A blog? Now? Why?

So...I'm finally taking the plunge. I'm starting my own blog! For a while now, I've been trying to decide if this was the next step in communication for me, and I guess it is! But why? It feels sort of self-centered to think that I have anything to offer that isn't out there on cyberspace already, and maybe that's true...

But I've been thinking about the person I was when we began this whole journey as missionaries, and the person I've become in the years since. I've thought about the things I would've liked to have known before I started this life, the things that would have encouraged me so much when I didn't know if I was "good enough" to be a cross-cultural missionary.

What's the thing I would most have liked to know? It's this: Missionaries are NORMAL, sinful, human people. They're not super-spiritual; and they didn't wait until they became flawless to go out to the nations. They just...went. With all their emotional baggage, sin issues, uncertainties, and foibles. Because God didn't ask for perfect people to go; He just asked for people to be willing to go if that's what He asked of them. That just happens to be what he asked of me. 

During those times when we're back in the USA for a while, we'll go to church. Almost invariably, some thoughtful person will come up to me and say something like this: "I just really admire you for going over there to serve. I could NEVER do that." The thing is, I could NEVER do this either, aside from the strength of the Lord. No one can. It's not about what I can do that makes me special; it's about what God did for me. So in His strength, I can handle all the craziness of this life, even if it's not always fun or comfortable.

So I'm not afraid to start sharing about all the ways that I'm a "Monday girl" - someone who isn't a spiritual giant, but just a regular person. Maybe God will use it to encourage someone else in their journey, the way I would have been encouraged to know that God was happy to use me as I am, because that's the way He loves me - just as I am!