New Edge

Yesterday we spent the morning helping one of our new Edge staff girls move in. For those of you who don't know Edge is a part of the Navigators. It's a way for recent college graduates to give 1-2 years of their time after college to spread God's word. Edge students receive training and provide aid to already running ministries. After their 1-2 years they continue on into a normal career. Tom and I are technically Edge, we joined the Navigators in this way for the training. While for most Edge is only a 1-2 year commitment with the Navigators, Tom and me plan on staying on with the Navigators indefinitely until God leads us out of it.

This year we will have two Edge staff girls. We are so excited about them, they both came to visit before summer and we think their personalities will be great! The first year of Edge is always hard, like any job you are coming into someone else's vision. There are things you have to do that you don't understand, things that you would do differently (and someday might do that way). A new bunch of coworkers. The first quarter seems to be the hardest, school starts and you hit the ground running.

It's true that "the harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few". Like every ministry it's hard to not let the needs you see around you run you ragged. You start to feel like it's all on you and if it you don't do it, it wont get done. It's not just a job left undone, its a person who is hurting that you might have been able to help. And let's not forget that you are being financially supported by people who don't see your everyday to-do list, you feel an obligation to them to use every second and every dollar wisely. No wonder so many pastors and missionaries get burned out.

It's so easy to forget that it's not about us, how much we can do on our own. It's about God, it's His work. If I run out of time or cannot talk to three people in desperate need at one time, I am not failing them, it's not about me working harder. Perhaps God wanted them to be separated at this hard time, or perhaps with me out of the way someone else will step up and love them. When we forget that we cannot mess up God's work is when we lose sight of who is really in control. In college I was involved in a college ministry, in some ways I think the girl who was meeting with me made some poor choices, I think much of her advice was self motivated. But you know what, that is what caused me to grow. I had no one to turn to but God. I had to seek Him and listen to Him only. I feel like that is the time my relationship with God really started to grow.

Starting this post, I did not plan on going there but God certainly directs. As I am heading into this next year at Cal Poly, I need to remember why I'm here, who sent me and in the end, who's work I am doing. I'm chomping at the bit to get this next year started. I think some really cool things are going to happen, and I have no idea what those will be, it may seem small or not even clear to many but I think God has some cool stuff to show me. I think God has some really sweet stuff planned for our two new Edge girls, I think it will be hard year for them, in many ways I think our staff will fail them and yet it's all in God's control, it will happen the way He wants it.

Please be praying for:
-our new Edge girls that they are open to what God has in store for them this year
-for unity in our staff, that we serve and love each other this year and continue to grow closer
-for the students we will be connecting with, that God brings us together, shows us where we should be reaching in and that their hearts would be open to experiencing God
-for baby Nelson and for me, patience in this time of waiting and for a healthy delivery in God's time