Relational ministry: God’s individualized plan to redeem his people

I have now been in Glacier National Park for one week—feels like I know this place so well already. I feel taken care of, pursued, and free, but also challenged, stretched, and convicted. It is clear in Swiftcurrent that I am a Christian. I was flying under the radar for a while because I did not want people to turn from me thinking I would judge them. But I knew it wouldn’t be long before people started to notice that I wasn’t into partying, using curse words, or hooking up. People asked me if I was a Christian, I didn’t even tell them. And I feel incredibly respected. 

My fear was that I wouldn’t have much to talk about with people who were different than me because we didn’t have much in common, but I was SO WRONG. Since our worldviews are so different, we conflict easier—driving our conversation deeper, faster. Within in one week, I have had the most amazing conversations with people.  And they start with simple questions about their life—what’s their story—and then God opens the door uniquely into their heart every time. Multiple people told me their view of Christianity is super judgmental and pushy. I have been asked several times why I don’t push, or try to convert people over to my faith. I simply tell them that I care much more about the value of every human being than trying to change the way they view the world. And while it would be awesome if a revival swept Swiftcurrent and everyone started proclaiming Jesus as Lord and King, I realize my role is to pursue the heart of everyone around me. Because I’m realizing I can’t do any of the heart changing anyway, I just pray that the Spirit of God living within me would stir the souls of those who are around me. And yes, there is room for God to do big things, and I want to give him the opportunity to do that, but ministry is SO played out just in pursuing people. People want to be known, they wanted to be valued. And that is the image of God in them, which is not absent even if they don’t acknowledge him as Lord.

My incredible view every day

So to cap it off, I am full. I am loving it out here and I can’t imagine spending my summer any other way. In one week I have hiked over 40 miles, seen 10 bears, 3 porcupines, moose, elk, mountain, goats, foxes, and been in totally awe of the creation around me.

Please pray for a continual deepening of relationships and for God to work in even more unique ways.

Ali

"The chief beauty about time is that 
you cannot waste it in advance. The
next year, the next day, the next hour
are lying ready for you, as perfect, as
unspoiled, as if you had never wasted
or misapplied a single moment in all your
life. You can turn over a new leaf every
hour if you choose."
-Arnold Bennett

Home

If you ever get a chance to drive across the country, DO IT. I thought I would be bored out of my mind driving 30 hours by myself, but I was pleasently surprised not to be. I thought North Dakota and Montana would for sure be the worst because they are so flat, but they were my favorite states driving highway 2 across Montana gives you an authentic taste of western small town. The two-way highway runs right through small towns every 30 miles or so-and these towns are western. Whoa. Old wooden buildings, no stoplights, rodeos, and men working hard labor in the field strutt'in their cowboy boots and hats-get me one of those! If God called me to a small town in Montana, I could do it.
About 1,600 miles from Grand Rapids, as I could sense myself getting near the end of Montana, the road opened up and there in the horizon, the mountains covered my entire dashboard. I've been looking at flat for 28 hours and all the sudden beautiful, snow-covered, mountains start speaking to me. I cried. I don't exactly know why I get emotional, but I would guess its a combination between complete awe and the feeling like I'm going home. See there is a piece of me that resides in the wilderness; and whenever I get to go back to the mountains, it's as if my heart is reuniting with a piece of itself that stays there. I can't explain it; I can only attempt to describe the feeling. But I feel like I'm home.
I am driving up to Swiftcurrent tonight to get all moved in. I drove up earlier and when I got on that road and saw swiftcurrent lake, I thought I was going to pass out because it was so beautiful. Everyone out here has a wild heart....we will all be great friends.

I say I'm weak, He says he's sufficient

Tomorrow I’m driving across the country to Glacier National Park to embark on a summer-long journey in the mountains. I will be serving with A Christian Ministry in the National Park (ACMNP) as a chaplain, but will also be working full-time as a waitress at The Italian Garden.

I’m wired for adventure and change, but I have to be honest, I’m terrified of leaving home. Absolutely everything is unknown to me at this point. I have great friendships and opportunities I am leaving behind—all for a place filled with people I don’t know. I feel the evil one attack me by saying I won’t have any friends, I won’t be good at my job, and I’ll probably just fail at everything in my ministry and have to go home. Writing this out makes it seem silly to think that way, but it’s real in my head.

But in the midst of myself and satan speaking daunting thoughts to me, I hear God speaking in the background. I don’t always listen to this voice because it certainly is the quieter one unfortunately. Here has been our conversation lately.

Me: I don’t think I can do this. It’s too much for me to handle

                “You can do all things. I will supply all your needs”

Me: I’m afraid. All these unknown places and experiences

                “I have not given you a spirit of fear”

Me: I don’t know if I can make it the whole summer

                “My grace is sufficient for you”

I realize my feelings of inadequacy and insuffiency are exactly where I’m supposed to be. As Henry Blackaby says, “I have come to the place in my life that if the assignment I sense God giving me is something I know I can handle, I know it probably is not from God. The kind of assignments God gives us in the bible are always God-sized. They are always beyond what people can do because He wants to demonstrate his nature, his strength, his provision, his kindness to his people and to a watching world”. Sure, God has lead me to the mountains for the summer to let my spirit be free and unleash the wild heart inside me; but even bigger than that, he has lead me out to the mountains to glorify himself—using  a person whose weakness is attractive to His strength.

I rejoice because I serve an unchanging and infinite God. Although my world is changing, He is not. And though I am small and frail, he is bigger than I understand. And if all else fails, and this experience turns out poorly, at least I will have been enriched by the wilderness and people around me.

Please pray for safe travels, a heart that is open to change, and mind that is ready to have its world rocked. 

Adventure is [in] there

I’m replaying the scene in my head from the movie Up where Carl meets Ellie—the fun-loving, crazy and spontaneous girl—and they are hanging out in the tree-house.

Ellie: I’m going to show you something I have never showed another human being

Carl: What is it?

E: It’s my adventure book!

C: What’s that?

E: It’s all the places I want to go and see and look, look at this! This is Paradise Falls! I am going to put my house right there on that edge! The only thing is, I don’t’ know how I’m  going to get there. Oh! I know! You’ll take me there on a blimp! You have to promise you’ll take me there okay? Cross your heart!

C: shakes head in both excitement about going to Paradise Falls and the fear of what Ellie will do if she doesn’t get there

As Ellie runs out of the tree house excited about her new plan to go to Paradise Falls, she shouts (almost with a spear in her hand ready to charge), “Adventure is out there!”

Hmmmmmmmm. It’s as if this mystery of another world is being pondered in the minds of the viewers. And we all relate to these kids because at one point in our lives we sat out in a tree house somewhere and imagined all the places we wanted to go and all the things we wanted to be.  I used to play in the tree-fort in the backyard and talk about with my best friend about how we were going to follow the equator around the world. Then we would chase the sunset all the way to the other side of the earth. And until I was 12 years old I wanted to be the first woman to play professional baseball; there was not a doubt in my mind. But we all know that those dreams die, because we realize they are not realistic. Stuff like that can’t really happen. Where and when does this shift happen? It’s when we transition from a child’s mind to an adult’s mind. From a child who uses her imagination and finds satisfaction in creating dreams, to a practical, realistic and conservative framework whose only purpose is to “survive” and “live comfortably”. A child dreams are based on their imagination (what’s inside), while an adult focuses their attention on the outside experiences that have tainted their view of who they really are.

Our day-to-day lives seem redundant and valueless. We work today to survive tomorrow…and then work again. It’s as if we are just learning how to survive in a world that desperately needs us to come alive—and thrive. What if we were meant for more than the standard cycle of life? (birth, marriage, childbearing, death) What if we were created for overcoming obstacles, challenges, believing in the unseen, serving people, love? The truth is that we were created for that. It’s not so much about getting to “point B” as it is the journey and dream that got us there. Adventure starts with the daring dreamer inside all of us. So we start to shift from standing at the window, pointing our finger out at the sky saying, "Adventure is out there", to an awareness of the heartbeat inside of us and realize "adventure is in there". When we embark on THAT type of journey we find that adventure is not “out there” anymore, it’s within ourselves.