Sitting in the living room, August 2nd, 2014, three days before we are to leave for Africa the first time.  I am in a panic because I don’t want to leave my four youngest children behind.  I am worried about what will happen to them if something happens to us.  Doubt, worry, anxiety all creep into my soul and send me into a downward spiral.  I retreated to the living room rocking chair with my bible, by myself as everyone else slept.  I couldn’t go to Africa, I just couldn’t. I am responsible to raise the children God has given me and how can I do that if something happens?

I cried out to the Lord and He told me to read in Deuteronomy so I did.  I started from the beginning and read until I got to Chapter 3 verse 24.  IT said this, “O sovereign Lord, you have just begun to show your servant your greatness and strong hand, for what god is there in heaven or on earth who can do such acts and mighty works as yours?” When I read that in my heart I said, “if you are just beginning to show me your greatness, then I know I will return home for you have much to show me yet”  I had peace from that point on.

I had no idea how God would use the phrase “Just the beginning” in our lives after that.  He showed me that just when I think I am starting to see who He is and what He is like he blows me away by showing me something new and amazing about Himself and I feel like I am right back to the place of feeling like I am just beginning to know who He is.  He is so great and His ways so much higher than our ways and His thoughts than our thoughts, that I truly believe I will always be at the place of “just beginning” to know Him.  Then one day when I stand before the throne and he welcomes me home..He shall say..”It is just the beginning”.  For every day will be just the beginning of being with my God and being in His presence and surrounded by His glory.

So may we always wake up with fresh eyes to see something new about our God that we hadn’t know before and hearts teachable and minds open to be shown new and awesome things about our creator God.  He wants to show us more of who He is everyday.  HE says that those who seek me will find me when they seek me with all of their hearts and I will be found by them, declares the Lord..in Jeremiah 29.  So let us seek Him and find Him, let us seek Him with all of our hearts.

With love,

The Herricks Family

 

 

 

In October we spent several days and nights at our home church, Shell Lake Full Gospel, attending a missions conference. This is the second year we have attended.  Last year we had just gotten back from Africa a month and a half before.  We came with excitement about what God could possibly have planned for us.  Our minds were on overload trying to figure out all God had in store for us.  Well we would have never been able to paint the picture that He has painted over this past year.  I have been trying to read my journal from a year ago, along with writing my new journey.  It is amazing to see all that we wrote then, and are living now.

The sermon a year ago this past August was about God not wanting us to be normal but extraordinary.  To not be afraid to do big things.  To want to fly instead of walk.  Then at the missions conference, a little over a year later we are sitting here listening to a speaker talk about a God that wants to break our normal and move us into supernatural.  To give us more than we could even hope or imagine.

I couldn’t have even begun to paint this picture of our journey a year ago.  We were living a “normal” life. We were raising our six kids, leading youth group in our home, Todd was working at the school and I was homeschooling our kids.  The kids were playing sports and hanging out with friends.  We had it all..the great American dream..the “normal” life.  Then God stepped in and shattered our normal and pushed us to dream of something so outside our comfort zone that our initial response was, ‘no way!” God wanted a year of our lives to go to Africa.  There is nothing ‘normal’ about that.

We wrestled with God and still question the craziness of this new adventure that HE has us on.  But there is something great about this journey and we haven’t even left yet.  God is inspiring people to pick up dreams they laid down because they didn’t see them as possible, people are telling us that our journey has inspired them to ask God,’What do you want to do with my life?’.  We have met brothers and sisters in Christ from around the world that are now praying for us and us for them.  We have had people be so moved by our journey that they stop to talk to us and share as we are walking by.  We are so moved to know that we can be, for each other, an encouragement that pushes us to places we never thought we could go.

We have also learned what it is to rust God on a daily basis to meet our needs and work out a lot of details.  HE is so faithful.  We wake up every morning anticipating how He is going to move in this journey and He always surprises us with the creative ways He reassures us and provides for us.  We have grown to love and trust Him more each day and for that reason alone this journey has already been worth it.

Don’t be afraid to let God interrupt ‘your’ life.  He has great plans for you (Jeremiah 29:11) and good works that He planned in advance for you to do. Don’t be so focused on the small day to day things that can consume our days that we miss walking on the water because we are content to sit in the boat.  Get out of the boat and walk on water.