Ready, set, GO!

I feel compelled to take a few minutes and update my blog.  Most people who keep up with me, either keep up with me in "real life", face to face, or on Facebook.  Whether you know my heart or not, I'm going to share it here now.  I have severely neglected my blog and this is where I like to come for my "therapy".

I'm just going to cut to the chase here....... I am on a mission.  A true, real life, unselfish mission.  Most of those who know me, know that my heart beats for mission work.  I've always supported missions, both locally and on foreign soil.  Recently, God has pulled me in a direction I never, EVER thought I would be going.  And I'm humbly, earnestly asking for prayers.

My grandfather was a well known pastor in Jackson, the capital of our beautiful state of Mississippi.  He served Hillcrest Baptist Church for nearly 25 years before he had to retire due to health problems.  Fast forward a decade, and the city of Jackson begins to rapidly crumble.  Our congregation votes to move from the area and build a new church building in the suburbs of Jackson.  Ten years AFTER THAT, Jackson is almost uninhabitable.  Murders, rapes, gangs, thugs walking the streets looking for trouble, houses crumbling, businesses leaving, leadership failing.......... And suddenly......... God, through my son, Brennan, brings me back to the church that once was home to me.  Where my grandfather stood behind the pulpit and preached the gospel-- the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth........

Brennan wanted to see where his Poppa Clayton ministered for all those years.  So we went to see the building.  I didn't know what to expect.  I was a sea of emotions.  Would I cry over the memories?  Would I be angry if the building was in disrepair? 

What awaited me, was something I never expected.  A kind, wonderful pastor who opened up the doors to their church for us.  We toured the building alone..... Brennan asking a million questions..... Even sitting in the spot where my grandfather sat for a quarter of a century.  And the wallpaper was still the same.  My grandfather always kept a jar of jelly beans in his office.  It blew me away when I saw a jar of jelly beans sitting on Pastor Blount's desk, just as it had with my grandfather. 

The following Sunday they invited us to worship with them and even invited Brennan to speak.  And he did.  Behind the same podium my grandfather stood behind.  It was so bittersweet that I am still processing the emotions of it all. 

Here's the "meat of the story", so to say (I hate that term!)...... God has been working in a way I never thought possible in my heart.  It's so easy to turn your back on a city that you once called home and move away as you watch it crumble in on itself and you watch the whole dynamics change.  Houses were falling apart.  Teenagers were walking the streets looking for trouble.  Murders happening for things as small as $5.  And I turned my back.  Thankful that I was no longer employed in that city and that all of my family had moved away.

And then, out of nowhere, God put such a weight on my heart I couldn't ignore it.  I couldn't sleep well, and I kept having dreams...... My heart strings were about to be ripped from my chest.

So now, here I am.  Blogging and sharing my heart.  Pastor Blount had said that he was waiting for someone to come along and help with missions.  And there I was, at his door.  Just wanting to show my son the big, beautiful building that my grandfather called home for so many years.  And one thing led to another........

You don't have to go to foreign soil to share the love of Christ.  It's needed HERE and NOW.  And so now, we are in the works of getting some major mission projects going.  It's in a very dangerous area..... my husband is leery of my desire to work in that part of the city, but I can't disobey what I feel like is a direct order from God. 

Here is all I ask:  Please pray.  Starting tomorrow I will be on a strict fast and down on my knees in prayer.  I want things to happen NOW and lives to be transformed NOW, but I know God's timing is not our own.   Please join us in prayer as we get things going, slowly.  Pray for a revival of a once beautiful city.  That Christ will move like never before in that area.That salvation will come to so many who are desperately seeking a peace they don't even know exists yet.  PRAY!

And do you know what started this whole process?  As I was driving around that day, I showed Brennan the house my grandparents lived in on what once was a beautiful street, but is now almost unrecognizable.  And he asked, "Mama, how can we show these people the love of God?"

The innocence of a child has now set the wheels in motion......