It's All So Close, And Yet So Far...

Hello all! I can't believe we're already over halfway through February! I hope that 2017 is treating you all well, It's has been treating me quite well! Let me catch you all up with where I'm at, and what things look like going forward...

SO, here we are, getting ready to enter spring, and I am praying before it's out, I will be living in Belfast! Now is crunch time. Due to budget readjustments, and after some big promises, I am close to about fifty percent of my monthly budget... YAY!!! This is SO exciting! So what does this look in monetary value? Well it means I need a little over $1,000 in monthly pledges. This is huge! Not a huge amount, but huge news... So as I'm pressing forward, and continuing to pursue some leads that I have, I would like to get all of you readers involved. Read on to see how YOU can help!

1. Pray...

Please pray! Pray that the Lord would continue to open doors. Pray that people would be put in my path, or I would be put in theirs. Pray the Lord would give me the strength to keep going, to keep running towards this goal. I'm weary, I'm tired, but I'm SO close, and I cannot wait to arrive! Also, please pray about giving. I'll go into more detail about this in the next section, but before you do anything to help, I want you to pray about being a partner financially. It is important to me that you, me, and God are on the same page about this, so please, pray about it! Second, pray about sharing my story with anyone you think might want to be a part of my time financially. This all leads me to my next section:

2. Give...

As I've said before, before you do anything to help financially, please do pray about it! But if you've prayed and feel led to give, you can always click the tab above labeled Ways To Give (or you could just click the link). It's pretty simple, but if you've got any questions, feel free to email, comment, call, txt, send smoke signals, I will be more than happy to talk or help you out!  Now comes the how much? Well that's the beauty, if you wanted to give five dollars a month, go for it! If you want to give twenty-five, thirty, fifty, one hundred, one thousand, all of those amounts are great! Again, whatever God puts on your heart to give, you give. Some people are concerned that they might not be able to give for three years, that's okay. My belief is if you feel prompted to give, and you can afford to give that amount for the foreseeable future, go ahead and sign up! If for any reason down the line you are unable to continue giving, or giving that amount, that's okay, we can deal with it then. God knows! But for now, if He's put it on your heart to do so, then go for it! Now to my next point...

3. Share...

As I've been alluding to before, if you pray about it, and you have joined my team, or you can't, but you know of someone who could and would like to be a part of my team, I ask that you share my story with them. Refer them to my blog, or give them my contact info, or send them to my website. I would love to speak with them, and share with them more in depth. 

So here are three ways you can help me out! Now if you're reading all this and wondering, well gee, why should I help? I want to share a little bit about my story, and a little bit about why I feel that God has called me to Belfast. 

The first time I remember wanting to die was when I was eleven. I remember praying that God would just kill me. When He didn't I remember thinking, well maybe I should just do it myself. I remember the months I thought about overdosing on pills, but that it would hurt too much. Then I remember one night, when things were particularly bad, and I decided then, that I would take a pair of sharp scissors and slit my wrists. I didn't care about the pain anymore, I just wanted it over. When that didn't work, I began to harm myself, receiving what little "relief" I could from my emotional pain by creating physical pain. This was a habit that followed me through my teen years. The torment of wishing I could die, thinking about how I could end it, sometimes, unsuccessfully, trying. Hurting myself. All of it was a deep pain, a deep wound I carried around. All the while rejecting the healing love of my Savior, carrying my bleeding heart around, begging anyone or anything else to fix it, instead of the only One that could.

When I was nineteen, in the depths of some of my deepest despair, I finally turned around, I looked into the eyes of the man that had died and bled for me, held up my bruised, battered, bleeding heart and asked, "Can you fix it?" and He did. Oh, He did. Slowly but surely, He healed every wound on my heart. Each scar that I bear, both physical and emotional, is a reminder of the deep, healing, and abiding love of Christ. These scars a reminders of how deep my Father's love is for me.

Fast forward a few years, and I was on missionary internship (who would've thought that would happen?) in Marseille. Near the end of my internship, I had the privilege to go visit Every Nation Belfast. I went more because I wanted to learn more about church planting, not so much because I wanted to do ministry in Belfast. But within two days of being there my heart was stirred. I learned more about the area, but one of the things that stuck out to me was the problems there seemed to be with mental health, depression, and suicide. By the time I was ready to leave, God had confirmed in my heart that I was meant to come back. I was so excited as I went to my spiritual mentors and asked them to pray about whether or not I should go. 

All this was confirmed, and I knew God wanted me there for a very special, very specific purpose. Then, as I began my support raising in January 2016, I got news. Belfast was the city that had the highest suicide rate in Europe. I cannot express to you how that news hit me. It broke my heart, deep to my core, that this city of people, that I had come to love deeply, that I could not wait to be among was struggling this deeply with suicide. In that moment I knew, beyond any shadow of doubt, that God was sending there to tell my story. God was sending me there to share the testimony of His great love, His healing love, His love that is greater than any sickness, any demonic force, anything that could ever have power over us. God is calling up a great army of people in the city of Belfast, in the country of Northern Ireland, in all of Ireland, in the UK, in Europe. It is time that it is recognized that they need to hear the gospel again. There is revival starting, and it is coming strong, and I know that God is calling me to be a part of it.

So this is not where my story ends. The bible says in Revelation 12:11 (ESV) "And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death." (Emphasis mine) I believe that this is what God is calling me to do. I believe that all of my struggles, all of my pain will be used for good, through the power and grace of God. I believe that my testimony will be used by Him, because it is about Him. So I'm asking you again, now, will you be a part of this movement? Will you be a part of my story? Will you pray, will you give, will you share?

Blessings and Love,

Chrissy