Sometimes the places God calls us to walk surprise us. I serve Mosaic as an Elder, not something I ever aspired to, and it was not a path I believed God would call me to walk. When Mike and I moved to Texas, we believed it was temporary, a place we would be for a short time and would be moving back to Missouri as soon as we were done with school. There were no plans then for being founding members of church so different than what we knew growing up in Smallville, USA.
Yet here we are, twenty-something years later, raising our three children, who are or are soon to be adults themselves, and committing our lives to our Mosaic family. This is not the life I had imagined for us. It is different, richer, more beautiful than I dreamed. This Mosaic family is not for everyone. It feels messy and vulnerable, we delve into each other’s lives and go deep! We get in each other’s business and love recklessly. We live in community and much like the Velveteen Rabbit, we become real through the love we have for each other.
My full time paid occupation is also my mission field. I am an administrator at a local middle school whose job description includes discipline, which is frightening for all involved. Really, I want to kids to walk away knowing that someone loved them, someone believed in them. Someone said that they COULD do it and showed them how. This is a mission statement I wrote about ten years ago. But it still speaks volumes about who I am, or who I believe I am supposed to be, in all areas of my life.
I stand as an advocate for the poor, the captive, and the oppressed.
I speak truth and encouragement out of love in order to give others a hope and a vision for who they are created to be.
I run, recklessly, in passionate pursuit of broken hearts, souls, and minds because people are worth the risk.
I teach, because I BELIEVE we can change the world, because no other “job” is as vital as this one, and because God called me to this urgent task.
I commit myself to you, to this cause, and to our community, even if it costs me my heart.
I fight. I fall. I fail. But I will never yield, except to the one who created me.
I will stand and fight again, no matter what the obstacles.
And though this task cannot be accomplished by one alone, I will reclaim our future; one day, one moment, one heart at a time.
I am in love with Jesus. I am overwhelmed and amazed at the life changing work of the Cross. I want to be like Him and I want to see others move into relationship with Him. And then, together, I want us to change the world.