Nepal Recap Video

Last July I had the great privilege to travel to Nepal with eight fellow MILLers for a month long mission trip. We had an incredible time connecting with a long time friend of theMILL James Lhomi. What an honor to serve along side him in the Manage region located deep in the Himalayas. He gives his all to serve and pastor the people in this area of Nepal. We were there for a couple of weeks. He kept thanking us for coming, but we were the ones blessed by his faithfulness and servanthood. In addition, we partnered with Bob Clinton of First Love International to serve at four of their children's homes located in Nepal. We spent the majority of our last two weeks at their Chitwan home. The children captured a part of my heart that is difficult to express. They inspired me to love deeper than I had before in my life, and they helped me realize that I can do that in extravagance by being humble and simple. They thanked us for coming, but they were the ones making the impact - not us. It was an unbelievable trip full of God's sweet and unmistakable presence along with adventure, love, laughter, beauty, awe, His still small voice, His almighty power, constant companions, grandiose views and a thousand sweet moments. I hope you'll have the time to check out this little recap. It's actually more of a documentary taking you along for the journey, therefore it's more on the long side. I'm no professional, so please forgive me for issues of quality and a very long buffering/download time. Put it on mute, let it sit for awhile and come back later for the viewing. :) Enjoy!

Nepal 2009 from Maggie Turner on Vimeo.

Simply Thankful

I generally like to talk and share with friends in order to process life. Over the years, journaling has begun to play a larger role in how I like to process. I actually enjoy and relish time by myself these days. The influence of many wonderful introverted friends along with a desire to embrace the discipline of solitude has no doubt helped. Since moving overseas, I've had more alone time than ever before in my life. To be honest, this was something I was a bit apprehensive about before moving. Turns out, I've really loved most of the time alone I've had these past five months. This has been one of the sweet surprises in this season.

I've found that it has brought about a deepening of my faith in ways both describable and indescribable. Solitude is often overlooked as valuable, and it is often over shadowed by a lack of simplicity (another rarely embraced spiritual discipline). These last five months I've lived quite simple. Not just physically with things, stuff, etc., but I've also lived simply due to my "lack" of social life and responsibilities. Now, don't get me wrong here I'm still a fan of a social life and engaging with people! I, also, look forward to a day when I feel challenged again with some good responsibility (I use the word good here because I've had my share of bad responsibility in my day...that's a topic for another blog or two). However, I've seen that there is much that can come from having space and less stress. I'm more available to the people around me. I can be more present to them. I'm not just thinking about the next thing..err I mean person on my schedule.

I, no doubt, will one day have a fuller schedule than what I currently have right now. I do hope to have a family someday and that seems to keep people on their toes! I'm just real thankful to have a season that will prepare me to walk into whatever my next "fuller" season is with a renewed vigor toward keeping Sabbath, living simply and loving fully even if it means not doing everything I'd like to do.

Give Up!

One of the things/ideas/themes I’ve been thinking and processing a lot the past year or so is surrender. Of course, as a believer and follower of Jesus, surrender is (or at least should be) a constant theme in walking out faith. So, I’ve made my first point without even getting to main idea of this post. Said idea is that of my own personal encounter lately with surrender.

I recently moved to China. Here’s my process of surrender put in the form of a list for the sake of time, and in an effort to get back to that original point.

*Saying yes to God to go at all… surrendering my will to His.
*Having said yes, but having no plan or place to go…surrending my way to His.
*Preparing to go….surrendering my will to His again and again and again and…well you get it.
*Leaving…surrendering my will, my way and my life as I knew it to Him.

So here I am living in China, and guess what? Yup! The surrender stuff just keeps coming like a hurricane that passes overhead, but it’s floodwaters continue to rise over the days following. I have to be honest and share this. I must have thought that in leaving for China I had past the “hardest” part of surrender in this whole process. With everything it took to leave (that “big” list above), maybe somewhere in my mind I thought, “Well...that should do it.” This came to my awareness because recently I found myself thinking that all this surrender “stuff” has to end some time soon! “Oh boy!” I thought as I pondered what I just been faced with in my own heart. With the continued surrender of my heart, my ways, my ideas, my dreams, my will, the list could go on, I found more.

I found more of Him, but I also found more that I needed to surrender. Fortunately, but painfully, I found more parts of my heart and life that I needed to lay down. I found pride hidden in a dark corner of my heart. I found a lack of hope and belief in an ignored part of my heart. I found self-reliance in an avoided part of my heart. The list could go on, but the important and great part was finding more of Jesus! I found His grace, mercy, compassion, truth and wisdom in the process of surrendering all of the aforementioned and more. What I found to be of most value was His love. In surrender, I found His love for me was greater, deeper, overwhelming and unchanging, and this has (and continues to) changed me forever.

I gave up! I gave up my pride. I gave up my way. I gave up my will. I still have to give up these things daily. I give up my heart everyday, and I’ve found that surrender is the path to love that changes me forever.

GO LOCAL!

I love local places (restaurants, coffee shops, dry cleaners, etc.) owned by people that are a part of the community it serves. Here are some photos from"my" local coffee shop The Bobo Cafe in Wenzhou, China. It had charm and character. The guys who worked there knew me as a regular. When I came in they greeted me by name! It was my Cheers. I also got to know the owner and her boyfriend. They were members of the community and would often be visiting with friends and family there. They also kept me up-to-date on events around the community like shows at the local grand theatre as well as other cool coffee and restaurant openings. What a great place!

Hmm...

I hope you take some time to watch this creative and thought provoking video.