Back to the Air!

What has God called you to do? What are your dreams, hopes, desires for your life? These are all questions that I have struggled with throughout the different seasons of my life—sometimes I have struggled well and sometimes not so well. But I can honestly say now that I am in a place where I am just thankful. I have found the place and position that makes much of my work feel like playtime. Where my passion for God and communicating what God is doing around the world, and the desire to take part in his mighty works, catapults me forward even into the unknown and sometimes uncomfortable situations that arise. God is taking me to another level at this stage in my life, and I am thankful.

I am now working at SIM International in Fort Mill, SC. I write and edit web content for www.sim.org, I send out our monthly newsletter, assist with putting together our international magazine, manage our social media platforms, etc.—I love my job. I have largely kept my feet on the ground for the last two years since I finished my stint—two years (2006-2008)—traveling with the Jesus Film Project, but now I have an increasing desire to get back in the air. To once again fly to places unknown and share experiences with believers who bravely live for God and with those who do not know him yet.

One of the things that SIM does really well is that they understand that excellence happens when they provide opportunities for people to work in the areas that they are both gifted for and passionate about, and when their people experience and understand the fullness and extent of the global mission to which God has called us. SIM is a faith mission, which means that the entire organization ultimately runs on the donations of God’s generous people around the world. To make travel possible for me, SIM has allowed me to open an ongoing ministry account so that I can invite you to participate with me in the adventures of this next phase.

My first trip …

In a few short weeks, I will be traveling to SIM’s Wetheringsett, UK office in England for a week of meetings with the SIM UK communications group. This is a crucial trip for me, not only to meet our UK office staff that I communicate with regularly, but also because I will be able to meet face-to-face with Suzanne Green, with whom I work very closely, via email and Skype, to create each issue of our international magazine, Serving In Mission Together. Meeting face to face will take us far beyond what modern technology is able to accomplish and allow us to establish a more personal working relationship, which we have been looking forward to for quite some time.

I am asking you to join me in partnership once again. I can’t begin to tell you of the great impact that your prayers and financial gifts make to the overall mission of Christ and how honored I am that you choose to give toward what God has called me to, and in effect he has called you too! Thank you for participating in mission with me once again.

Please pray for: (Trip dates: Aug 7-14)
1) Good relationships to be established through this trip.
2) Suzanne and I as we get to know one another and plan together.
3) Wisdom and creativity as we plan for effective communication initiatives.

Giving:
It's not the size of your gift that matters, but the heart behind it. God loves a cheerful giver, so keep that in mind as you decide whether to participate in this way.

You can give online at: https://usanet.sim.org/SIMGift/detail.aspx, designating your gift to Michelle Pack’s ministry account #014905-058.

Prayer ... and Doubt

Repost of my guest post over at Steel Grapes.com.

Recently a friend of mine shared a story with me. It was about a couple who had been through a nasty divorce a few years back. She generally described how bad it was, how much this couple had hurt each other, and some of the things that were said in the midst of the struggle. The good news is, they are apparently now back together, which is an incredible work of God! I mean how many times have you heard of that happening? If you are like me, not many. So why, in the midst of right rejoicing, do I use the word apparently? Because that was the sense, if not the exact word, my friend used to describe the situation.

As I sat there listening to her, I found myself thinking, Why is she doubting it? Wait a minute, why do we do that, why do I do that?? Bad things happen to good people, good people do dumb things, I do dumb things! Like real Christ-followers will, family, friends, and colleagues pray. God answers. We doubt.

Unfortunately, often times it takes someone else's doubt for me to recognize it, but if I am honest, it is so, so there in the deepest place (and sometimes not so deep) in my heart as well. The easiest explanation I can give is to simply blame it on a fallen world, and there is truth in that, but is it the whole truth?

There is an ongoing situation within my own family that brings me back to the same conflict. I pray, we pray. God seems to answer (that's how I always describe it). I doubt the God of the universe who asks me to pray. How silly is that?! When I go to thank him, do I thank him for possibly answering prayer?? I don't think so.

I know that I can't answer the why, not really anyway, not in any way that I can sit back and feel good about myself. But the last time I was confronted with this tension, God showed me what I can do. I can praise him in the midst of my doubt. I can embrace him in his perfect sovereignty and rejoice over renewed unity in my family!! So that is now what I choose to do!! And I have to tell you—it is incredibly freeing! Do I know for sure that it will last? No, I don't. But what do I really know about the future anyway, aside from what God's word says? Not a whole heck of alot. :)

I was able to share a little bit of what God has shown me with my friend. Will she take it to heart? Again, I don't know. But I am thankful. I am thankful for God's grace in the midst of my doubt. I am thankful for authentic community where we can share with each other what God is doing! I am thankful that God does answer prayer and is worth believing!! Who's with me?

My First Guest Post

Last week someone responded to a tweet that I posted for SIM. Her name is Catherine and she has been involved with SIM in the past for short-term missions work. We had a little conversation, "convo," as the cool people call it, on Twitter and she asked me if I would be interested in guest posting over on her blog.

So today I got an email from her that she posted my article. I was kind of nervous about what I might write for her, but when I sat down to do it, God came through and put a message on my heart that I think will encourage anyone who is following Christ. Seeing how God is at work in your life and the lives of others can be confusing sometimes, but he is there and he is at work. It would be great if you all would show her some love and jump over to SteelGrapes.com and give the article and the rest of her site a read. Thanks for doing that! I hope you are encouraged by what you find there.

On many of the blogs that I follow there has been a recurring theme—ragging on social media in general and Facebook in particular. Not because of the security issues which have many people up in arms (although that is a theme as well), but because they think that somehow social media is discouraging people from real relationships. I don't agree. It seems to me that if people want to avoid relationships, they will, regardless of access to social media. For me, it has been a great platform to get to know people that I am either not in close proximity to, or to get to know those that are nearby that I didn't know before. I plan to have my first "tweetup" next week with my new acquaintance. But I know a number of people who have been doing that regularly for a while, hence the new term. :)

Anyway, just a little plug for using social media to connect and share with people as you carry on with the good works that God prepared in advance for you to do! (Ephesians 2:10)

Fighting through the fear ... the snake story.

I wrote recently about having to unexpectedly stand up in front of a room full of people that I didn't know and say a few words. That is a very real fear. I have heard that it's actually the #1 fear that people have—I am sure you have heard that too. But I think I had an experience a few days later that makes that look like Donald Trump in a dress ... you know, funny.

The Saturday after my awkward Christian Chamber Meeting speech, I decided it was a perfect day to do some yard work. I have a very gracious aunt and uncle who bought me four very beautiful knock-out roses for my yard on Thursday evening, and I needed to get them in the ground. So Saturday morning I set out to plant. It went great, they looked great, and I set about doing a few other yard chores that caught my eye.

I decided I needed to cut a dead limb off of a tree in my front yard. I finally decided that "yep, it's really dead" so I walked around to the back of my house with a plan to reach underneath the house to grab a saw. There were a bunch of leaves gathered at the crawl space door, so I grabbed a rake and raked them away from the door for easy access. I hadn't gone under the house for anything in "a-while" so I cautiously opened the door and approached the opening. There are always plenty of spiders, and I kind of get the heeeby-jeeebies going under there anyway, so I took my time to make sure one wasn't going to drop down on me as I went in.

I sprayed some Home Defense around the area to kill the spiders, knelt down at the door, and had a look around. It's kind of a small space, so I couldn't see much. I crept forward and put my knee up on the board that runs across the ground that the door closes up against. I peeked my head in a little further and had another look. I scanned the area for my reciprocating saw—it wasn't there. But I did see a red bow saw that I had stored under there and out of the corner of my eye, to the left, I saw a round object. "What is that? It could be a snake. No, surely it's not a snake. I have heard of snakes getting under houses before but I have never seen it actually happen. Maybe I'll go get my camera and take a flash photo, light it up and make sure. If it's a snake, it could be a Copperhead."

I got up and went inside the house to get my camera. I took it outside and stuck my hand inside the crawl space door a bit, pointed the camera to the left and took the shot. I looked at it on the camera but I couldn't see it well enough out in the sunlight. I went into the house again so I could see, but it was still a small photo (and my hands were more than a little shaky), and I wanted to be sure. I quickly uploaded the photo to my computer where I could get a better look. "Yep, it is a snake, and it is a Copperhead! Wait a minute, what's that behind him?!? Oh man, there's another one. Wait! Do I see two heads in the background??" I zoomed the image in closer. "Oh God! There are three of them!! There are three Copperheads underneath my house!!! What do I do? What am I going to do??" That is when the panic started.


The first shot helped me identify what I was dealing with.

I don't typically get riled up easily, but this was way too much for my brain to process!! That's when I got a serious case of the "what ifs" running around my head. "What if I try to remove them myself? What if I get one, but the others hide and I can't find them? What if they go further underneath and I can't see them anymore? What if no one is available to come out and get them OUT??"

Not knowing what to do, I did what anyone who is a socialmedialite would do—I uploaded the picture to Facebook and asked my Friends, "What do I do now??" Then I realized how silly that was ... and I grabbed the phone book! A real person answered the second number I called and the conversation went something like this:

"A1 Wild Life Control." (With a name like that how could I go wrong??)
"Hi how are you?"
"I'm good, how are you."
"I'm alright. Are you working today?" (This is apparently my best attempt at being casual in a stressful situation—WHAT??)
"Yep, I'm working."
"Well I have this problem."
"Oh-K."
"I have three Copperheads underneath my house and I need to get them out."
(Pause)
"Three Copperheads you say ... are you sure that they're Copperheads?"
"Yes, I'm positive. I have a photo of them."
"Ok, I was on my way somewhere else, but I am going to come to your place first."
"I would appreciate that very much."

The guy showed up with a friend about 30 minutes later and, to make a long-enough story shorter, they removed the snakes with some kind of sticky "Catch Master" paper, put them in a bucket and took them away. You can check out all of the photos here.

I have to be honest, it has taken me all week to really "come down" from the weirdness of the whole event. I am not generally afraid of snakes in their own habitat, but there is something about them being in my space that freaked me out. I have been able to laugh about some aspects of it, but though the imminent danger is gone, my brain still wants to play the "what if" game. I get in bed at night and I think about it. I step outside the house, and I think about it—every single day since.

I don't know about you, but being afraid of things makes me angry—not the "I have a healthy respect for" kind of fear, but the kind that wants to take over. I refuse to live in fear. After all, God says over and over in his word, "Do not fear, I am with you." But I admit sometimes events occur and I need time to process through them. I pray every night that I won't have "snakes chasing me" in my dreams. God has been gracious and I have had sweet dreams. I am thankful for that, and I am thankful that none of us were bitten.

Now to get back out there and finish "snake proofing" my crawl space.

*shudder*

Always be prepared ...

Last week was really interesting, but last Thursday was particularly notable. My supervisor at SIM, Leslie Nease, asked me a few weeks back if I would like to accompany her to a luncheon that is put on by the Charlotte Christian Chamber (CCC). It's a networking gathering that gives Christian business people and non-profit workers a chance to interact and help each other out. Although I am not one to jump at these kinds of things, I thought it would be a good experience and well, I will try almost anything at least once, so I said "Sure, I'll go with you and see what it's like."

So the day came and I went to my first CCC luncheon—alone. Leslie told me Wednesday that something important had come up and she wouldn't be able to make it, but would I still go? "Ummm, yeah," I said. "I can do that." So Thursday came around and off I went. How bad could it be? I, the introvert, just had to go, eat, and socialize with 100 people that I didn't know. No problem!

I arrived a few minutes late. When I walked in, people were seated. I was directed to a table in the corner ... a very empty table. All of the chairs were propped up on their front legs and leaning against the table ... you know the universal sign that tells you, "Don't sit here." "Oh," I thought, "just my luck." The only thing worse than hanging with a bunch of people I don't know is having to sit all ALONE in the midst of a bunch of people that I don't know! I spied an empty seat at another table, but when I tapped the guy in the adjacent seat on the arm and asked if that seat was taken, he told me it was. "Oh ok, I'll just sit over here then," I said. "With ALL my friends," I thought to myself.

Just as I sat down, a local pastor started praying. By the time I looked up again, I thankfully had some company. I was feeling pretty good. The MC started talking, I wasn't paying much attention though—I was still working though the nerves! But soon I hear, "I know Leslie isn't going to be here today, but is there anyone here to stand in for her?" My ears snapped to attention at the mention of a familiar name and I shyly raised my hand. "Oh great, yeah come on up here." Uh-oh. "Oh no, I am going to have to say something!!" Yes, they were introducing those who had recently decided to become "partners" of the CCC.

I went to the back of the room opposite the stage with a number of other new partners. We were asked to introduce ourselves and tell a little bit about what we do. The fact that I wasn't first gave me time to think and calm my nerves ... AGAIN! Then, way too soon, the mic was passed to me. "Hi," I said, "My name is NOT Leslie Nease and it looks like she really set me up!!" The laughter helped me get through the rest of my comments about working alongside Leslie in the SIM International Communication Department to share with the world what God is doing through SIM missionaries in the 50+ countries in which we work.

Leslie and I had a good laugh when I got back to the office. She tells me she had no idea they were going to do that ... but I'm not so sure. ;)