Do you live beyond yourself?

One thing I love about being a woman is the social part of our nature.

We just love getting together! Any excuse for a gathering, and we're there.

Throw in some food (chocolate in any form) and off we go. We are made to gather. We can't NOT gather.

Our women's Bible study group meets weekly to study the Word, but we also meet for Ladies' Nights, birthdays, holiday celebrations, farewell parties, etc. etc. Like I said, any excuse for a gathering and we're there.



But this weekend was special. For the first time in the history of the group, which has changed over the years with the comings and goings of life on the mission field, we had an overnight retreat to kick off the start of our next study, Beth Moore's 'Living Beyond Yourself'.

Although we live in the remote, northwest corner of Uganda, we are blessed to have White Castle... a nice resort just out of town with a swimming pool, conference room, and lovely gardens. This was our venue for the retreat, and in true 'make the most of it' fashion, we all headed out early Friday afternoon to swim and play before the 'work' started.

Of course, we had to have a toenail painting session...






Joanna, (missionary with World Gospel Mission and expectant mother hugging me), had organized the whole thing, including games, songs, snacks, accommodation, prayer partners and the devotional aspect of it all. What a woman!








And God was with her! My roommate, Katie, is me in a different body...we are so alike it's scary. We even discovered we have the exact same mobile phone, same color and everything, and not only that...but we have the same ring tone! How bizarre is that?!

Katie is such a blessing and a breath of fresh air in my life, although she is a bit paranoid about creepy crawlies. We discovered this cute little tree frog in our room, and I was forced to catch it and take it outside, or Katie swore she wouldn't sleep the whole night.

Another divine partnership God set up through Joanna was my prayer partner assignment. Susanna is from Spain, with a strong Catholic background. She's been through a rough patch the last few years, but God's been with her and she's now on firmer ground. As we were sharing our prayer requests, I heard God say to me, "Your heart has always been in Spain, and for the Spanish people, but you've followed me here to Uganda. Since you can't be in Spain, I have brought Spain to you. If you were in Spain discipling people, this is what it would look like."

I was blown away. Truly God can do all things. A sense of His awesomeness and deep love for me overwhelmed me and the tears started to flow. Why would God bother to meet that small desire in my heart? Because He loves me.




And as we start this Beth Moore study, looking at the fruit of the Spirit and whether or not we are really living beyond ourselves, I am expectant for more revelations of God's great love for me. Just the fact that He gave us His Spirit so we could partner with Him and do the impossible...that we could actually live beyond our own ability because it's His power in us that will accomplish the work He has started...that alone should send us to our knees in awe and reverence. This great big God loves us so much that, as He calls us, He gives us Himself to help us do what we could never do alone.

One thing Beth said in the DVD made me think: "If you're not attempting to do something that is even slightly beyond your human ability to do, than you're not really living in the Spirit."

Hmmm...how many times have I said or thought, "I can't do that," and turned my back? Of course I can't do it...God's not asking me to do it...He's asking me to do it WITH Him, and we can do all things through Him who strengthens us. Wow...think on that for a bit.