All that's necessary

Christ be with me, Christ within me,
Christ behind me, Christ before me,
Christ beside me, Christ to win me,
Christ to comfort and restore me,
Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ in quiet, Christ in danger,
Christ in hearts of all that love me,
Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.
-St. Patrick

You are my adventure and my co-adventurer. You are at once my destination and my companion. You are my purpose and all I need for the journey. You are the joy set before me and the peace within me.

You hem me in, behind and before, and lay Your hand upon me.
-Psalm 139:5

The official support letter

Dear family, friends, brothers and sisters in Christ,

Thank you for taking the time to read this update on the exciting plans God has given me for this year!

The short and sweet:

A 7-9 month training, serving, encouraging, and vision-casting journey to Uganda & the UK.

The details:

From August 2012-January 2013, I will be in a Discipleship Training School (DTS) in Jinja, Uganda, with Youth with a Mission (YWAM) at their Hopeland base there. YWAM describes the purpose of a DTS as “to encourage committed Christians into a deeper personal relationship with the Lord, thus equipping them to serve Him in whatever capacity He calls them to. It is also an introduction to the values of YWAM and a chance to explore the opportunities we can offer to develop a calling into missions.”

Following the DTS, my plan is to spend another month in Uganda, visiting other YWAM bases and ministries. After this, I’ll stop in the UK on the way home for as long as finances allow (anywhere from 1-3 months), visiting YWAM bases, family, and friends all over the UK and Ireland. I’m especially interested in spending some time at YWAM Paisley, a base in Scotland that focuses on living in creative, worshipful, intentional community. I also hope to have the opportunity to visit my cousins in Northern Ireland and to visit friends in Galway, Ireland, where I studied abroad in high school.

What's the point of all this?

As I’ve prayed and planned and prepared over the past year or so, the vision has slowly come together for this journey. The purpose of the trip is fourfold, which is great, because I like bullet points.

• Training: Having never had any formal Bible teaching, I am so excited to do a DTS—intensive study and biblical teaching for three months, followed by two months of application on the DTS outreach. And all of this in a non-Western setting—such a source of perspective and depth!
• Serving: During the DTS, I’ll be able to use my gifts, my training, and my willing hands to partner with YWAM Uganda in the amazing work they are already doing and lighten their load in any way I can. In my travels following the DTS, I will also happily offer my services, skills, & training in any way I can be useful to the bases I visit, working for my keep.
• Encouraging: it can be such a breath of life to have a visitor, to hear stories of how God is moving across the world, to share commonalities across cultures, to laugh and learn and worship together and minister to each other. “Like cold water to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country.” (Proverbs 25:25) I feel incredibly privileged to get to be that breath of life.
• Vision-casting: the vision-casting aspect of this journey is both personal and corporate. Personally, I’m wide open to the possibility of long-term ministry in any of these locations. Both Uganda and the UK have been on my heart for years, and I’m eager to see what my future looks like in relation to those places. On a larger scale, I look forward to fostering the partnerships God is waiting to build between ministries and members of the Church across the world. One of my great passions in life is to see the Body of Christ realized in the fullness of the way He planned it.

In closing:

I feel like this journey is the beginning of a new season of really walking in the dreams God has for my life, using all the gifts and training and blessings and passion He has given to me. I feel incredibly blessed to be walking in the footsteps of such believers as Paul, getting to see the bigger picture of what God is doing worldwide and working to weave stronger connections among His Bride, while having the honor of meeting and sharing fellowship with so many diverse brothers and sisters in the faith. 

Partnership:

With all of the ways God has opened doors and confirmed His heart for this plan, I have no doubts that every penny will come in in His perfect order. That said, I am in the process of fundraising. I’ve been blessed this year with great jobs that have allowed me to put a good deal away in savings, but as of June 5^th, I still need to raise about $2000 more for these nine months or so (plane tickets, the DTS, visits to other bases in Uganda and the UK). Please pray about it and give only what the Lord leads you to give—I can't wait to watch Him supply every need!

I am also support-raising, which is even more exciting. This is the part where I get to travel around, spend time with so many amazing people, share what God's doing in my heart and life and in Uganda and the UK, and build connections with the Body. I’ll be leaving the States in mid-August, so if you'd like a phone call, email, Skype, or real live visit, or if your church really loves missionaries, let me know and we'll figure something out! This is my favorite part. Except the part where I'll be traveling all over the world, chasing the dreams God has put in my heart. That’s my real favorite part.

More information:
www.ywam.org
www.ywamhopeland.com
www.ywamuganda.org
www.ywampaisley.org


Contacting me:

Leave a note here and I will gladly get back to you! If you're not a member of my mailing list and would like to be, just let me know!

Grace and peace to you from our sweet Lord Jesus, blessings on your families, life to your hearts, and favor on the work of your hands.

Molly K. McKinney

I made a choice

I made a choice to be here.
I made a choice to be 25, single, and transient.
I made a choice to live on the mountaintops and not on the highways.
I made a choice to feed the dreamer and chase the rainbows and go for broke.

Some days it's hard to remember. Some days, after twelve hours of packing and moving (knowing I'll do it all again at least twice more before summer's end), it's hard to see anything but frustration. Some days, saying goodbye and feeling my heart stretch and tear yet again, it starts to feel like a curse. Like this is something that has happened to me. It's easy to fall into self-pity.

But I made a choice.

I looked at the paths. I explored the options open to me. Presented with the opportunity for comfort and consistency, I let my mind and my heart wander hand-in-hand down that wide, level road (it wasn't hard to see where it was headed). As the vision wandered on, I saw my mind and heart always comfortable, the routine always consistent and predictable, and no life to be found. Mind grew anxious and given to fits of whining for lack of anything else to talk about, heart turned gray and bleak and screamed with gasping little breaths for something more.

I recoiled and pulled them back just in time, and rolled them down another path. The winding, climbing, rambling, narrow path where "If only..." gives way to "What if..." which teases back with "Okay, when?" and is met with a resounding "Well, why not now?" They followed this path, cartwheeling and leaping and gaining speed. And they faced scraped knees and tears and having the wind knocked out of them on a frighteningly regular basis, but their hearts (the heart of my heart, the heart of my mind) pounded and their blood flowed and their cheeks glowed and no one could question if they were alive.

And so I made a choice.

I was created a dreamer. I was created a live wire, a loose cannon, a dangerous equation of imagination and impulsivity. I was created with a million "what if"s firing constantly across the night sky of my mind, with the willingness to engage them, with the stubbornness to chase them and pin them down. I was created with a knack for jumping in with both feet and very little natural talent for patiently testing the waters. And this knack has landed me in pits and mud puddles and surrounded by crocodiles, and it has landed me on trampolines that have flung me into the greatest adventures.

I was created this way, I say, but I made a choice to engage, to accept, to throw open my arms and embrace it.

This is not a sorry circumstance, this is not a feather blown by the wind for lack of the gumption to make a decision, this is not a holding pattern until I figure it all out.

I made a choice to stay a dreamer, in the company of dreamers, chasing after the greatest Dreamer.

And I would make that choice again.