ha, there's a term for ya. ...deciding where to go for missions based on preferable climate, lol. 'gee, Lord, i'll go anywhere for ya, as long as it ain't cold....'
i'm just being cheeky. :D
anyways, what i was just thinking... i'm rather liking this weather. the briskness, the severety, the outright noise of it.... mind you, i don't feel very well-prepared for 'cold-weather survival'... the thought of the power going out makes me want to go buy 10 emergency blankets and extra batteries! ... but cold-weather survival/coping/living skills *can* be learned....
...i've always been fascinated with cold climates. i read about 30 feet of snow in stewart, and i think, *kewl*. i read about how in the summer some roads thaw out and become too soggy for vehicular traffic... and i'm fascinated.
but most of all, i think of the people, how far away from city-centers they can be (and we think *we're* isolated? ha!...)... and i wonder, how far has the gospel gone into those places? how many lives have been radically changed by coming into contact with Jesus? ... and how many *haven't* had that yet?.....
it seems like everyone is game to go into the, what is it called - the 10/30(?) window or some such - where there are billions of unreached people around the equator.... but few seem to want to go find the *one* who needs Jesus. people seem to think, go where the numbers are, reach as many as possible.... where i seem to think, where is that *one* person that God has healing for?
right now, my mission field is *here* - largely *within* the body of Christ, but also to certain circles that i am in touch with. if God were to change that call, and call me to a hot location, fine, i'll deal with it, God will make me able to handle the heat.... but i tend to think He has placed in me a heart for the north, northern, isolated people, the singular individuals in their singular situations...
... maybe because i relate to being *isolated* (emotionally, not externally - i don't see this town as being very isolated, probably because i've never lived anywhere else... i see it more as a busy little hub... hubbub... lol). i understand to a large degree, aloneness. i can parallel rather severe external living conditions with severe emotional/mental living conditions... the need for Light in the darkness, Hope in hopelessness....
... which makes me think of the other population i have a huge heart for... the mentally ill. been there, done that... am there, doing that. when i read about some of the horrible living conditions and maltreatment of mentally ill people, my heart rends. talk about cold, severe living situations, life situations. where so many people see the severely mentally ill as a *problem* to be dealt with, i see each individual as having worth and value and something they contribute to this world - a non-typical contribution, perhaps, but extremely valuable nonetheless. Jesus loves each one so much... and He created/ordained each to have a specific kind of journey in life... and it's to prosper them and not to harm them!!!... and i have *vision* for that.... at the moment it does not equate to much external action on my part, i am too much in the throes of it myself at the moment... but what one has gone through and is currently going through is for a purpose and has eternal value .....so He is taking me 'somewhere' with this, it's just that where, as of yet, i don't know.
...but i have a feeling it will have to do with the more extreme 'climate' of living/life situations... in one way or another.
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