Category Archives: Tour 2 Team

Team for Chapter 2 of the tour – Fall 2011

May25

Patience and Open Doors

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Patience and Open Doors

Rebecca was on the Dream Tour in Fall 2011. Thought it was time to catch up with her and see what is happening…

Rebecca

Last year after spending the summer in Haiti with AIM, I came back to the States ready to go out again.

It’s kind of a common occurrence.

Over the last ten years, I’ve headed out on more than half a dozen short-term mission’s trips. It seems like I always have to come back to America too early. It never feels like coming home. I find myself wondering why God didn’t send me out for longer.

Last fall, I wanted to move back to Haiti for longer. I love creativity and kids. What better way to combine the two than at camp? So, I started planning. Meeting, budgeting, outlining, strategizing. Trying to get a team together to go to Haiti with me.

Moving into this year, I had as much of a plan as I could muster but no team. In fact, I got to a point where I couldn’t move forward any more. So, I asked God about it. He said something to this affect:

“You’re standing on your side of the room, and you’ve got your great plan and your outline. But if you want to know what I’m doing . . . you’re going to have to ditch your plan. Cause I’m not on your side of the room. I’m over here, and I’m not going to join you. I want to know if you’ll join Me.“

So…

I gave up the idea of starting a camp in Haiti. Which kinda stunk cause I was really ready to get into something long-term, and small-town Nebraska isn’t exactly known for its . . . exoticness.

I wasn’t quite sure what to do with myself. Should I get a second job? Should I start something at home? Should I get more involved with my church?

I didn’t do any of the above. Instead, I started reading. Books about the history of Central Africa, a place that’s been on my heart for a while now. I wanted to know what had happened in that area of the world, how it had affected people, what was happening now. And God began to break my heart for the kids – the street kids, the former child soldiers, the orphans.

Day and night, I couldn’t get them off my mind.

Then, very quietly, He opened a door. A wide, unexpected door that looked like a plane ticket to Africa and three weeks in the part of the world that feels like home to me. I just got back from that trip a week ago. God says, “See, I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut.” I say, “Amen!”

I still don’t know what I’m doing. I’m not even trying to get a plan or an outline or a budget together this time.

Apparently, those are not gifts God has given me.

But through disappointment and long, grating-on-the-nerves times of waiting, He’s taught me that His timing is better than my own. And I don’t need sight because He will be my eyes. And His faithfulness more than makes up for the long list of things that I lack. And if this means that He becomes greater and I become less, then it is so, so worth it.

You can follow me in this journey at my blog, The Lost Bohemian.

Apr21

24 Hours in the Life of God’s Bohemian

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24 Hours in the Life of God’s Bohemian

Rebecca

Rebecca was part of the Dream Tour Team of Fall 2011. She’s headed out tomorrow on another wonderful and crazy journey to bring a bit of Jesus to the world. Please pray for her!

I suppose I ought to be more careful about labeling myself. Apparently when God heard me say the word “Bohemian,” He took it very literally.

I’m leaving America on Sunday.

Again.

It all happened in 24 hours. A little, insignificant hiccup of a turn of the globe that will most likely change my life forever.

It started with Clint Bokelman’s newsletter. “We have a brand new team of missionaries in Kenya, and I will be visiting them in April and July. Want to join me?”

Oh, how nice, I thought. Kenya is next to Uganda which is next to the Democratic Republic of Congo which is where I want to buy a one-way plane ticket to. Maybe I can go with Clint in July. April won’t work. Isn’t it already April?

That’s what I was thinking before I talked to Clint. Clint is what is known as a visionary. An entrepreneur. One of those spur-of-the-moment idea people. I understand completely. I’m like that too. So, we started talking, and then Kenya came up, and then April came up, and suddenly it sounded like I could go. Like, seriously, get on a plane eleven days after the conversation we were having and fly to Kenya.

I decided I better ask God about it. And He said, “See, I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut (Rev. 3:8).” And I could see the door all big and glowing in my mind with the angels singing around it. “Hallelujah! Hallelujah!” Just like the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.

Well, that was it then.

I got on my computer and looked up airplane tickets. (This all happened a few hours after my conversation with Clint.) Plane tickets to Africa usually run around $2,500. I didn’t have half that. If God really was opening a door that no one could shut, He was going to have to convince the plane ticket people to come down in their prices. That’s what I was thinking when the first set of ticket options popped up.

First on the list: Grand Island, Nebraska, to Nairobi, Kenya: $1,300. That’s with tax.

If I wasn’t quite sure about God’s open doors, I most certainly am now.

I bought the plane ticket the next morning. In Kenya, I’ll be visiting an IDP (Internally Displaced Persons) camp for the first time after all the stories and pictures I’ve seen from other people who have gone. And then I have a couple extra weeks where I’m hoping to fly over to Uganda and see what that country is doing with its child soldiers.

Over the last several months, I’ve read nearly a dozen books about how war is affecting Central Africa’s children – long before I ever heard a word of Clint’s trip to Kenya. My travel dates are April 22 – May 14. But that’s all the concrete details I can give you at present. God’s planning the itinerary. Apparently, He’s pretty good at it.

Besides, I think this is what God’s Bohemians are supposed to do.

If you’d like to keep track of me during this journey, I’ll be updating my blog as often as possible.

But be prepared. You might not have much warning before something amazing happens.

Click here  to support our favorite Lost Bohemian.

Sep28

Introduction to Me: Rebecca

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Introduction to Me: Rebecca

Animated character: Savannah off Cinderella III . . . You don’t know who that is, do you?  That’s okay.  Neither do I.  But I forget things a lot, so I figure it’s apt. (By the way, if there really is a Savannah on Cinderella III and she’s weird, someone please let me know.)  My strange and unrealistic dream is . . . wow, I really have to think hard about this.  I must be incredibly logical.  I would like to ride a flying horse to a star outside the Milky Way.  That sounds like fun.

Coming back to earth . . . Hi!  My name’s Rebecca.  I’m from Nebraska, I read a lot, I’m abnormal, and I like chocolate.  I’m on the road for this dream tour for five-ish weeks, and then I’m headed down to Haiti.  To start a camp for the tent city kids, the orphan kids, the street kids.  The kids Jesus died to love.  It’s the next step in the dream God’s dreaming for me.  If you’d like to know what it looks like, come down to Haiti and see.

I don’t really know what I’m doing, but I have connections.  Really cool connections.  And One of them tells me He knows everything, He’s got it all under control, and He’s never going to let me go.

Check out Rebecca’s blog!

Sep28

Meet Lisa

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Meet Lisa

If I were an animated character, I’d think I’d be a Keebler Elf. Not only do I like elves, but they make they world sweeter while living in a tree with each other. Sounds Perfect. Along those lines, my most ridiculous aspiration would be to build a mansion of a treehouse similar to the one on “Hook.”

I am only who the Lord has told me I am: a strong fortress, a safe, peaceful harbor for those around me, a lover, and a passionate warrior for His kingdom. Without Him, I am nothing.

In this season, I am an observer of His creation, most often in awe of observing His touch. He is truly good.

My dream is to serve in a home that will never turn kids away. It will be a home for at-risk kids, street kids and young adults that have nowhere else to go. It will be a hope-filled, joyous place of hope that restores and redeems lives. It will be home.