So this all came about after a trip to Africa to pick up our daughter back in February, 2008. My husband, Christopher, and I were loving life here in our little town and enjoying watching the kids grow and thrive. We were happy to be living our safe, American dream with two kids, a cat and a mini-van. Then, God hit us hard.
Christopher, a devoted family guy and all-around amazing dude, comes to me one day and says, “I have something to tell you” in a way that made me a little nervous but want to laugh at the same time. He’s never very serious but he was this day.
HIM: “I feel God calling me to help Isabella’s orphanage.”
ME: “Oh…?”
Him: “Really, I do. It’s been building for months and I just have to do something about it.”
ME: “Like, what are you thinking?”
HIM: “I don’t know.”
ME: “Oh…?”
And so we keep having these conversations about Ethiopia and the orphanage. And then my little brain starts going on overdrive. I came up with so many ideas that I bombarded Chris to death. This wore him down over the weeks until one night, on a Thursday date night, he said he couldn’t take it anymore.
HIM: “Just stop.”
ME: (still prattling on about another great idea)…”Hmmm??!?”
HIM: “Really, just stop. I can’t take it anymore.”
ME: “Take what? Is this idea not a good one? Well, we can tweak it so that…”
HIM: “No, really, Leigh, just stop. We don’t even know what it is that God wants us to do. We have to wait to see what we’re supposed to do.”
ME: (tears welling up) “I don’t understand. I was just trying to help…”
Even with our best intentions, we throw ourselves ahead of the cart and then what happens? The cart runs over us. What was supposed to be about helping others becomes all about our great big fat ideas. We are supposed to be still in the midst of waiting, not flailing and running around like a chicken with it’s head cut off.
So I started praying. Hard. To be still. To have self-control (at least enough to keep my mouth shut). Praying for God make known His wishes to Christopher for the plan He was going to unfold. And then it happened. God spoke to me.
God never speaks in long, lavish paragraphs with lots of flourish and good Princeton-style words. He’s simple. He’s direct. He knows I cannot handle any more than that.
So what does He say to me? JUST GO.
Since it’s about 6AM on a Sunday morning, there’s not much I can do. Except wake Chris. And it’s not like Chris doesn’t enjoy sleeping in…he LOVES it. But what can I do? I’m a simple woman.
ME: “Babe…BABE!” (in a whispered scream)
HIM: (groggy) “Huh?”
ME: “God spoke! I know what we’re supposed to do!”
HIM: “Huh?”
ME: “He said “Just go”…in all capital letters…like a text, white on black…”
HIM: “Huh.”
Nothing like overwhelming enthusiasm when you’ve heard a revelation from God. I wonder if that’s how Moses or Isaiah felt, or Samuel, or any of the prophets. Did everybody just go, “Huh” when they told others that God had spoken? Not that I’m a prophet–ooohhhh, noooooooo thank you!– but I just wonder if that’s how it goes.
So fast forward to today, January 12, 2009. We are leaving in exactly two months to return to Addis Ababa to help Isabella’s orphanage. There’s not a lot of time to plan. But we’re going to do what God told us to do. JUST GO. But there’s a twist…
You’re going to be hearing about something called ChangeForEthiopia. And it’s going to be gi-normous…bigger than you can even begin to imagine. It’s going to spread across countries. And it’s an answer to a prayer I prayed around 12AM this morning.
I know I don’t have the expertise to run a mammoth fund-raising campaign and so I prayed to God for a deliverer. And He sent one…in the petite form of a beautiful woman who had hazed me regularly during my freshman year in college: Martha. That’s all I can say for now but we’re flying her out to stay this weekend to talk about a World Peace Day she’s going to be doing in March when we’re in Addis Ababa. I’ll have more information as it becomes available. You’re going to want to direct others to this note, I promise, so you can spread the word, too. Get excited. I’m terrified, but you can get excited. It’s coming.
And you are welcome to be a part of it.
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