“How did we get here?” I have often found myself wondering this at the beginning of this wildly interesting year.

I love this question, and I love it when it comes to the surface of my reflections, for it has always revealed the evidence of what my heart most desires for my life, and Poetice. When walking with the Lord, I have found that this question is most often an indicator, a litmus test of sorts, that reveals simple obedience to Jesus.

While Jesus is compassionate, invitational, and kind, He is also unexpected and delightfully mysterious and radical. As we continue on this journey with Him, I hope to see more and more of His life reflected in ours. As we learn new things about His heart, His truth, and His justice, I pray we lean in with open ears and willing hearts to change our minds, and change our course. Therefore, as we journey on with Him, we should find ourselves in the middle of raw moments wondering how our feet have wound up where they have. We should look at our life and wonder how it looks as it does, quite simply because our life is not our own.

This year has been a test of our hearts, our faith, and our confidence in the Lord beyond what our eyes can see. We turned 10 in August of 2019, and with a decade under our belt, we anticipated another year staying the course and celebrating this incredible milestone. Rather, we have experienced a monumental transition in our leadership, and the coronavirus has reworked nearly every plan we had in place. Our events have been postponed, adjusted, or canceled, grand openings delayed, immersion trips dismantled, and financial support disrupted. Things did not begin as we expected.

Yet as the year has already begun to take shape, this has proved to be only half of the story. The Lord has created space for us to hear Him whisper, and reveal His plans full of promise, redemption, and vision. He has already lifted us financially in ways we never expected. We have been able to draw up plans and are finally able to begin to build a beautiful new pavilion and cover our outdoor dining and kitchen area. Both of these projects have been in the works for nearly 3 years, and while our Build the Future campaign is not yet fully funded, we finally can begin to build.

We have learned new ways to generate unity and strength through cross-cultural diversity of our team, and believe the Lord is giving us the vision to passionately spur the global Church on to do multi-cultural teams in unprecedented ways. We have been able to sit in the presence of the Father and minister to His heart. We have had space to contend for breakthrough for ourselves and one another as the Lord lays a foundation to do far more than we would ever dare to ask for or imagine.

And so we sit before Him, silently asking this question full of a giddy hope, loaded with possibility and promise, “How in the world, did we get here?”. We are free and we are on fire. We hope that you will continue to join us as we press further up and further into the delightful mystery of this adventure with Jesus to empower His Church to fight for justice.

Stay connected with the movement by following us on social media platforms or signing up for our newsletters! I invite you to use these platforms to know how to pray for us and be informed of what is going on. We love you. And we cannot wait to step into what is next, together.

✌

Abigail Van Peursem | CEO