Seeds to Sow for Feet to Grow

Hosea 10:12 "Sow for yourselves righteousness, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your unplowed ground; for it is time to seek the Lord, until he comes and showers righteousness on you." Hosea is speaking of a plowed field, ground that is ready to receive seeds. The ground has been carefully prepared and it is available. This ground is our heart and our lives and how it is cultivated for God to work in our lives. I've been seeking God, asking Him to use me in a mighty way for His kingdom and for His glory. In turn, He has been "plowing" my heart, He has been breaking me, molding me, preparing me and equipping me for a calling He has on my life. God has burdened me with the blight of orphans and called me to help rebuild their lives - to build shelters for them as well as build hope through sharing the love of Jesus Christ. He has instructed me to partner with The Global Orphan Project, Inc. and to build a children's home and/or school in an orphanage (village) in Haiti. In seeking his guidance and how to do this, he placed on my heart to organize a 5K Run/Walk and to call it FEET for the FEAT of ORPHANS. The journey to this point has been awesome and there's no way I can begin to tell you all of the details in this post. God has shown up in remarkable ways and revealed himself in such mighty & powerful ways. To make a long story short, let me share with you some of the seeds God has been sowing in my life to prepare me for this journey:

• Seeds of LOVE: Luke 10:27 God commands us to LOVE - to worship and serve Him. Worship? That's easy for me. But, God has been wanting me to focus more on service - loving others.
• Seeds of AWARENESS: There are 147 + MILLION orphans in the world. Every 2.2 seconds, a child becomes an orphan. Of the 2.2 BILLION children in the world today, 1 BILLION live in poverty. Over 3 BILLION people (almost 1/2 of the world) lives on less than $2.50/day. According to UNICEF, 22,000 children die EACH DAY due to poverty. 1 in 3 children live without adequate shelter. James 1: 27 "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world."
• Seeds of INSTRUCTION - In October, God instructed me to study Nehemiah. Just as he placed the burden on Nehemiah to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, he burdened me to help rebuild Haiti. Nehemiah 2: 12, 17-18
• Seeds of REVELATION: In November, God spoke to me to build orphanages, schools, and hospitals and revealed to me that many children would depend on me. This was confirmation of the burden he had already placed on my heart to rebuild. Although I was excited, I had NO IDEA how this would happen. In December, Satan tried his hardest to keep me from going to a Wednesday night class at church. My daughters were tired, they were misbehaving, I was stressed (remember it's December, and I have LOTS to do), and I came so close to just staying home vs. going to church. Even as I was driving to church, I was tempted to turn around and go back home. I pressed on though and went to church. When I walked into class, the leader, who I had not met yet, was telling about her recent mission trip to Haiti! She had gone with her friend's church and they were working in the village (orphanage) that the church had just built by partnering with The Global Orphan Project, Inc. I knew IMMEDIATELY why Satan had not wanted me to go to class!! I knew IMMEDIATELY that I was supposed to be there to hear about this organization and what they do - they build children's homes, schools, medical clinics, etc. in villages for orphans!! THIS WAS HOW I WAS GOING TO ACCOMPLISH GOD'S SPOKEN WORD OVER ME!! In the months that have followed, God has continued to reveal this plan for me and told me to organize a 5K Run/Walk to raise funds, gave me the name of the 5K, FEET for the FEAT of ORPHANS, gave me the vision of the logo, etc.
• Seeds of CONFIRMATION: As I was still seeking God for direction and asking hard questions, he so sweetly and graciously continued to reveal himself in powerful ways through confirming this call through His Word and the sermon series at church. God gave me the scripture in Romans 10:15 "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring The Good News." Through the feet of the runners/walkers in the 5K, we will be bringing healing and hope (The Good News of Jesus Christ) to these precious children. There is so much to share here and I hope to share more of this at a later date.
• Seeds to ACT - God prompted me to Surrender to His will, take that step of faith and trust him with each and every step and to simply ACT. Ephesians 4:1 "...I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received." Psalm 119:105 "Your word is a lamp to my feet, and a light for my path."

So, I've been given the SEEDS and now I'm trusting God in the sowing. I pray that the FEET of those who join with me in this journey will help GROW His Kingdom, help restore shelter, health and hope for the children, equip them and give them hope for the future, and help grow our faith and trust in Him.

Blessings,

Tara