A Wonderful Gathering

What a month it has been in preparation for Feed My Starving Children's second annual Partner Conference, a gathering of all its mission partners to introduce them to each other and discuss new strategies that will result in more efficient operations, complementary relationships, and in the end, more children fed, in body and in spirit. The whole theme was "The Velocity of Hunger" and Psalm 70:5 which says, "Yet I am poor and needy; come quickly to me, O God. You are my help and my deliverer; O Lord, do not delay!"

Last year we hosted about 25 partners, and this year 75! We had partners fly into Florida from Swaziland, Haiti, El Salvador, and all over the United States. We had logistics partners and "our" nutrionist join us as well. What an amazing group of people to meet! You have to understand what a blessing it is to see them face-to-face, as I typically only get to talk to them on the phone or over email. Sometimes I had to stop and wonder, "How did I get to be a part of this?"

As I sit here in my hotel room trying to process all that has transpired, my first response is to sincerely thank the Lord for His presence with us, for proving faithful in connecting His body! For such a time and place is this that the Lord has brought us together to build each other up and encourage one another to do good works for the glory of the Lord.
Ephesians 4:1,16, "As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received... From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work."

It's easy to get discouraged some days when you think about how desperate our world is, in body and in spirit. But as I learn more and more to embrace all that comes with life-conflict, your "calling", challenges, burdens-I continually realize something that gives me purpose in doing what I'm doing here at this place and time: It is better to experience and live out the heart of God (and in doing so, better understand how much He loves all of us) than to live indifferently with no burden or angst for His children to know Him. "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." Hebrews 11:1 Praise God that He equips us to go into the world for the advancement of His Kingdom!

I guess I'm just thankful. It's difficult to articulate any other emotion at the moment. After sharing and collaborating with all our partners-even as an introvert-I have gained enormous energy and experienced overwhelming joy in seeing the body of Christ coming together. We're excited to move forward!
Thanks for processing this with me! :)
Much love,
Abby

Faith and Openness

My theme verse this past year:

Zephaniah 3:17, "The Lord your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing."

I'll be honest. I had no idea how critical and judgmental I have been all my adult life. It frustrated David early on and he voiced that, forcing me to look deeper and find the root of this tragedy. And that it is! What freedom I have found in opening my mind to the possibilites that lie under even mediocre ideas or less-than-detailed plans.

A continual process...I still naturally default to being a critical thinker, picking things apart by weeding out the things that don't fit into my idea of "great" or worthy of approval. But who is the judge of these things? What in me causes me to feel the need to approve, even of the smallest things? What if I let God "quiet me with His love" instead? What if I had grace and offered a better solution, and in the process, gave someone else the freedom to...

The freedom to think and discover and learn and grow is priceless. It promises to widen our hearts, opening it towards things we never thought it could feel or experience. I've found that David is amazing at this. Probably because he has chosen to be intentional about seeing the positive side of things, using the "yes, and..." answer instead of an immediate "no". I'm telling you, it will open your mind and set you free of legalities that only stunt greatness! Try it.


It is very much still a process and choice to keep an open mind and I am continually rewarded when I do so.

But most of all, I am grateful for a husband who helps me to grow.

Intro

Here we are. Just two people learning to live and love well, more and more as God intended, we hope. To experience romance, sadness, revelation, victory, humility, redemptive power...makes it worth this adventure. We want to worship with our lives. We desire for our love to transform us from the inside out, and then begin to transform others around us.


No couple really knows what they're getting into when they get married. And no amount of insight or sharing of personal experience can truly prepare them for what is to come. But our faith has been stirred up enough to believe that God gives us everything we need for the journey. Even when He called His disciples, giving them power and authority to cast out demons, preach the Kingdom of God, and heal the sick, he also told them to, "take nothing-no staff, no bag, no bread, no money, no extra tunic." (Luke 9) It is simply faith we must take with us on the adventure of life and love. We need faith that God is who He says He is: greater than our greatest fears and insecurities, Lover of His creation, purposeful in all His ways...He is infinite and everywhere...just up to us to acknowledge His presence, even if we need to every five seconds. We can go "all in!"

How great is our God! Welcome to the life of David and Abby Theobald...

"The greatest thing is to love and be loved in return"