Fall Newsletter

At least, the blog version of it!

I hope this newsletter finds you well and enjoying the beautiful fall weather.  The crisp mornings, warm afternoons, and beautiful colors make this season my absolute favorite!  

With the change in the season comes a new season in my life as well.  As many of you know, I returned from The World Race in November 2011.  After spending 11 months traveling to 11 countries around the world and experiencing Kingdom living and true community for such a time, I found myself back home with no real plan.  

I was fortunate enough to find a job that I very much enjoyed - leading the after-school program and summer day camp at Park Place Children’s Center in Simpsonville, SC.  I knew, though, that I was in a season of rest and transition, and now I am happy to announce that I am embarking on a new adventure.  

I recently accepted a position with Adventures in Missions, the organization that sponsors The World Race.  I made the move to Gainesville, Georgia shortly after Labor Day and began working as a World Race mobilizer.  My job is to help participants prepare for their own 11-month journey.  I deal with everything from getting a passport to helping with support raising to dealing with the range of emotions that accompanies something so personally and spiritually challenging.  

This is such an amazing opportunity to be on the “other side” of the Race.  I 

think back to the day I had my interview.  I was so nervous!  Now I’m the one asking those same questions I remember answering over two years ago.  Now I’m the one helping people navigate the world of speaking engagements, t-shirt sales, tents, and malaria pills!  

I am incredibly blessed to be living with a dear friend, Julie Malament.  Julie was actually the first person I met that was going on The World Race with me!  I remember meeting up with her at an REI attic sale in Charlotte and chatting about the Race over Panera bagels and coffee.  Now we’re doing life together and making crafts and taking care of a blind one-eyed cat who lives with us!

For more information on this ministry and how you can help, read here.

Thank you!

To receive mail from me, please share your contact information (mailing address, phone number, and e-mail address) by commenting on this blog or by e-mailing me at erintknight@gmail.com.  

The Not-So-Glamorous Life of a 9 to 5 Missionary

Oh, the life of a missionary.  Preaching in the bush church, the endless amounts of rice, the mismatched clothes, the endless string of e-mails, talks around the water cooler. . .wait, what?

That’s not missions. 

When I first knew that my life would take a path towards missions, I imagined living deep in the jungle, far from lights and noise, teaching kids and cooking with the locals.  I imagined swimming in the local river and watching the sun set on hot, sticky, tropical evenings while playing guitar and singing worship songs.    

So why do I sit in a office for eight hours a day in Gainesville, Georgia, under the glow of fluorescent lights and taking in the sounds of clacking keyboards and the gurgling of a coffee pot pumping out liquid motivation?

I’m a missionary.

Last year, I was a missionary.  There were bugs and mountains and orphans and bus rides.  That was missions. . . right?  

Last year, Adventures in Missions (AIM) sent out over 6,400 missionaries to the field.  It was through a whole network of people that make that possible.  AIM currently employs over 150 staff members at its headquarters in Gainesville.  It is from this home base that thousands of people of all ages are mobilized to reach the nations.  

My job in the Admissions department is part of the network.  When I was getting ready for my World Race, there was someone in the Gainesville office there to help me with support raising and blogging and choosing my gear, and now I am here to see the next ‘generation’ sent out. 

So no, it’s not so glamorous.  I don’t hold AIDS orphans on a daily basis or pray with widows.  I prepare those who will.  I don’t pray for the sick or preach the Gospel.  I prepare those who will.  

And with this role as missionary comes the task of support raising, a job that is second in torturous misery only to being locked in a windowless cell for a week, your only company being the smell of fried chicken that you don’t get to eat.  

Okay, so I don’t like support raising if you didn’t catch that earlier. 

BUT, I’m going to put on my big girl pants and do this thing.  And as much as I’d rather clean out pirate kitty’s litter box with my bare hands than come to terms with this, it’s Biblical!  What?!  Yup.  

We see numerous accounts of missionaries being supported for their work in the scriptures.  In Luke 10, Jesus sends out his twelve disciples and instructs them to go on their missionary journey and “take no bag for the journey, or extra tunic, or sandals or a staff;  for the worker is worth his keep.” (Matthew 10:9-10 NIV) 

In Paul’s letter to the Philippians, he makes a point to thank them for their provisions for him.  He says, “for even when I was in Thessalonica, you sent me aid again and again when I was in need.  . .I have received full payment and even more; I am amply supplied, now that I have received from Epaphroditus the gifts you have sent.  They are a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice, pleasing to God.  And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:16-19 NIV) 

Paul later teaches on the importance of supporting Kingdom workers in 1 Corinthians.  

“Who serves as a soldier at his own expense?  Who plants a vineyard and does not eat of its grapes?  

For it is written in the Law of Moses, ‘Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain.’  Is it about oxen that God is concerned?  Surely he says this for us, doesn’t he?  Yes, this was written for us, because when the plowman plows and the thresher threshes, they ought to do so in the hope of sharing in the harvest.

If we have sown a spiritual seed among you, is it too much if we reap a material harvest from you?  If others have this right of support from you, shouldn’t we have it all the more?” 

1 Corinthians 9:7-12 NIV 

We are sowers of the field and are worthy of our wages.

Would you consider partnering with me in this ministry of sending radical disciples to the nations?  Click on the link below OR click the "Support" link at the top of the page to read more or make a donation.  

Support Me!

Crossing the Ocean

"The place God calls us to is the place where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet."

-Frederick Beuchner

I blame Disney for my inability to take the easy path in life.  I’m pretty sure I saw Beauty and the Beast in the theater at least five times (back in the glory days of the dollar theater, of course!).  There’s this scene where Belle is running through a meadow singing at the top of her lungs,

I want adventure in the great wild somewhere,

I want it more than I can tell,

And for once it might be grand,

to have someone understand,

I want so much more than they’ve got planned.

And by “they,” she means the villagers and her father, who all expect her to marry Gaston and settle into the predictable life of being a housewife.  

But not Belle.  She wants adventure, and she doesn’t know where to start.  Conveniently following her little rant, her horse shows up and, in a Lassie-like moment, warns her that her father is in mortal danger and she rides off into the setting sun.  Then some hour and half later there’s a handsome prince and a castle and library and happily ever after.  Yeah.

It’s been nine months since coming home from the epic adventure known as The World Race.  My world was wrecked and opened at the same time.  My heart was broken and made alive all at once.  I felt contentment in simplicity and purpose in the mundane.  It was unlike anything I’ve ever experienced, and quite frankly, it’s difficult to integrate into life back home.  

I titled my blog This New Season.  I came home with new dreams and no plans.  The two hardest questions a Racer faces when coming off the field are 

“How was your trip?”  (Like, how much time do you have?)

and 

“What’s next for you?”  

Fortunately for the planner in me, the next season came quickly and easily.  Within two months, I found myself in a comfortable job that I liked very much.  Despite the fact that I left teaching (and often complained about the fact that, of all things, I couldn’t seem to escape kids’ ministry on the Race), I do love children, and I have fallen in love with the kids I get to work with everyday.  Oh, let’s be honest.  I don’t “work” with them.  We hang out.  

A few weeks after coming home, I moved in with my grandmother, which has been a blast.  She’s a hoot (my favorite grandma quote so far:  “How did she come up with the name Lady Gaga?”)  

I made new friends and have a found a new church that I love.  I began sewing as a way to raise funds for potential long-term missions.  I found a new normal and a new balance.  

But I knew this was a season of transition.  To what and for how long, I wasn’t quite sure.  That answer is now clear.  

Drum roll please. . . 

I am excited (and scared/nervous/hopeful/wishful/petrified) to announce that I will be moving to Gainesville, Georgia this week to begin working in the Admissions department at Adventures in Missions.  

I can honestly say the decision to move was one of the hardest decisions I have ever had to make.  It’s not that I didn’t want the job and the excitement of a new place and all of that.  It’s that I didn’t want to leave behind so much.  

Driving the bus at work the other day, I sort of had an “Oh crap what have I done?” moment, wishing for just a minute that life could stay the way it’s been.  And you know what I realized?  I want to stay because it’s so dang COMFORTABLE.    

Not that comfortable is wrong.  I believe this season has been one of rest for me, and for that I am thankful.  But I am not finding myself particularly challenged, nor have I wandered too far from my comfort zone.  

This is a risky move.  There are many “if’s.”  But I feel like it is the right decision and will help move me closer to where I want to be.  I have more thoughts here.  Maybe later.     

And who knows?  Maybe there’s a prince charming at this end of this story. :)  Holding a puppy. 

Personal Challenge: Tithing

I’ve been thinking about the issue tithing lately.  As most of you know, over the last two years, I’ve gone from a working professional with a steady income to an “unemployed” missionary, to an underemployed hourly worker (doing a job, by the way, that I feel like was God’s perfect provision these last 4 months.)

Needless to say, money is tight right now.  I’m not living on my own, and I try to only spend what I need to.  

And yes, a grande iced americano extra ice please is a necessary expense once a week.  :)

Anyway, while trying to cut back in all areas of my spending, I’ve also managed to become a little stingy in my tithing since being home.

Yes, it seems that 10% of your income is such a small amount compared to the 90% you get to keep, but when you actually figure it out on paper, how many times do you think, “Oh, that’s supposed to be my tithe?  But I could do this with that money, or that amount would pay that bill this month.  

And isn’t it easy to go into church on Sunday morning without having considered what you’ve “decided in your heart to give?”  The offering time comes up, and hey, you’ve got a five or a ten in your wallet, so you toss it in.  Ten percent?  Eh, I’m giving something.  

This is NUTS.  Tithing is a Biblical commandment, just as loving your neighbor and abiding in Christ are Biblical commandments.  Why do we cling so tightly to the money we have?  IT WAS NEVER OURS TO BEGIN WITH!!  God gave it to us, just like He gave us the job by which we earn the money, so it is really so ludicrous that He asks us to trust Him by giving a measly 10% back to furthering the local church and the Great Commission?  

Tithing is worship.  Tithing is trusting.  And it is necessary.  

God doesn’t need our money, just as he doesn’t need our prayers.  But He asks for them.  God continually pursues us for our love and devotion so that He can bless us more richly through an intimate relationship.

So I’m challenging myself.  

To GIVE.  

I sometimes wonder if I’ll have enough to make it to the next paycheck.    But I am going to TRUST that God is going to do mighty works of provision by TRUSTING Him with my first fruits.  For the next 4 months, I am going to faithfully give ten percent of my income to the Lord.  And I’m going to give it FIRST, meaning that, as much as is in my control, I will give my tithe BEFORE spending any of the rest of the income.  Thanks to online giving at my church, this is easier than ever before.  No more waiting until Sunday.  No more remembering to pull out the old checkbook and write the check while rushing out the door.  The FIRST "payment" I make will be my tithe.  

Four months. 

I’m ready to see the hand of God provide in miraculous ways in the next four months.  Let’s do this thing! 

Not my words: 

The purpose of tithing is to teach you always to put God first in your life. Tithing is a reminder that God is the supplier of everything we have. It is also God's personal invitation to an outpouring of his blessing in your life. In Malachi 3:10 (NLT), God says this: "Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this," says the LORD Almighty, "and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it." This is the only place in Scripture where God tells us to put him to the test. In other words, he's saying, "Go ahead. I dare you. See if you can out-give me."  (http://www.wearecitychurch.com/give) 

The Ability to Move Ahead

Where did the time go?  Have a I really been home from the World Race for six months?  Was I really in Africa this time last year?  

While eating dinner the other night at a restaurant, it hit me how I don’t think twice about ordering off a menu I can read from a waitress I can understand.  

Each month of the Race was like Readjustment 101.  We could shake off jetlag, adopt a new currency conversion, and learn “hello,” “goodbye,” and “thank you” in a new language every 30 days or so.  How quickly we adapted.  And how quickly life at home can return to normal.  

Oh, if only it was normal.  Now I face a new challenge.  Now I have to decide what to do with this person who came home changed.  

I think God is in the business of moving people forward.  I think the reason He takes us to the mountaintops is so we can glimpse the next peak we are to climb.  We’re tired and sweaty and just want to be on level ground again, but He says, “Look over there.  That’s where we’re going next.”  

I’ve struggled with anxiety for most of my life, and I’ve had overwhelming senses of fear and dread lately at the thought of what might be next.  There are days I live with extreme passion, and there are days where I am paralyzed with the thought of not fitting into the mold.  I believe the latter happens when I am weak, and my heart is just a little too accessible to the Evil One’s lies.

Fortunately, God in not in the business of calling us to security.  For where there is security, there is no faith.  And that’s the last mountain I want to be on.  

So I climb! 

I totally wrote this blog WITHOUT rock climbing in mind.  It just so happened that I had my first rock climbing experience this past weekend! 

Here are some fun facts about me and rock climbing.

Why I did NOT want to go rock climbing:

1)  I'm afraid of heights.

2)  Unlike some people, I don't really desire to climb tall rocks. 

3)  I don't trust my life to a rope.

4) I don't always have the best coordination.  This has led me away from most sports and athletic activities in life.   Which is why I run.  Straight ahead; no contact with others. It works for me. 

Why I WENT rock climbing:

1)  I need to step out of my comfort zone on a regular basis. 

2)  I need to conquer irrational fears.  If I can bite something off a fried snake in Cambodia and slit a chicken's throat in Mozambique, climbing a mountain should be nothing. 

3)  I wanted to get out and meet people. 

Anyway, I had fun.  And I'm proud that I did it.  Hmm, what's next. . . I'm thinking it either involves a kayak or some bagpipes. . . 

Poema

What is Poema?

Poema is the name I have chosen for the handmade bags I am selling.  Eventually, I would like to add products such as aprons, skirts, home decor, and possibly even jewelry! 

Here is my first Poema bag!

Is this a business or a support-raising effort?

It is both.  It is a business in that I am creating a product and selling that product for a profit. That profit, however, is my source of support-raising.  

What am I doing with the funds raised from Poema?

I have no idea.

That’s not entirely true, of course.  I do have ideas of where God might be leading me next.  One goal that I have is to attend G42 Leadership Academy, a six-month mission training school in Mijas, Spain, to participate in a Social Entrepreneur course (basically, business as missions).  

What is the ultimate goal?

My ultimate goal in all of this is to use my dreams, gifts, and talents to further God’s kingdom on earth.  This is my Kingdom Dream. 

I want to achieve this dream by using entrepreneurship to provide opportunities to women would would not otherwise be able to support themselves and their families.  I was recently directed to a ministry in Port au Prince, Haiti called Heartline Ministries, which trains local women in sewing so they can start their own businesses.  How exciting!

I know the end goal; I am just not sure right now what the path will look like.  I do know, though, that 100% of the profits from Poema will be used to help me reach this goal.  Whether it’s interning for a summer in Haiti, or G42 in Spain, or some other ministry here or abroad, sales from this business will go towards supporting this and, ultimately, my ministry.

For more information on Kingdom Dreams, click here. 

What does “Poema” mean?  

The word “poema” has several meanings in several languages, but I chose it because it comes from a Greek word meaning “workmanship” or “handiwork.”  Ephesians 2:10 tells us that

“We are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God has prepared in advance for us to do.”

It is also the source from which we get the word “poem.”

Did you know that you are God’s poem?

How much are the bags?

The bags will vary in price and depend largely on the cost of materials used.  I am working on posting photos with prices soon! 

How do I purchase a bag?

The easiest way is to simply e-mail me and let me know which bag(s) you would like.  I can let you know of a delivery date, and we can either plan a time and place to meet up, or I can ship the bag to you for a fee.  

Stay tuned!  More to come!

Bigger or Better

       When I was in middle school, I went to a church youth event where we played a game called “Bigger or Better.”  It was the first - and last - time I’d heard of this game, so for those of you for whom this was a favorite childhood activity, please excuse the following description.

Basically, you have two teams, and each team is given the same item.  I think I remember it being a golf tee (why I remember that and often forget my own phone number is beyond me).  Anyway, the object was to go door to door in a neighborhood and ask each unsuspecting neighbor for something that was either bigger or better than the golf tee.  After a certain amount of time, both teams would return to HQ (aka, the church), and the team with the biggest or (wait for it. . . ) best object would triumph.  I don’t remember the results, but I do recall something like a bicycle and a giant beach ball.  Basically, I think it gave the neighbors an excuse to get rid of something that had long been taking up much-needed storage space.  

Anyway, I think God is in the business of bigger and better when it comes to His followers.  I don’t think God asks things of us without having something else in mind.  

Oh, you went on a mission trip?  Okay.  Now devote your life to . . . ministry/country/people group.

Oh, you’re mentoring a high school girl?  Let me give you ten more.

Did I hear you say, “Here I am Lord.  Send me?”  Are you sure?  Because I have plans. 

Oh, you raised $15,000 for Me?  Well, you get to do it again, except this time, you don’t get to ask anyone.

Oh crap.

Sometime God’s “bigger” is our “scarier,” and God’s “better” is something we see as impossible.  But what else would you expect?  You don’t ask a child to do long division without first teaching him to add and subtract.  God’s “little” assignments - or, dare I say, trials - are what lead to greater things.  James 1 tells us to “consider it pure joy. . . whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.  Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and not lacking anything.” (1:2 - 4)

What has God asked of you lately?  Do you see how that is leading you to something bigger in your future?  Is God requiring more faith than you even thought you possessed?  What is something in your past that you see now as God’s way of preparing you for things to come?  

Just somethin’ to think about on this Friday night.  

In other news. . . 

I just found out that I will speaking at a local Woman’s Missionary Union (WMU) meeting next week about the Race and my future plans.  Many prayers please!!