How My Heart Changed For The Church

This week news poured into all of our media outlets regarding the 21 Egyptian Christians who were beheaded by ISIS. Now Christians being persecuted, killed, and beheaded isn't something new to me or to any of us who follow Jesus. Martyrdom is very much a part of our history, our Bible, and in our lifetime it's not something that has become extinct. So while this was not new to me at all, their deaths hit me in a way that I had never experienced prior to moving to Ireland as a missionary. I never met those men, their families, or their local churches. I never passed them on the street. I never even visited their region of the world. However for the first time the heaviness and pain of the Church hit me, as 21 of our own had their lives brutally taken from them. It was the Church that had been hit, and even though it was a part of the Church I had never stepped foot into, it is something that influences my mission here in little Enniscorthy, Ireland thousands of miles away.

Since I've stepped foot here in Ireland, one realization has been washing over me again and again becoming one of my biggest regrets; I have not always cared about the Church, in its entirety. Prior to coming to Ireland I only cared about the parts of the Church I saw. What I saw was the church whose doors I entered every Sunday and served in throughout the week. I saw  the other hundred or so churches going after the same thing in our town of Abilene and realized they too were the Church. I saw the churches my husband and I grew up in and knew they were a part of the Church. I saw other churches in the United States of America radically pursuing Jesus and loving the people that were in their community. They too joined with my church, the Abilenien churches, and the Texas churches all to form what I thought was the whole Church in my head.

But you see, prior to coming to Ireland at the age of 23 years old I had never SEEN churches in another part of the world. I had heard about them, listened to missionaries passionately speak about them, heck, I even gave to them. But I did not see the Church with my eyes and my heart, until about 5 months ago when the Holy Spirit revealed to me the Church globally. Now I am meeting people who come from countries all over the world where the Church is increasing and the Kingdom is coming to earth. My heart is expanding to want to see the Church grow in this nation of Ireland and in the continent of Europe in a way that makes me want to burst with expectation every single time I stop and think about it. Sometimes I just want to break down and weep every time I look at the Church because I finally see it for what it is; the bride of Christ, this colorful, cross-cultural family, the joy that was set before him when he endured the cross.

And it just clicked in my spirit "Jesus I get it now, in a whole new way, your church is breathtakingly beautiful."

I felt like he responded, "Molly that's why I got you to go, to see if for yourself." That's why I said to "GO, and make disciples of ALL nations, I knew you would need to see it."

All my life I have been told by men and women I respect greatly, "That you just need to go on a international mission trip and you'll get it." Just go. But I let so many excuses get in the way in my short 23 years of life, until God just picked them off one by one and sent me to another country for 2 years (go figure). I truly believe now with all my heart that those men and women were absolutely speaking truth.

Christians, if we don't have a heart for the Church in its' entirety, we aren't going to love, serve, and pour into the Church as God intends. Jesus died for the Church because he saw the Church as it truly is and loved it. In the same way, those 21 men gave their lives for Christ and his Church because they prized God's mission as worth everything they had. While you and I may never face being martyred for the cause of Christ, we do have a choice each day whether we will die to ourselves, pick up our cross, and follow him or not.

How do I get a heart for the Church globally?

For those of you who haven't ever been on a international mission trip, I think 2015 is your year! WOOHOO!!!!!! Many churches are right now beginning preparations for Summer mission trips. I challenge you to prayerfully consider joining in on one of those trips. If you attend Beltway Park Baptist Church, Josiah Boyd, our amazing missions pastor would love to talk with you more about going on an international mission trip. Consider going. Really pray into it and obey whatever the Holy Spirit leads you to do. One last piece of advice, get ready. Your heart might just explode when you see the Church for the first time. It's so very beautiful.

The People Who Make This Missionary Life Happen

Today has been filled with people, my people. My friends, family, pastors, mission partners, and churches that have made this idea to come to Ireland and build up the church here a continued reality. God had me thinking about all of you today as James and I prepared for our new relationship series with our youth group. As we've prepared for this series God has overwhelmed me with gratefulness for each of you. So I just want to take a moment to say thank you, again... To our families who didn't have a clue two decades ago they'd be sending their oldest off to a foreign land to do mission work. Who took our surprise news two Christmases ago that we were thinking about going to Ireland for a few years with grace and wisdom. Who continually pour into us even when we are thousands of miles a part. Thank you. Ya'll are the best.

To our friends who are constant, faithful, loving, and true wherever we are located. The encouragement and truth ya'll speak into us pushes us to be the best missionaries we can be. Ya'll never cease to inspire us to greatness. Thank you.

To our beloved church families and ministry partners. Who have shaped the man and woman we are today. Who were patient during the times we needed correction and discipline. Who called out and spoke into the giftings and annointings you saw on our lives. Who completely rallied behind us when we needed to raise funds and partners in coming to Ireland. Thank you.

To the man who wooed me with long hair and a guitar named "Tina." Who decided to dream big and lay it all on the line. Who doing life with 24/7 as husband and wife, co-workers, and missionaries is an honor. Life with you never gets old babe. Thank you.

Disillusionment and Grace

Morning Breath

Have you ever had those mornings you just feel like burrowing into the covers like a groundhog, never to show your face except once each year for your birthday?

Me too.

I am not, by nature or by habit, a morning person.

You can ask my parents, brother, college roommates, the men from the Bromansion, and my wife. They will all agree, James Bass has a hard time with the mornings. If morning breath could be an attitude, I would have it in spades. Rest assured, I will go through all the 5 stages of grief (denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance) every single morning.

I just finished the acceptance stage a few minutes ago.

I ran across something that kind of describes the feeling. As I walked into our church's car park I greeted Michael, who operates the booth that controls who comes in and out of the parking lot. When I asked him how he was doing he replied in a cheerful Irish brogue, "Oh I'm alright. Can't complain and no one'd listen if I did." And I completely agree. My wife is very much a morning person; singing songs to herself, dancing when she thinks I'm too busy writing a blog to notice, and she possesses the wisdom not to put up with Surly Morning James.

To be fair, we have also been working like crazy the past few weeks. We are halfway through reorganizing the Alive Church's storage, we prep and clean up from every church event, and Saturday night we did our first church Date Night (where the parents come and watch a movie with other adults while we wrangle the kids for 2-3 hours). Check out our decorations for the kids!

The date night was fun, don't get me wrong, but we were so tired we were on the verge of crying into our lucky charms afterwards. Molly even got a cold this past week. But healthy hard work is not an excuse to pout and it is only by God's grace that my exhaustion and annoyance haven't gotten in the way of blessing our community.

Or maybe this feeling is not just from the mornings or the work, but our stage of missionary life.

You see, Molly and I are entering the stage of acculturation called disillusionment (also called hostility or resistance). The honeymoon/elation phase is tapering off and we are beginning to feel the opposite pendulum swing of being annoyed at the Irish culture, maximizing the ways Americans are awesome, and complaining. Lots of complaining. Mostly on my end. Additionally the disillusionment phase can also include headaches and depression. Huh.

Time and Tide

This last weekend one of our dear neighbors and her father introduced us to Curracloe Beach in Wexford county. For a little bit of background, this is one of the most popular beaches in all of Ireland and is actually where Steven Spielberg filmed the Omaha beach scene in Saving Private Ryan. If you know Molly, you know she is a HUGE beach person, so this was a VERY big deal. Our neighbor's father, Mr. Carty, is a regular at this particular beach because he loves to swim in the ocean, in any weather, all year round. We walked miles up and down the beach as he told story after story of storms, seals, and sand.

There has always been something about the ocean that has pulled at me. My brother once sailed around in the Gulf of Mexico, but I have never been much of a sailor myself. However, the relentless collision and recession of the waves on the shore has always reminded me of the saying,

"Time and tide wait for no man."

So as I walked along the beach, hearing the sound of the rushing waves, I could feel the Holy Spirit whispering. Teaching me. You see, I'm beginning to realize that God's grace does not wait on me. God's grace is relentlessly washing over me, no matter what stage of life that I am in. God does not wait till I am done being surly to work in me or to work through me. No. God is the kind of God who will erode my disillusionment with the abundance of His grace, even if it is sometimes in spite of me. No matter how long the disillusionment stage continues, I know that God's grace will continue crashing over me long after the dissolution dissipates. How do I know this? Well, for one thing...

We are officially 100% funded!!!

For those of you that have been anticipating surprising news from us, THIS IS IT (no baby basses yet). With everything that our monthly partners are pledging to give, we will have everything needed to stay here for the full two years! Praise God! Once again, y'all show us the unrelenting grace of God through your faithfulness to give. If any of you still feel called to partner with us and haven't already, PLEASE DO. Molly and I have specific ways we want to pour into Alive Church through generosity, and that is what any financial surplus will go towards.

The Take Away

So what am I trying to say in all of this?

To be sure, every missionary will encounter disillusionment and by God's grace will walk through it. But would I be wrong in saying that each of us are experiencing disillusionment, at least in one area of our lives? Maybe you are beginning to realize that God never intended you marriage to be like a Disney movie, or that your children should not dictate your identity, or that job you work so hard for can also distract you from a life lived to the full, or that escaping to fantasy or tv when stressed will only numb the fear for the moment. If we let it, disillusion can cripple and depress us. However, if we abandon ourselves to God's grace, we can walk through it with a stronger purpose and vision for that area of life.

What are you disillusioned about?

How is God's grace still working in and through you?

Our Epic Adventure Part II

Moving On Up

James and I have a tradition that we have started for our family. It is to take a day each year in January and dedicate part of it to looking back on the dreams we had the previous year and how God came through and then write down our dreams for the new year. Well, we did our annual dream date a few days ago, and what was astounding to me at the time was how much more bold and courageous we had become in dreaming because of how much God had given us in 2014. There is just so much less doubt and fear going into 2015 because we have seen God come through, EVERY TIME. We know he's not going to fail us ever.

The verse that God gave me at the beginning of this year that gave me direction for our time here in Ireland in 2015 was John 15:16-17, it says,

"You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give it to you. These things I command you, so that you will love one another."

We believe we are here in 2015 for a reason and that is to bear fruit through Alive Church that will abide and to love the people of this town and county with a radical love that they just cannot get over. A few things we would love prayer for this year is that,

• We would be fully fundraised for our 2 years here, right now we are at 94% but we are believing for 100% to come through this year. After living here for 4 months we feel that our budget was pretty on point and that we are going to need every penny we budgeted for to keep our commitment to this mission. If you could just pray about what God may have you give to us this year, we would appreciate it. If you have already given to us, thank you, to get to do what we're doing here because of you is one of the greatest things I've had a chance to experience.

• That we would work our tail ends off to make Alive Church a vibrant, growing, and vision filled church that reaches out to the surrounding area.

• That we would be given vision and strategy in all of the ministries we've been given responsibility over including; worship, children's, youth, and lifegroups.

• Our eyes would be open to the people in our town that need to hear the gospel and see the love of the Father.

• That we would have favor in this town and in every person we meet and work with here in Ireland and Alive Church.

One other special prayer request I have is if you could partner with us in praying for my family to be able to come to Ireland together this year to see us. Many of you may not know that I have a beautiful 21 year old sister Mackenzie who has some pretty severe special needs. Our hope as well as my family's hope was to be able to come to Ireland together this Summer but with Kenzie's epilepsy, insomnia, and frequent mood changes we are all concerned that the trip could not go well for her or for my family. Our prayer is that we would see Kenzie healed this year in a way that my family; my mom, dad, youngest sister Marissa, and Kenzie could all come together. If you could partner with us in praying for that, whew, that would mean so much to us!

 Alive Church: Year of Increase

This year our pastors Enda and Angela Long felt like the Lord laid on their heart that this was going to be a year of increase, and in looking back on all that God has done in our church in 2014 it definitely seems like the direction God is moving our church in. The verse that God had given them was from Isaiah 54:2,

"Enlarge the place of your tent, stretch your tent curtains wide, do not hold back; lengthen you cords, strengthen your stakes."

This verse has a very pragmatic meaning for our church right now in that we are running out of room. This morning every seat was filled except for about 3 chairs in our sanctuary during worship. Usually for a church, that's no problem, they can just add a row. Well our church only has about 70 chairs, we don't have any more to add. Right now we are in faith buying 32 more chairs for this year, believing that we will need every one because there are people that are going to need a place to sit as they worship and hear the good news at Alive Church this year!

For Alive Church if you could just be praying with us,

• That this year is a year of increase for Alive Church in spiritual depth, freedom, healing, salvation, discipleship, newcomers, community, and vision.

• For Pastors Enda and Angela Long that they would experience increase in their energy, time, blessing, protection, and anointing as they are set over more as the church continues to expand and grow.

• That we would be a church that welcomes in EVERYBODY and has a heart to reach out to the people of this town that everyone else ignores or writes off.

• That our youth group  would catch the vision to love God and love others and put it into action in their homes and schools.

To everyone of you who has partnered with us in our mission to Ireland and Alive Church in 2014 thank you it has brought about so much fruit already and we are just getting started. Keep walking this journey with us in 2015, keep us and our church in your prayers, and we will keep sharing the testimonies with you. We love you all so very much and are so blessed to be doing this with each of you.

Go Cowboys!!!!!!!

Our Epic Adventure Part I

"If you want to see crazy miracles, obey the crazy promptings of the Holy Spirit." -Mark Batterson "The Circle Maker"

Our Craziest Year Yet

About this time last year God had dropped an epic sized adventure on our laps called Ireland. We were trying to decide what road to take; the road that made sense, that we had planned for, that we had spent years in college working towards. Or this adventure of bringing his kingdom to earth through the Church in a country that we had only dreamed of seeing.

At the time we were making that decision we were already in a pretty crazy situation. I was living in San Antonio, Texas pursuing a child life internship and my husband was in Abilene, Texas finishing up his Master's of Marriage and Family Therapy. We were living apart and would be for three and a half months. We felt like we were doing the right thing despite the long distance marriage. We felt like we were taking one heck of a leap of faith.

AND then God had the audacity to make us choose a legacy defining decision, smack dab in the middle of our only communication being one hour of facetime each day. What I didn't get at the time is how amazingly good he was to do that. He was weeding out the distractions for us so that we could clearly hear and rely on his voice. What he was really asking us was,

"Do you trust me?"

"Do you really trust me?"

"Or, do you trust your plans for your life more?

We decided to trust him more than our own plans.  And we ended up in the craziest, coolest, most epic adventure we have ever seen in the 23 and 24 years we've been on this earth.

"If you want God to surprise you, you have to give up control. You will lose a measure of predictability, but you will begin to see God move in uncontrollable ways."

-Mark Batterson "The Circle Maker"

It scares you half to death, to give up that control. It's scared me countless times in 2014. But to see God move uncontrollably in your life, in the Church, in the country your living in is WORTH IT. 

Alive Church Advancement

During our crazy, scary, epic year the church we were being called to minister in was having one of its' own. The word that God had give them for the year of 2014 was advancement. That word was one God saw through in every part of Alive Church. It looked like this,

• Highest average weekly attendance in history of the church
• More new people came through the doors of this church than ever before
• More people were saved this year than ever before
• 6 people were baptized
• Alive Church began supporting 4 international ministries
• Alive Church sowed into 2 churches' building funds
• Two sets of missionaries came to help build up ministries in Alive Church (Stina Prim from January to August and James and I from September onward)
• We now have live worship for the first time in years
• Our youth group had the highest attendance ever
• SuperKids Camp (in partnership with Beltway Park Baptist Church) was the biggest it has ever been with 380 kids attending this past Summer

This is mostly numerical data I know, you'll have to look back and keep reading our blog for the personal testimonies. (Or your welcome to call us and ask, there are plenty we have on hand). But it does give a clear picture of what advancement looked like at Alive Church in 2014.

It's been an amazing year for Alive Church, the best one yet, but there is always more. For God is infinite and we are not. We get to keep diving in deeper to all that He is and all that He has for us on this side of Heaven. It's what the epic adventure is all about.

Touring Ireland with The Bass Family

James' parents and brother came to see us for 10 days and we got to show them around our neck of the woods. It was such a sweet time of connecting and making memories. Here's some of the places we got to see...

This is Vinegar Hill, it overlooks our town of Enniscorthy. Its' views are drop dead gorgeous on a clear sunny day! It's also the site of a very famous battle between the Irish rebels and the British military.

This is our new home here in Ireland. We were trying to be modest by not showing any pictures. Just kidding, I wish, it is Kilkenny Castle. It is even more grand on the inside.

Kilkenny is known for its' medieval structures. This is St. Canice Cathedral and it was built in the 6th century.

This may have been my favorite part of their trip. Stephen really wanted to climb a mountain while we were here in Ireland. So we found one for him in County Carlow, called Mount Leinster. These are the hills across from the mountain.

The views from Mount Leinster were out of this world!!! I was in awe.Dublin, oh I how I love thee. James' parents and brother really loved it too. There were a lot of buscars (street performers) on Grafton Street for some entertainment.

This was Stephen's Greene Shopping Center, still lit up for the Christmas season.

This was at Trinity College, that campus is rich with history, cobblestone sidewalks, and majestic architecture.

Thank you friends, family, professors, internship supervisors, and partners in our mission to Ireland. You have paved a way for 2014 to go down the way it did and for all that is to come in 2015. We love you all so very much.

Stay tuned for part 2 of this blog post...