Building Bridges of Opportunity

I'm sitting in a coffee shop meeting, and we've just hit the sweet spot. I can hear the excitement in her voice as the young woman across from me shares how God has laid serving the displaced on her heart. The look in her eyes reminds me why I am passionate about walking with people in their discernment process with IAFR. It's a tremendous privilege to hear God's heart for refugees tumbling out in the desires and dreams of people who feel invited to make a difference. Connecting them with the opportunities to make that difference in my work is profoundly life-giving.

God knows the name of every displaced person.

Among the avalanche of emails I answer and thinking through how to strategically represent IAFR in spaces where we can connect with those looking for an organization like ours to serve with, I find my heart is continually drawn back to that prayerful space of God's invitations to people. I am reminded that God knows the names of every displaced person across the globe and all the details of the connections He desires to help us make. Ultimately, we pray that we will remain attuned to whom God is inviting into our organization and what spaces He is inviting us to enter as we connect with those who have a call and a desire but need a bridge to fulfilling the call to serve.

Discerning God's heart in the call

Several of our newer recruits have sat with me over months, prayerfully waiting on God to lead us to what is best for them in service location and team. In this longer walk of discernment, there is the sweetness of praying with them and watching them experience clarity when we sense the Lord's direction together. I encounter God's Shepherding in their faithful, eager questions, curious research, and vulnerable longings. When we reach a decision, it is with a sense of benediction. It's clear the Lord is in this, and it is good.

Welcoming others into the bigger story

My continued prayer for our mobilization department is that we are good stewards as we seek to reflect the heart of Jesus to the people who want to serve with us on behalf of the displaced of the world. We want to welcome them into a community that enters the greater story with love. We want to operate from the posture of a listening heart as we pursue people and seek to plug them into the mission we share effectively. Pray with us for strategic connections with those who have a call to the displaced, and pray for more people to experience that call as the number of displaced worldwide continues to rise. Pray that we would welcome each other and our displaced friends as IAFR with the welcome that Christ extended to us, to the glory of God.

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