Hands & Feet

This month's project of community and development outreach has taken off wonderfully. Each day we get new emails of kids sharing stories, telling us how important it is that Heart Support has been created, and just simply appreciation for the fact that people can come together to share struggles and praise for Jesus. Each day that I log on to check the updates or respond to new messages there's always something that seems to blow me right out of the water. This week alone has been no exception to that rule.

We've gotten a lot of feedback from kids about why it is that they follow the community of Heart Support, how it is that they first heard about Jake's project, and what it is that they can do to help extend us further. Following that, Jake asked me the same questions: how it is that I came across them, and why it is that I asked the question of interning so long ago. He'd remembered I'm sure but, wanted it to be a bit more of a vulnerable answer.

Start with the easier of the two I suppose: I heard about Heart Support from one of my good friends here at Arcadia. He knew how interested I was in the serious issues of mental health, and how it was that I was growing in my faith. So, he gave me the website to check out and experiment with for a bit. nothing of a surprise there.

The second, why it is that I chose to email and persist with Jake is an experience I don't think I've truly ever allowed myself to process. I believed in the story that Jake was sharing- the idea that if we start the conversation and begin to talk about some of the issues then we can find a sense of newness and the courage to rise above it. I've always been one that wants to help people and so when I came across this site, across the community that was slowly being built, the desire drew me in once more. I knew that I had some of my own struggles to face, my own pieces of my story to work through, but I knew that I at least wanted to put my name out there and see.

Now, here I am. Almost 3 months in, and it's been fantastic since the beginning.

This month I've heard stories of how Jake's music, August Burns Red, has changed people. How it has allowed them to hear his story as they begin to piece together and make sense of their own. I've heard stories of kids who are coming from broken homes and dangerous situations- they ask us to pray for them and we let them know that this a community where they can come to discuss some of the things they are facing. This month I've seen people interact. I've heard stories of those who tell others in their community, believers or non- believers, about the mission statement of Heart Support. I've seen the community- even though it is online- be fostered through the sheer ability for communication and conversation. A safe haven is being built just because of our ability to log on, come together as a team, and be there for people across the globe. Technology continues to amaze me with this job.

I think the hardest thing for me is still the idea of wanting to do everything...not perfectly but, almost perfectly. Each time that someone writes into us, I want to make sure that I have the right words or the key passage from Scripture that's going to help them. I want to know that I definitely have the skills to do this. That the ways in which I'm reaching people through twitter and facebook, are effective in extending myself and promoting the message of Heart Support and Jake's goals. The hardest part throughout this whole process has been to acknowledge the fact that I'm still learning- that I'm one student and one team members- and that this entire mission is going to keep growing, not for me and not for Jake but, for the One who has given us the opportunity in the first place.

My hands, my heart, my feet, are all moving in His direction. No matter the things I think I face, it was always under control from the beginning.

Excited to continue receiving these responses.

Reclaim. Restore. Rise Above.