Trail Blazing

Sorry for being AWOL (I can tell I've been with the military) lately.   I've been praying for something to share recently, but nothing seems to be urgently important to blog about.  And I would post pics on here instead of FB, but I can't figure out how to get as many pictures as Roxanne gets on hers, efficiently.   It takes so long to get a picture on my blog.  I wish I could figure out the technical stuff a bit better.  I'm praying that a little lesson from a kind friend or God's divine hand will help me figure this stuff out.

Well to move on, last night while trying to go to sleep, was when a barrage of thoughts came flooding through my head.  While praying and reflecting on what God's teaching me, something profound (at least to me) suddenly came back to my memory.  When Bogie and I were engaged, our small group prayed over us and laid hands on us. (Christ's followers do that sometimes when they are praying for someone.)  One of our respected friends had a word for us and that was trail blazers.  He said God was going to use us as trail blazers to bridge the gap between groups.  He also said that blazing trails is not easy and it's going to be adventurous and difficult.  At the time I was thinking, "How's He going to do that?" but I knew God would reveal it to me over time so I let it pass from my memory.  Over the course of our now almost 13 year marriage I think I've thought about that word several times and all the time wondering how God's going to use it in our lives together.  I thought it would be a bridge over cultures between Asians and Caucasians and it's possible that God has used that in our past.  I was probably too blind to see all that God did when we lived in Chicago.  I love God and I've seen Him change me over time, but how other people's hearts have changed, I can't see.
Well, last night I was in bed realizing that this assignment is definitely one of our trail blazing times.  I saw it clear as day last night and knew God was bringing that memory to the forefront of my mind.  I also knew I had to journal about it today.

Hopefully I can explain why I think God is using us as trail blazers here in Turkey.  I feel like I don't fully belong anywhere.  I feel like I'm in between the military world and the teacher world and I don't fully belong to either group.  I have military friends and I have teacher friends.  I serve with the military chapel and I help out at the school.
Each group has their own events going on and I am stuck in between.  I have tried to bring the two groups together with resistance.  Usually with people making comments to me or avoiding situations with people they don't know.  I hear the military people say things like, "The teachers stick together and don't invite us to things."  I see the military has their events, too.  I can't change any of this and that's cool with me.  Each group has a right to their events and to celebrate with each other, but I can see the separation between the groups better and to possibly see a little of everyone feeling left out of things from each side.  Now, I'm still trying to figure out what God is trying to do with me here and what action He wants me to take.  However, I think I'm just to be doing what I have been doing and trying to unite them in some way.  Making a new path is not easy.  Uniting people who don't feel they need to be united is difficult.  Maybe I'm taking my role a bit too seriously here, but that memory from our prayer time many years ago came back to me last night when events from the past two months were swirling through my head.
What's God doing?????  That's all I want to know, and what's my little role in the bigger picture.