I wear cowgirl boots

For the last two days, I've been blessed to be a part of the Christian Community Health Fellowship (CCHF) conference in Nashville. This conference is a gathering of a fellowship of people who desire to share the gospel through healthcare among the poor. I feel so blessed to have stumbled across this community. It's incredible to be around such a huge number of people who are called to tbe same mission that I feel called to and even more, who are much father along on the journey and can advise me how to follow Christ. The men and women at this confere
nce are individuals I hope to emulate. Although their their careers sound like my dream job, that isn't what impresses me the most about them. I hope to emulate these people because they know what it is to follow and suffer for Christ. They have followed Christ into the lives of the poor and have countless stories of finding God and familial community in the least likely places. How beautiful God's redemption is, but not all of their stories conclude and fit into the nice neat package of what God has done. For many of them, the stories are about what God is still doing. They tell the stories of their clinics and their communities with faith, each story seemingly outlined by the phrase "so we prayed and God..."

There will be more to come about this conference as it has been wonderful. It has also been delightful to wander around Nashville with Mason and Anna - eating constantly and becoming the proud owners of cow people boots :)

Before I head to sleep, I want to share one of the biggest encouragments of tbe day. Tonight's plenary speaker was Sandra Post. Ms. Post lives in Philadelphia and exemplifies someone who embraces suffering to follow the call of God. When she spoke of how difficult life in her neighborhood can be, she said that even if she left the neighborhood, she would not stop suffering because the people in her community would still be suffering. They are her family. She couldn't be free from the weight of suffering if she knew they were in pain or danger. These people who were strangers only a few years before have become her people. That's beautiful. What is more, in the pain and struggle in her community, she finds assurance of the gospel because as she put it, the gospel is the only hope they have. Amen to that. As I anticipate doing Wheaton in Chicago in the fall, it was encouraging to hear the story of a sister in Christ who is finding God in a similar (but more permanent) situation. It reminded me of God's faithfulness and reignited my desire to live and work among the underserved of Chicago.

The gospel is the only hope we have, my friends.