Stepping Out into the Waves...

(and across the Atlantic)

This past year, Ben and I have felt God calling us to something bigger than ourselves. We didn't know exactly where, when, or how He was going to send us, but we had a pretty good idea that it was going to happen, and it was going to be somewhere in the UK. The words I kept hearing God whisper were "community" and "UK". My small mind immediately put together that we would be in some small town in England (because Ben doesn't want to live in the city), and start a community center for local youth (simple, right?) and it would happen in about 5 years (because Ben needs to finish school and have a solid resume before we can think of changing jobs).

 Note to Self: God's plans are bigger and better than our own. God changes hearts and desires when He wants something accomplished. IT'S NOT ABOUT US or the silly plans we try to make on our own.

We thought, because Ben's business company had an office in central England, that we would be going to Redditch, England. London was off my radar, because I felt that any draw I had to the city was just my own heart longing to return.*
 *(I did my graduate studies in London in 2012-2013)
 What I didn't understand is how much God loves using our passions, talents, and gifts to minister to His people.

We decided we were going to start praying daily, multiple times a day even, for God to show us a glimpse of His plan for us overseas. This was almost a year ago! I've learned how to pray AND be patient; the waiting is still happening now. 
A few months ago our church, Grace Point, started talking about sending a small group to London in November for a missions opportunity. We had already made plans to visit London for Christmas 2016, in part to visit some churches and find out more about their work. So we approached our pastor to ask him what the mission team would be doing there. 
We found out that the IMB (International Mission Board) asked our church to send a team to go to London and learn about their new city outreach program to minister to Londoners across different social, cultural, and career platforms. 

Fact: London has a 3% Evangelical Christian rate. You can meet people on the streets who have never heard the name of Jesus! The Church of England is in major decline, and the city is basically GIVING AWAY these big, historical churches because so many have closed their doors and remain abandoned.

They are looking for people who are willing to get normal jobs in London with the help of the IMB, especially people in the business sector (Hey, didn't Ben just graduate with a business degree??) and get plugged into one of their outreach programs. Their goal is to have a church plant around each Underground Tube station point; there are 270 stations!
We were pretty floored when we heard about this opportunity. God has begun to orchestrate this plan for our lives, and we didn't really need to DO anything! We had stretched our brains, done research that seemed to only discourage us, wondering how WE were going to accomplish a plan to minister to the UK (silly us). 

We met with the IMB contact and several of our church leaders to learn more about the London missions initiative. He said that right now they are researching the different cultures and subcultures within the city at each Underground Tube stop.  I explained that during my stay in London as a graduate student I had worked for Art on the Underground researching cultures and subcultures for different Tube lines and stations. THE SAME RESEARCH THEY'RE DOING NOW HAD BEEN MY JOB IN LONDON! God was working on this even 4 years ago, crazy right? I think the whole room felt the weight of this awesome "God moment". 

 The IMB program is still brand new, they have lots of kinks to work out, and we still have many questions. However, God has made it very clear that we need to be ready whenever we have a solid opportunity to go. 
Brexit and the waning English economy makes acquiring a job seem daunting, but God has taken us this far, and we have faith that if it is His plan He'll take us the next mile and beyond. 
Please pray for us. If you have a prayer list, journal, bible, please write us down! 

Specific ways to pray for us:
- God would continue to work out the "kinks" of the new IMB initiative and give us a clear path (job) to GO
- We would joyfully leave the "things" behind in order to go for an unconditional amount of time (this is especially hard for me as we've moved into a new house and gotten it all decorated.. I know.. silly.)
- We would have support and love from everyone around us
- God would continue to build our hearts for ministry.*

* This is something we have been fighting with over the last year- are WE ministers? Could we put together a sermon/talk? Ben is an introvert and I tend to lose my breath and thoughts when I give presentations to my peers. We aren't Pastor Mike! (I know he'll think thats funny, but really, he has a great gift to preach) 
God took me to this verse today:
1 Corinthians 1:17 "..Christ sent me to preach the good news- and not with clever speeches and high-resounding ideas, for fear that the cross of Christ would lose its power."
I have faith that God will equip us for anything He calls us to!

We are thankful to have such a big family in Christ.

Carly + Ben

Twalumba Leza

Months away from school has given me the opportunity to spend some time with God and reflect on His character and how he is moving in my life. 

This year, I decided to do a "resolution word" instead of a goal. My word was FEARLESS. After going through a season in my life that had me in so much pain and anxiety I could barely stand it, I found myself constantly living in fear.  I knew I needed to learn how to trust God to give me peace to overcome this fear, and it has been an extremely difficult process. The mind is an onerous thing to quiet and discipline. 

It says in Zechariah 13:9 that you have to go through fire to be refined, "And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried; they shall call on my name, and I will hear them; I will say, It is my people; and they shall say, The Lord is my God."

This has proven true in my life. Today I listened to a talk about how when we go through pain, there is no way around, no pill to ease it- we just have to walk through and feel it. Sometimes, when God is working in our lives we have to feel the pain of the fire to come out on the other side more refined. We have to trust that He has a purpose for his glory in everything. 

I felt called to go to Africa this spring and I was terrified. A month leading up to the trip I really did not want to go. I was scared of snakes, flying overseas, traveling on the African terrain, sleeping conditions; there were a lot of reasons to be scared of going to Zambia. I knew that the only thing I could do was pray for God's peace, and when I did, I heard Him say to me, "Do not fear, for I the Lord your God and with you wherever you go." I was a little shaken when I heard this. One- the voice was very clear, and two- it sounded like a verse from the bible.

walking through the bush to church

 I google searched it and found it in Isaiah 31:9-10 "You whom I have taken from the ends of the earth and called from its remotest parts and said to you, "You are my servant, I have chosen you and not rejected you, do not fear for I am with you, do not dismay for I am your God; I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my victorious right hand." 

I took that as I sign that I needed to trust that God would equip me with what I needed, and when I needed it, in Zambia. When I arrived in Africa, I felt such an overwhelming peace the entire time. My fear was gone, even when our team found scorpions, rats, A GREEN MAMBA*, I was not afraid. At one point I was standing 10 feet into the bush (high grass where many of the men take large sticks and rods to beat off snakes and lions, often times they will clear out this grass so they can see the snakes and critters coming, they think we are crazy for having grass in our yards) and as I stood there I realized how at peace I was, even in the most dangerous place around our orphanage. 

painting a mural in the main hall

There have been times that the fear has crept in since I have been home, but I have been quick to pray against it, and the peace has been restored. God had to take me half way around the world to refine me in this area of my life, but he made me brave for his namesake, and I am thankful for how he changes me and works to refine me constantly. 

"And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns." Philippians 1:6

"For it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose." Philippians 2:13

                                                  Carly

Playtime on the tractor by banana trees

*The green mamba's bite is lethal in 5-30 minutes

New Day Orphanage: A Vision for My Short Term Mission

July 14th-26th I will be traveling to Zambia to work with New Day Orphanage. I go into this with my number 1 priority being this: LOVE ON ANYONE I CAN GET MY HANDS ON. 

God has made it abundantly clear to me that I am called to go to this specific place at this specific time.

 In April, I felt Africa on my heart; which is odd, because I've never felt strongly about doing missions there before. I started asking some leadership at my church about mission teams to Africa, and was told that they don't really happen in the summer. It is too hot in Mali, so teams normally get sent in the fall or winter. As a teacher with 3 personal days a year, this is problematic for me. I dismissed the tug on my heart until they announced TWO WEEKS LATER out of the blue that they had decided to send a team to Zambia in July. Zambia's winter (dry season) falls when we have our summer. 

I attended the first informational meeting for the trip, and they announced that they needed people who were willing to work with kids and possibly an artist who was willing to do murals. 

MY HEART STOPPED.

I was in this meeting for a reason. God had put Africa on my heart for a reason, that much was totally clear.

 As I am now fully invested in this trip, I find myself at times fearing what I could face in a place like Zambia (my husband, in his wonderful timing, told me about the dangers of the black mamba snake in Africa as we were going to sleep the night I committed to this mission). 

With that said, I'm putting my fears, anxieties, and reservations aside because God's purpose is bigger than mine. He knows what He is doing, and I usually guess myself through day-by-day. 

I'll go ahead and trust Him. 

New Day kiddos, I can't wait to love on them!

To tell you a little bit about New Day, they are a Christian-based organization that educates and homes Zambian orphans, while still instilling the Zambian culture and necessary life trades such as sewing and farming.

To learn more, the Tidwell family runs New Day and has a blog- click here.

It isn't certain what our team will be helping with, because things change on a day to day basis at New Day. We might help with classes, go into the village for bible studies and discipling, or something else completely out of the blue could come up. You never know in the Bush!

If you would like to be a prayer partner or sponsor me on this trip, you can email me at carlyecartmill@gmail.com for more information. Prayer is what is crucial at this point now.

 Some things you can pray specifically for are:

• The leaders at New Day as they continually serve the kids and communities in Zambia
• My team leaders as they prepare to lead 12 of us overseas to serve New Day
• My heart as I prepare to serve
• The health of my team before, during, and after our trip
• That the Spirit of God would move in us to love, support, serve, and walk and talk alongside the Zambian people

"But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." 

 Acts 1:8

"How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, "Your God reigns.""

Isaiah 52:7

Carly

Top 20 Things a First Year Art Teacher Learns

I usually post pretty serious things on here. However, with summer approaching I am starting to reflect on my first year teaching. It is easy to think of things I wish I had known at the beginning. Things that would have made me such a better teacher; but I had to learn those things the hard way, and move on. And I still have a lot of learning to do. 

In honor of end-of-year festivities, and in dedication to all my teacher and art teacher friends I give you without further ado, 

THINGS EVERY ART TEACHER KNOWS AFTER THE FIRST YEAR TEACHING

1. Coffee (lots of it) during material prep in the morning is essential. 

2. There is nothing harder than each grade using different materials. 

"EVERYONE IS USING MARKERS TODAY. EVERYONE."

                                   Simplify. 

3. When you're getting dressed in the morning, you're gonna want to look something like this..

                   ...but the reality is that you work with materials that stain, and 800 children that don't look forward 40% or more of the time. 

4. Most kids love art, and just want to come in and start working right away.  However, the reality is they have to listen so they can learn the WHAT before the HOW. 

When a class comes in all excited and you're like..

5. Fifth graders are the leaders of the school, but the last quarter of the year they get real sassy and too cool for school. You cooler than me, homie?

6. Lunch time on busy days means eating in 5 minutes so you can go prep materials for the next 3 solid hours of art classes.

7. November hit and all of a sudden half of classrooms were out with the flu. You touch EVERY MATERIAL THEY DO.  Buy antibacterial and LOTS of Vitamin C (it doesn't work though, good luck.)

8. You learn power in the poised "No". You will get asked for paint and other supplies, to do posters, fix anchor charts, and other time consuming things that take away from the kids. It's all about balance!

9. Every kid knows the power of FREE DRAW DAY. Enjoy kids, enjoy. 

10. Getting married half way through the year means your name will never be said just one way ever again.. Miss. Edwards.. Mrs. Cartmill.. Mrs. Cartwheel.. whatever.

11. Patience is a virtue. Especially when you've been teaching the same art lesson every day, all week, answering the same questions, multiple times a class. 

"I just told you where the pencils are.."

 12. Organization is key. 

 13. If you feel like you're drowning in materials and artwork and projects from your higher ups, just keep going.. you got this.

14. Most PD days won't be relevant for you.. at all. But luckily there are great websites like The Art of Education and state conferences that give you a boost!

15. Projects will flop. It's inevitable. 

16.  If we could have an invisibility button to diffuse for an hour when we come home, that would be really great. We need it. Badly.

17. But instead we usually end up talking to our spouses like they're one of our first grade kids who can't find the paint brushes two feet in front of them.

18. There are those great moments that students GET IT and do more than you could ever imagine. They make the other little things worth it.

19. Not to mention it's the great, goofy people you work with that just get you.. and really become your family.

20. June rolls around and that summer break refreshes you for another round of creative goodness...

and at 3pm on June 2nd I'm gonna be all..

Out of the Woods

This is coming to you a little late, but better now than never, right? You might have seen pictures of our 'little' hiking trip. Highlights of it were breathtakingly beautiful like the picture below with waterfalls and outreaching overviews and large mossy rocks. 

But there is a side to the trip that wasn't so pretty. I am ashamed to say at one point I stood in the middle of the trail, alone, crying, as I angrily threw Ben's fifty pound backpack a whole two feet. 

Let me give you the story. 

We set out on Piney Trail-a 17 mile hike- with two 30 pound backpacks, a map, and some hammocks.
Our first day, we hiked about 8 miles, got lost due to the fact there are NO trail signs and MANY trails, back tracked our steps, got to what we thought was our camp site, and met some guys who told us we were far, far away from where we thought we really were. I took my backpack off to find that the weight had been carried unevenly, and I had welts coming off me 1/4 an inch in about 8 places on my body. 

That night, we went to sleep in our hammocks and the temperature dropped to the lower/mid 30s. We didn't realize we needed hammock pads under our sleeping bags to keep the heat in. We woke up at 2am, then again at 4 and finally started a fire to warm our numb bodies up. We started out at dawn and hiked the rest of the way back from where we now knew we were on the map all the way back to our car. 

There isn't a feeling quite like being lost on a 20 mile trail in the middle of a national forest. As I stood on the trail crying and angry, God softened my heart and he said to me, 'I am with you'. I had been so caught up in my miserable attitude of being lost that I had forgotten in the hope that I wasn't actually alone.
 As I realigned myself with the heart of God, I noticed the beauty of the woods around me, I remembered that we had packed all the provisions we needed for days, and lost the fear. Sometimes I feel that way in life, like I'm floating from one tired day to the next and I'm never going to get out of the woods. The unknown aspect of the journey becomes too much for us to bear- we cannot seem to trust God enough to blindly follow Him. It seems to be worse when something really stressful in life is happening, too. I think at many times in our week, we are all that person on the trail in the middle of the woods walking around aimlessly screaming, "God? Where are you? Where am I? How do I get back to you?" The truth is, He never left.


We can choose to follow Him on the trail daily. And it helps he left us a pretty good map.

"Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you."
Deuteronomy 31:6

Following Jesus

God has been changing my heart in so many ways this last month. Our church has embarked on a new series around the book Not a Fan by Kyle Idleman. This series, above many other greats we have had in the last few years, has really struck a chord with me.

And in my time reading through and digesting, a question remained prominent in my mind:

Taking the promise of eternal life and masking it for one moment, who is Jesus to me? Why is his character worthy of my praise?

I am not trying to dilute the promise of salvation when we believe and follow in Jesus, but rather, I'm trying to get at the real heart of my motives as a believer. Am I praying, going to Sunday services, serving at church- because I want my salvation, or because I love God? I have been humbled by this conviction lately. 

Idleman talks about the story of Jesus feeding the 5,000 in John 6. He feeds thousands from five loaves of bread and two fish, and their bellies are full. They stay with Jesus that night and wake the next morning looking for him- hungry for more.

 He has become a meal ticket to them. 

Jesus and the 12 disciples have already left, and when they follow him across the lake he explains,

"I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty."

Most of them, unable to except this, turn away. 

I don't want to be one of the 5,000 chasing after Jesus for a fleeting hunger fix. I want to love and praise God for the triune Sovereign that He is, and follow after His Word. It takes more than just belief. More than words or a proclamation, more than a little change on Sundays. Commitment means a willingness to follow, and a willingness to sacrifice your life to the change God has in store for you. 

Following Jesus isn't about the free bread, it is about repentance, surrender, commitment, and death to yourself. 

"Then he said to them, 'Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me."

Luke 9:23

Carly

Opportunities for Grace

One thing that the Lord has been teaching me is that guilt does not come from Him, conviction does. Guilt leaves us with the feeling that we've messed up and we're lost, conviction reveals our error and leads us to the truth. Conviction is a product of love. Guilt is a product of hate. 

For a long time I lived under guilt, and I allowed myself to be intermittently bogged down by despair and shame. I'm not saying I've led a terrible life, but I am saying that I didn't understand this part of God's character. God has brought me through some crazy things in the last year, and through it all, this lesson has remained constant. God is love, and he leads us with conviction.

I'm reminded of it at school, too. I constantly fail. I let down my kids in my planning, in loving them, in teaching them, in everything. 

The first place my mind goes every time is guilt. The feeling that I will never be good enough, I'll never be good as Mrs. Teacher-in-Second-Grade whose class adores her, or Mrs.Art-Teacher-of-the-Year at another school who seems to have the best lessons. Comparison is brutal to the heart.

Instead, I have to be reminded that guilt does not come from the Father, he offers opportunities for grace, and to do better in the situations where we feel we have failed. Because He IS love, he loves by offering us new possibilities every day, and in my case... every 40 minutes! :) 

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 

Romans 8:1

Carly