Monday, June 20, 2011

Dream On!

I’ve been thinking a lot about dreams lately—not the kind you have at night but the kind you have when you’re imagining the future. I have dreams for our daughter Alex who just graduated from high school and for Erin who is at a worship conference this week developing her songwriting gifts. I dream about the day researchers translate the cure for Angelman Syndrome from mice in a lab to humans on the street so that Carly and others will be fully healed. I dream about a time when Larry is employed in a job that deeply satisfies him.

As a teenager, I dreamed about being a writer. When Larry and I started writing our first book together, we dreamed that God might use the challenges and blessings we’d been experiencing for some good. Especially on the very tough days, it would comfort us to know God values us and our suffering and that He would make it worthwhile. We began to catch a vision to minister encouragement to people so they would grow in their relationship with Christ and discover the adventure of life even in the midst of their own challenges. That dream started becoming reality when Walk Right In Ministries was born in 2008.

God does amazing things with dreams! Larry and I keep discovering that when our dreams rise up out of vision that God plants in us, when we make plans according to the passions He stirs up, when we walk decisively towards our goals energized by the Holy Spirit, when we hold onto our own hopes loosely and yield to God’s way of unfolding the plan, and when we trust in the Almighty God to shock us with His loving, powerful and sovereign ways, life is truly a grand adventure.

This week, another layer of the dream is unfolding. Walk Right In Ministries is launching an all-new interactive website which expands the ways our team is supporting people around the world who are facing challenges. It’s jam-packed with resources and ways to connect with others who want to grow and thrive even when life gets very difficult.

Here are just a few of the things you can explore at www.walkrightin.org:

  • FREE downloadable tools on topics like marriage, disability, connecting in community
  • Links to a growing library of resources and organizations helping people thrive
  • Finding Glory resources store
  • Descriptions of workshops and resources offered by Larry and Lisa Jamieson
  • Blog featuring practical tools and insights along with engaging conversation
  • …and much, much more!

We know first-hand what it means to thrive while facing adversity. We were enjoying successful careers and renewal after a storm in our marriage when our third daughter, Carly, was born with severe disabilities and later diagnosed with Angelman Syndrome. Support from our church and community helped us in both practical and spiritual ways. Our experiences inspired the establishment of Walk Right In Ministries to help bring individuals, couples and families into healthier, deeper and more satisfying experiences of life, community and God.

Verses like these continue to spur on our hopes and dreams for Walk Right In Ministries:

It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn your statutes. PSALM 119:71

He who goes out weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy, bringing his sheaves with him. PSALM 126:6

The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth. PSALM 145:18

He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. PSALM 147:5

Now, the Walk Right In Ministries team dreams that this new website will extend the breadth and depth of God’s work to thousands more people. We hope and pray that individuals and families — particularly those facing challenges such as disability, chronic health conditions and other life-altering circumstances — will find the new site immediately helpful.

Please take this opportunity to leave feedback, request prayer or register to share in the ministry. Please pass the word. And please pray for the ministry and those it touches.

Thank you for dreaming big dreams and praying bold prayers with us!