There’s something incredible about starting a new beginning.

In life we get a lot of new beginnings; going to College, finding our first job, getting married, starting a family, giving our life to Christ. We really get a lot of chances to decide who or what we are going to become, how our life in the next season is going to look and what values will determine our path.

I’ve had a lot of new beginnings but marriage has been one of the greatest. We’re just 4 months in…our lives still lay before us waiting to be lived and yet I somehow find myself wondering where all the time has gone.

Before we got married we made lists.

I love lists.

I make them for everything and hardly use them for anything. If you happened to stop by my house and look in my night stand you would find a drawer full of folded up papers, every shape, and color all stocked full of items yet to be accomplished.

One of our lists was for the purpose of designing our lives, how and what we would value, who and where we would become. Now don’t get me wrong, this isn’t a map we illustrated and presented before God saying: “this is how you will make our lives happen, thanks for all the help.” This is just a list of our priorities, the values which we will consider in every one of our decisions.

Here’s our list:

1. Christ 

2. Missions and travel

3. Family

4. Generosity

5. Gratitude

6. Discovery

7. Health and wellness

We spent so much time praying through our blueprint of values, praying for our marriage, our future our family and yet here we were months into marriage with nothing but a list. We hadn’t seen our lives magically change just because we had hoped they would with the start of a new season.

So I came home from work one day and said “Nick, we need to start making our life happen and stop just letting it happen to us.”

(And the Angels Sang)

OK…but for real, this was an epiphany to me. I can’t even begin to list the “new beginning” goals that have weighed me down over the years, only to be left unaccomplished. And here I am at the start of a beginning that will define the rest of my life on this earth, and a beginning that will determine the lives of our children and family (yeah…this is a big beginning…I get it).

And what am I doing with it?

(oh yeah, catching up on Parenthood…ok but for real this is a great show, no hate here)

So Nick and I began praying and God began opening doors, flooding us with opportunities and passion. Over the course of a few weeks we committed to travel with a team of people from my home town back to a place I’m so dearly in love with, Burkina Faso (West Africa).

That night, we can home filled with expectancy over what God would do in Africa, thrilled with the opportunity to go back. When we got in bed and began praying about it I just kept hearing God say; “And Asia…And Asia…”

Umm, Right….so how do I tell my very logistical, methodical husband with whom I spent weeks discussing Africa with that God is telling me…”And Asia…”

My heart began to race as I looked at Nick and before I could think the words came out; “I think we should plan a trip to Asia as well…” He literally laughed…(the praying, believing, and convincing took a few weeks)

 So a crazy adventure is about to begin. (and many more blogs are to be posted)

7 countries in 7 weeks!

On October 30th the Rice’s are going Global.

We are starting this journey in Burkina Faso, the heart of West Africa. We will be serving there for 10 days alongside the Christian Missionary Alliance and their ministries. Then we will return home for a week and my little sister’s wedding!!!!!! (Yeah, don’t get me started on that…I can’t believe she’s old enough to get married.) The evening after her wedding are boarding a plane headed to Manila, with a bit of time in Amsterdam. From the Philippines we will head to Malaysia, Thailand, India and then finish up in London. In every place we will be partnering with local ministries to help establish the Kingdom through their work.

We’ve got quite the journey before us but it’s time that our list became a reality, time that we started making our life happen rather than just letting it happen to us.

We’re going to start this new beginning in a God sized way.