I said "No", He said "Yes"

I Said, “no” He Said, ‘Yes” Hello world! umm…. this is not Trina Short, the all knowing and wise, Just kidding mom! No, this is her daughter Madison Short the “quintessential fire cracker,” as my mom called me in her earlier posts. I am hijacking my mom’s blog to bring to all of you lovely people another point of view of the crazy merciless and blessings that God is placing in our lives. First there are some things you should know about me, I am very ummm…..ENERGETIC, yes thats it energetic, and sometimes competitive….OK, I am always competitive. But in contrast I am a scared child at heart, I will be forever scared of strangers, monkeys, drugs, people who look scary, act scary, or even look at me with evil in their eyes. I have tried multiple times after watching ALL of the episodes of "Alaska: The Last Frontier", to get my family to move to Alaska, where there is a small population. Turns out it's really hard to live in a place where the bear population is higher than the people population. And what scares me even more than getting hurt by people, is people hurting any member of my family, including my dog. When my family started talking about doing a mission as a family, being the person to react first thinks later. I immediately said, “No” at the time I though this “no” was towards my family, but in reality in was a “no” to God. Though I didn't realize this for a while, first I had to learn who was really the boss… and it wasn't me. Sitting at the table with everyone there, my parents brought up the subject of the family mission, I immediately was panicked and tense. First my family was talking about going out of the country! Can you believe it? Do you know how many opportunities there would be for people to hurt my family? I was not about to let that happen. The more my family talked about it the more I could imagine the terrible things that could happen to us. Then almost every one in my family, except for Max, (Max and I get each other) called me out on not trusting God. Ugh I had that coming. Trusting God with my own life I can do, but trusting God with what I most love, my family, that was not easy. Time went by and I continued to ignore all talk about missions, I figured my family is too big, too poor, and too busy, for the mission life style. In high school I never went out of Fresno for a missions trip, both my older brothers went on out of state missions, though I never felt called, or was motivated. I couldn't justify going when I have friends, neighbors, school peers, that didn't know the Lord. (don’t let this fool you, that was an excuse, though at the time I truly felt that way) I was content with the work that had to be done in my home town. Another thought that I had, that effected my out look on missions, was how missionaries seemed to be very showy people, I didn't care to show people what I'm doing for the Lord, I don't do it for my reputation, its something that is between myself and God. And I believe that the meaning of Gods work, and the relationships, can be cheapened by our own image. (I am not saying I don't struggle with humility) Back to the story, my family started to raise money for the mission, and with time my families passion grew, except for mine. When I was helping my family raise money I tried to get excited…. But I wasn’t. I became frustrated, my frustration soon turned to jealousy. Jealousy for the passion my family had, jealousy for the selflessness, the trust. In my school bible study, we are studying in Jonah, yeah Jonah. The guy who said “no” to God, a coincident? I think not. In this bible study I have learned that when you say “no”, God says, “yes”. And that through my selfishness God will turn me around, put me in a fish, and teach me to trust him with everything. This is my experience reading Jonah not the first time, but the first time with consequence. Jonah 1:1-3 1 The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai: 2 “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.”3 But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the Lord. My first response: O Jonah you are so stupid. My second response: I AM JONAH!!!!! I AM STUPID TOO!!!! IM GOING TO DIE! (kept reading) Jonah 1:4-6 4 Then the Lord sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up. 5 All the sailors were afraid and each cried out to his own god. And they threw the cargo into the sea to lighten the ship.But Jonah had gone below deck, where he lay down and fell into a deep sleep. 6 The captain went to him and said, “How can you sleep? Get up and call on your god! Maybe he will take notice of us so that we will not perish.” My first response: I’m not that bad. God isn't going to drowned me or make me really sleeping at inappropriate times. My second response: Im going to be punished!!!!!! My third response: No this is not a punishment this is a correction, or a discipline and another chance to do the right thing. Its the right amount of fear to push me in the right direction. I am a student at Sacramento State so I was not able to attend the training with the older six people in my family. But God used this time to stir up feelings that I'm not sure existed before. I felt like I abandoned my family, abandoned a God that has provided for me. I didn't quite know what to do with myself, but after I got my homework done like a good student( I didn't really I had to stay up late Sunday to do it) I found the Hope Force international website. I was swimming in my own selfish thoughts, I didn't even look at the website before. The more I read the more I wanted to be there with my family, helping beside my family. I started out saying “no” but now I cant wait to start. My original questions about all the awful things that could have happened, changed to questions about what God could do with a family like mine.… But this leads to another problem; I am still a student. So now I am praying for contentment and to trust Him. I do not admit to it being easy to trust Him, but I am praying that He will help me. The true difference between the Madison two months ago and the Madison now is I am not using my own selfish eyes to see, I am trying to see what God sees.

We Passed!!!

WE PASSED OUR TEST!!!!!! Dan and I made it through our disaster simulation final today. We are happy to report that no one died, the building didn't burn down and I didn't break a nail!!!! We are now certified members of the Community Emergency Response Team!!! We received our official hard hat, back pack and CERT vest. I highly recommend this course for anyone who would just like to make sure their family and neighborhood would be safe in a disaster.

So what's the next step? We (Dan, Trina, Jordan , Desiree, Trevor and Alyssa ) are headed to Washington. Flight, car and hotel reservations have been made and paid for!! Praise God, now we need to raise the money for the actual training. We need a total of $1050. Like I have said before, we are excited to see how God will work this out. We would love for you to join us in two ways. One, the most important, is by praying. We know God is faithful and will resource what He calls!! The second way is that we need your support financially. We still need to raise the $1050 for training that begins in Thursday, February 20...This Thursday!!!! If you would like to donate, you can do so by clicking on the "donate" button on this page or you can give directly to our Chase Bank account 322271627

We are so thankful to all who have been praying and supporting us financially. You are a blessing to us!!!

Learning Lessons

We are learning...so many things. Of course we are always learning, but it seems as though, as we step out in faith and  move ahead with what we believe God is calling us to, He continues to point out our weaknesses. We have the head knowledge that we are all weak and need to rely on God for strength, but it is times like this that we are made painfully aware of our deficiencies. 

LESSON #1

We have overcome so many obstacles in the past few weeks; needing new brakes, broken washing machine, leaky roof, and have not let anything distract us from God’s calling. But...this past weekend, we were forced to look at some family relational issues that needed some work. Nothing major, but issues nonetheless. 

We decided on Friday afternoon that we should have a hot chocolate stand to help earn money for our training with HFI (Hope Force International). We were successful in pulling this together in a short amount of time...but not without bickering. I know....its shocking!! I can hear you all now: 

“Wait! Your kids fight, too?”

YES!! And Saturday was a special day for that!! For the most part, the kids did a great job. They worked hard to get everything gathered and packed and moved to the corner, they were enthusiastic salesmen, and they enjoyed being out in the rain and cold (no, really, they did). At one point I had to tell Max and Bailey to put their shoes back on because I thought it would be a bad reflection on our family to have them running around in the rain and cold barefooted. 

But....they bickered....probably my biggest pet peeve.  Little things became big things and bickering turned to arguments. On any other day, we would deal with things like this in the usual way and move on, but on this day, it was as if my eyes were opened to a problem that had been festering for some time. Its easy to get caught up in the busyness of our lives and NOT deal with the little relational issues between siblings. Its easy to chose to separate them or distract/redirect them. But what I realized (really re-realized) is that we needed to deal with their hearts. 

We had some work to do. I decided that if we are going to serve others as God wants us to do, we were going to need to work on serving each other in love so that we can have an effective witness with others outside of our family. So let the work begin: 

“For the love of Christ controls us. because we have concluded this:

That One has died for all, therefore all have died; and He died for all, that those who live

might no longer live for themselves

but for Him who for their sake died

and was raised.”

2 Corinthians 5:14-15

This is the first of many verses that will be memorized as we learn to serve others as Christ served us by dying on the cross for us. We are and always will be a work in progress. 

LESSON #2

God does not require perfection. I have known this for a long time. I am the first one to admit that I don’t always do everything the right way; in parenting, in my personal walk with Christ, in life in general. But for some reason, when I think of people who have been called by God to go serve as missionaries, I put them up on a pedestal and have some grandiose idea that they somehow are more perfect than myself and someday I may be as spiritual as they are and THEN God could use me.....I know....its ridiculous. 

The fact is, God will be glorified in our weakness. We are ALL broken and in need of a saviour. Our brokenness is what allows others to see Christ. There are countless stories in God’s Word about broken people being used by God to achieve amazing things. 

So, God....we are broken....so that Your light may shine through.

LESSON #3

After Saturday’s sale, we were officially half way to our support goal. Praise God!! But that meant that we still had $1500 to raise in less than two weeks. This also meant that we needed to make a decision to go ahead and make arrangements to attend the February training, trusting that God would provide the rest, or put it off and wait until August. We didn’t have exactly what we had set as the goal for that decision, but we got another donation on Sunday afternoon that helped us to see that God was working and had a plan. His plan was that we needed to trust him!! 

So we took a huge step in faith and made our plane reservations for the February training. I love when God gives affirmation when you need it the most. Shortly after we made those reservations, we received two more donations!!! God is faithful and He has a plan. 

We are learning so much as we follow the path set out for us. We are so very thankful to the people who are supporting us in prayer. Please continue!! Also, to those who have donated...Thank You, Thank you, Thank you!! 

Financial update: We still need $1,300. We are waiting to hear if HFI has found a place for us to stay in Washington. This would cut costs by about $300. If you would like to donate, you can click the donate button at the top of the page, or you can give directly to our missions bank account.

Chase Bank

Acct #3070660799

See Shorts Go

                                           “Many hands make light work” 

This mantra can be heard on any given day at our house. I’d like to say that it was due to quick thinking and amazing parenting skills, but if I’m completely honest, I think it was out of the desperation of a mama with lot of little ones. It was an attempt to rally the troops to get a job done that I was too exhausted to complete myself. Regardless the origin, the phrase is heard quite a bit around here. Thankfully, it has proved itself to be true over and over again. It is true in the yard, in the house, carrying wood, putting away groceries and so much more. We have had the opportunity to use our “many hands” in the neighborhood, with family, friends, friends of friends and even strangers. 

About two years ago, we were all sitting around our dinner table. Jordan and Desiree were visiting and Trevor and Ally were here as well. Which meant we were ALL here. All 14 of us. The noise level at dinner can be crazy and this evening was no different. Multiple conversations at one time covering everything from  amusement parks to super heros. Disneyland versus California Adventure, Batman versus Spiderman. You get the picture. At some point the conversation turned to missions. These were a few of the questions that were asked, “What could God do with our family?” “How could God use our family to bless others?” What happened next was so amazing. All of the kids got so excited and started to express some incredible ideas. The younger ones were ready to pack their bags and go, the older ones were excited but knew it wouldn’t be right away, and us old fogies, overwhelmed by the upcoming college graduation of one son and the wedding of the other son, couldn’t look past those events to see what God had planned. It was fun to dream, but the reality is that we have bills and events and work and school....

Needless to say, we put our “God dream” on the back burner...for two years. 

This year at Christmas, we got to sit down again at the dinner table. Once again the conversation turned toward God’s will for our family. We discovered that many of the ideas for service involved disaster relief and how we could help people who have experienced loss due to some natural disaster. We initially talked about just loading everyone up in the van, driving to the effected area, jumping out and helping people clean up their messes. We quickly realized that it probably wouldn’t be that easy and we would need some kind of training or clearance to get into the effected areas. After doing some research, we discovered that (no surprise) we were right. We had been learning in church that God calls ALL of us to serve others in His name and that we shouldn’t be so focussed on our circumstances that we become paralyzed and unable to pursue what God lays on our hearts. This is much easier said than done. Dan decided that we would begin to look into the areas God could use us...All of us! We believe that God is calling us as a family and we know that this would limit our possibilities. Jordan found a blog written by a man who had felt drawn to disaster relief as we were. He answered many of the questions that we had and helped us concentrate our efforts towards and appropriate end; serving others in the name of God. 

First of all, in this blog he answered a few of the big issues that were holding us back; time and money. In order to go and serve, Dan, Jordan, Desiree, Trevor and Alyssa would all be needing to take time off of work. This bloggers answer to this was, you don’t know until you’ve tried. When he made it known at his place of employment what he was going to do, people stepped up and offered him their vacation days. And when it came to the money issue, he was shocked at how people came out of the woodwork to help financially. They also donated frequent flyer miles and hotel stays. 

So with those questions addressed in this bog, we felt like we had the encouragement to move forward. Phase one is training. Dan and I are in the process of being CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) trained. When we finish this course, we will be certified to be first responders in the event of a large disaster that consumes the resources of that area. In other words if all of the firefighters, paramedics, police officers are being used, we will be put to work. We are learning the basics of triage, first aid, search and rescue and Incident command systems. CERT is a nationally recognized program and would allow us to help in any state in the nation. 

The next step was to join an organization that was already recognized and welcomed to assist in a disaster. In our research we came across and organization called Hope Force International (HFI). Partnering with the Salvation Army, HFI goes into areas that have been affected by crisis and disaster and provide many different types of relief; medical, spiritual, physical and emotional. It has been so amazing to see how God has already equipped our family to be a perfect fit for HFI. They have a chaplain division which would be a great place for Jordan to use his pastoral skills. Desiree will be able to use her nursing skills in their medical division. Trevor has extensive training in all aspects of Emergency response including chain saw operation and fire suppression. Dan will be able to use his gifting to help assess injuries and apply first aid, and he may also be able to use his food distribution experience to help handle incoming donations. Alyssa’s dog training experience will help with animals in the area who have become homeless. As for me and the rest of the kids, we have LOTS of experience cleaning up messes and that’s what we will be doing!! 

So what’s the next step? We need to attend HFI training in Washington and the two dates that are available are February 20-23 and August. We are going to try to make it to the February training so that we can be available this summer to be deployed, but in order to do that we need to raise some support. It will cost about $500 per person for travel and training. In order to cut costs, we are only planning on taking 6 of us for now. 

We believe God is calling us to service and we would love for you to partner with us in two ways; Prayer and finances. In the past few weeks since we made these decisions, we have had some “speed bumps” that have come along and tried to derail our mission, yet we are determined to stay the course and make it to the training. Prayer for focus, finances, safe travel, and details. God knows our needs and is faithful. We believe he will resource what He calls, so we are asking you to support us financially as well. We have put a link on our blog where you will be allowed to donate online directly into our mission account. We would like to thank you ahead of time for your generosity and for your fervent prayers on our behalf. If you have any questions, feel free to comment or find me or any one of us on facebook.