Living A Dream

Yesterday I saw my 22 year old daughter, Rebekah, off at the airport with much happiness. She is serving a one year internship at the Dream Center in inner-city Los Angeles. Her long-term dream at this point is to take what she learns there and apply it to our future center in Bogota, Colombia. I couldn’t be more proud of her. I know that I am Daddy-biased but I also know that she is an exceptional girl for whom God has great plans.

I am a man who is blessed beyond explanation (apart from amazing grace) with several wonderful children and as I think especially of Rebekah today, away on her new adventure for Christ, my heart swells with a few of the things that I love about her the most.

Rebekah is the personification of the fifth commandment, honor your father and mother. From the time she was a little bitty girl she has been a servant. Whether it was mothering her four siblings, sometimes to their chagrin, or going to work with Daddy and the boys every Saturday for years doing moonlight remodeling jobs (I thought it was solely because she loved being with Daddy but she confessed to me later that it was also because I would stop and get yummy breakfast burritos on the way to work), or helping Mommy in the kitchen, or taking care of lots of children, or helping plant churches, or speaking with Dad and Mom at home school conferences, or loving orphans in South America, or loving and serving the many people who have come through our home over the years, or working at a job, Rebekah has exemplified loving servanthood. I’ve called her Beka the horse since she was a little girl, not only because she could outrun every boy within 50 miles, but because she could outwork any two people I’ve ever known.

But Rebekah was not just a Martha growing up. She also had a Mary relationship with Jesus that challenged and humbled me. Her prayer life and her fervent love for Jesus keeps me thirsty to know Him more. She regularly out-reads me, which is no small feat, putting away two to three books a month for years and years. There is a pile of books next to my chair that Beka has read and is waiting on me to read so that we can share in the joy. She regularly lights up and says, “Oh Daddy, I can’t wait until you read ________ so we can talk about it.” We are a family of voracious readers but nobody knows our multi-thousand volume library better than Rebekah. One of the greatest joys in life is the love we share for missionary biographies… and a good cup of coffee. We spout names, dates, and miracles from christian history to each other like sports fans quoting the stats of their favorite players. She led me to love Amy Carmichael, William Carey, Gladys Aylward and so many more. Another thing I love about Rebekah is her depth of understanding in theology. She is somewhat shy compared to the rest of the boisterous Bullens but I love the way our mouths would drop open in amazement when a theological discussion would come up and Beka would weigh in with her very strong and well thought out opinions, quoting from Augustine, Aquinas, Luther, and others.

I could go on and on about her big heart for people, and especially for Daddy 🙂 but I’ll stop here.

I’m going to miss her terribly but that emotion doesn’t even approach the feeling of joy in my heart that Rebekah is in a great place, learning from great people, doing what she loves most (serving “the least”), on mission with a great God!

You can follow her exploits at www.QuestToKnowHim.blogspot.com