We're here!

Saying goodbye to family

After saying goodbye to people at home, 22 hours of flights and a 13 hour layover in Frankfurt, Germany, and getting sick on our last flight right as we were hitting the ground to land, we finally made it to Harare! I think the feeling is mutual about how much we all love it here. I have yet to take pictures in Zimbabwe but I have a few from Germany. I'm sure I will have more pictures soon. Yesterday, we spent the day getting settled, getting to know a few people here, calling home, and talking over lunch and dinner. Today we went into town and looked at a few of the shops, and had orientation about life in Zimbabwe and all of the orphanages we will be visiting over the next 2 months. We are going to two of the orphanages tomorrow (St. Catherine's and St. Joseph's) so I'm sure I will have more stories to tell soon. Enjoy some of the pictures I have posted for now. I will have more posted on my Facebook so feel free to look at those whenever I get them uploaded.

Almost done with my 1st flight ever

Currency ex-change for the day

One of the cathedrals in Frankfurt

Precious baby monkey at Frankfurt Zoo. We spent about an hour just watching all of the monkeys in the zoo.

This Seal was cracking me up

That's all for now.

Blessings.

Live by Faith, not by Sight

I have a devotional book titled Jesus Calling by Sarah Young. I bought it in early January during an annual birthday outing with my Aunt Terri, after reading the kids' version to my cousin Foy the night before. If you have not heard of this devotional book, I encourage you to read a few words from it the next time you go to your local bookstore. The version of the devotional book that I bought has a space for journaling after each daily reading. It's amazing how well I am able to hear God speak to me through the bible verses that are placed in the pages and through the reflectional words that go along with the verses. I am finding the "sometimes one scripture can mean something different in various times of your life," phrase to be true. I think we view certain scriptures through different lenses at separate points in our life. I imagine that more than half of my reflective journal entries will be written in an entirely different light next year. When I reflect on this devotional book again next year, I know that there will be a change in how I view each daily reading. Through this change, I will be able to see growth, new found strengths, and new found weaknesses.

Today's devotional tugged on my heart about my upcoming mission internship in Harare, Zimbabwe. One of the scriptures was 2 Corinthians 5:7, "For we live by faith, not by sight." I'll share a portion of my journal entry with you.

"...I don't want or need my pride to get in the way. I want to show them your love, your magnificent, pure, and unconditional love....You put this global missions idea in my heart 3 1/2 years ago and here I am, about to do what I know you have called me to do...You see me smiling right now. I just can't imagine what you have in store and that is so exciting. Thank you for using me to do your will. It is humbling, exciting, and scary, but I know that you are with me right now and in my days to come."

I can't believe that it has been 3 1/2 years since I first felt a tug on my heart to do some type of global mission work. At the time, I was a junior in high school, 16,  immature, and unable to truly fathom actually following that tug on my heart. I wrote about it in my blog at the time but who would have thought I would be traveling to Zimbabwe at the age of 20? I still can't believe it. I'm going across the world in a little over 2 weeks. I've never done anything like this. I've never been on a plane or out of the country. My family isn't going with me. I'm taking a leap of faith and trusting that God is in control. He has something amazing in mind that I am unable to see. I may have an impact on the kids that I will be working with, an impact that I won't be able to see. God is going to be doing things in peoples' hearts that I won't be able to see while I am there. But I live by faith, not by sight.

Next year, when I look back on my journal entry from May 17, 2012, I'll be able to see growth, new found strengths, and new found weaknesses. The experience that I will have this summer in Zimbabwe will be life changing. It will stick with me forever. I will grow and learn from it. God's light will shine through the work that we will be doing this summer and I can't describe to you how humbled that makes me feel.

Thank you!

I am currently in the process of writing thank you notes to everyone who has set aside a donation in support of my mission trip to Zimbabwe. These notes should have been out a lot sooner and I apologize to those of you reading this who have supported me and have not yet received a thank you note. Please know that my delay in writing these personalized notes does not lessen my degree of gratitude for your support. I wanted to take the time to write this blog post because you deserve every bit of thanks. It has been a blessing to see God work in the midst of this fundraising process. I have a great deal of generous people in my life and I can't express my gratitude enough. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. A more personal thank you will be in the mail very soon.

This gratitude includes those of you who were unable to provide financial support, and have been in prayer for me and my team as we are preparing to serve in the name of Christ. You are in my prayers and I thank God for you. I would not have been able to raise the funds that I needed without you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. You are wonderful!

Many blessings to each of you.

The Skill of Speaking (or lack thereof)

I struggle a lot with my skills in speaking. I am not that great at it. I stumble over my words. I can never think of what I want to say when I need to say it. Some people are skilled at it. I am not. I am a woman of few words and sometimes I don't like that.

But hey, guess what. One of the greatest prophets in history struggled with the same problem.

Exodus 4: 10-11

But Moses said to the Lord, "Please, Lord, I have never been a skilled speaker. Even now, after talking to you, I cannot speak well. I speak slowly and can't find the best words."

Then the Lord said to him, "Who made a person's mouth? And who makes someone deaf or not able to speak? Or who gives a person sight or blindness? It is I, the Lord. Now go! I will help you speak, and I will teach you what to say.

Say what?

Moses, the guy who God used to liberate Israel? The guy who spoke to God and received the 10 commandments? The guy who was used to build a nation? That Moses?

Yeah, THAT Moses struggled with speaking. But God saw past that! Moses thought He had an excuse to get out of talking to the Israelites and to Pharaoh. God shot that down. God explained to Moses that He was going to provide the help that Moses would need. He would provide Moses with the words that needed to be spoken.

Moses continued to complain even after God had counteracted Moses' excuses over and over again (Exodus 4:1-13). Although God became angry with Moses for doubting His providence, God still offered to give Moses a "partner in crime" to help him out, a skilled speaker by the name of Aaron (Exodus 4: 14-16). There was no chance that God was going to give up on Moses. God saw past every single excuse that Moses had. He saw past his lack of speaking skills. God knew the Great things that Moses was capable of doing. Moses was just blind to it.

I find myself in Moses' position a lot of times. I pass up the opportunity to talk to someone because I am afraid that I might not know what to say. Why should I have that fear? God is going to provide me with the words that I need to speak. When I am given the opportunity to share the gospel, whether that be in America or Africa, God is going to be there with me. His Holy Spirit will teach me what to say (Luke 12:11-12). I have no reason to fear. God knows my weaknesses and He counteracts those weaknesses with His strength (2 Corinthians 12:9).

Surprise! God is Awesome!

Confession: I have this constant struggle with trusting God. I have heard so many times that God is going to take care of me, He is in control, He will provide. But for some reason, that fact is so difficult for me to wrap my head around sometimes. This struggle has been especially evident over the past couple of weeks, ever since I found that I would be going to Zimbabwe this coming summer. Even more so when I found out what the cost is going to be to go there. $7000.

I don't know about you, but $7000 seems like a lot of money to me. I mean, come on, I am a broke college kid. I don't even know what $7000 is. How in the world am I suppose to raise that much money?

I have been in constant prayer over the past couple of weeks, laying out all of my thoughts about raising that money. It has been on my mind every single day. I wanted so badly to give it all over to God. I didn't want to worry about it anymore. But of course, my struggling trust decided to stick with me. Why is it so hard for me to grasp the fact that God already knows the outcome of all my worries? He is probably up in Heaven shaking his head every time I begin to over-think/worry about something (which is a lot of the time). The amazing thing is that God knows my weakness and He is willing to lift me up when I let those weaknesses overtake me.

In Matthew 14:28-32, Peter sees Jesus walking towards him and the other disciples, in the direction of their boat, on top of the lake. Really. I'm not making that up. Then, Peter gets out of the boat and begins to walk on the water as well. Peter must have trusted Jesus a lot. However, as soon as Peter sees the wind, he becomes afraid and begins to sink. At that moment, he calls out to Jesus saying, "Lord, save me." Jesus then lifts Peter up out of the water, saving Peter from being overtaken by his fear.

God still does that today! As I said before, I was so scared that I was not going to be able to raise all of the money to go to Zimbabwe this summer. God knew that.

At a Sunday night meeting for the social club that I am a part of, we had a devotional time to partner up with one another and pray for the other person's needs. I told my partner that I was struggling with my trust in God and how He was going to provide the funds for me to go to Zimbabwe. Little did I know that my dad had sent me a facebook message, telling me that the elders of my home church had agreed to pay for $2500 of my trip and a few other wonderful people had chipped in as well. Wow! How is that for God revealing Himself?

Referring back to the story of Jesus and Peter, I was sinking in a sea of my circumstances, crying out for God to save me. And He did! God knows every single one of my weaknesses and when I let those weaknesses get the best of me, He reveals Himself to me in ways that I never thought possible.

I am eager to see what else God does as I am raising the rest of the funds to go to Zimbabwe. I have a feeling that I am going to learn a lot through this process. I know that I am going to come out on the other side with a stronger faith and better relationship with God than I had before this process began.

The Purpose of this Blog

For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. Mark 10:45 (NIV)

I recently received my acceptance letter for World Wide Witness. For those of you who don't know what that is, it is a missions program at ACU. They send about 80-90 students to different countries across the globe for internships either during the summer or year round. In my case, I will be out of the states for about 8-10 weeks next summer. For the time being, my sights are set on Zimbabwe, Africa. Unless God has someplace different in mind, that is where I will be spending the Summer of 2012. While I am in Zimbabwe, I will be showing God's love to the orphans living there. Most of these orphans live on one meal a day. Having grown up in America, it's hard for me to imagine having so little food. I don't thank God enough for blessing me with the things that I have. I'm excited about this opportunity that God has presented to me and I can't wait to see what He has in store. What a blessing it is to have a God who cares about His children so deeply.

Over the next few months, I will be updating this blog in order to share my thoughts and progression in my Spiritual walk. I will probably post a new blog at least once or twice a month. Once I am in Africa, I will update more frequently about how God is working in Zimbabwe. I ask that you keep the children of Zimbabwe in your prayers. Pray for their well being and spiritual growth. Pray that they are able to feel God's love. I ask that you pray for God to grant me wisdom as I prepare to teach those little ones about Him and how much they are loved. I also ask that you pray that God will provide ways for me to raise the funds I need to go to Zimbabwe. There is so much power in prayer. It's easy to forget that sometimes but Luke 11:9-10 (NIV) says:

So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.

Blessings to you.