I really respect AIM as an organization because they stress the importance of listening prayers.  So often in our own Christian life we petition Heaven with our requests, lay them down, and then walk away.  This week helped me realize that in my own personal life I do not leave God much room to talk back to me.  AIM taught us the beauty of ATL.  No, that’s not Atlanta for all yall wonderful southerners out there.  It stands for Ask The Lord.  We were taught the beautiful practice of asking the Lord, and then not moving until we listen and hear from Him.  So often in my Christian walk I am afraid to make time for God to talk, because I am afraid that he will not respond.  However, this week, every time we sought the Lord’s voice, He showed up!  I am really looking forward to this next year and learning how to ask, listen, and follow the direction of God.

At training camp I was defiantly stretched beyond my comfort zone.  We were taught as missionaries who desire to go into foreign cultures, we must lay down a lot of the rights that we are used to.  We no longer have the right to be full, warm, comfortable, easy communication, or even the right to be safe.  While this is a difficult principle to initially take on, I am thankful that AIM began teaching us these lessons early on.  I ate various cow parts, cold fish, lots of rice, and many other foods that were outside of my comfort zone.  I showered with an ice cold garden hose (admittedly only twice), and I survived a torrential downpour while camping outside with only a small tarp to cover 14 women as our shelter.  Needless to say, I am beginning to understand what this next year is going to look like in terms of comfort.  While I am a little fearful of the challenge, I do look forward to the opportunity to lay down my Western rights in order to share the Gospel with others.

One of the best things about camp was learning who my group would be for the next year.  My personal squad (August 2) is comprised of 43 amazing individuals.  Through a series of personality tests and team builders, AIM staff then formed our smaller groups.  These teams are the 6-7 people that I will be traveling with for the next year.  We will eat, sleep, travel and minister together.  Needless to say, group unity is vital.  I consider myself one of the luckiest at camp because I was placed with 6 other AMAZING individuals.   I am going to keep their identities a secret (mostly so that I have more material to write another blog later), but check back soon because I cannot wait to share with you the wonderful men and women of God that I will be ministering with this next year.

I also want take a special space to say a big Thank You to my anonymous donor from my church.  While I don’t know who you are, I am thankful that God does because I fully believe that you will be blessed as you have given unto the Lord.  Thank you so much!  So as of today, individual donations total $6070 in my account!!  That number completely blows me away! I am so excited for what God is doing!

For the past 5 years I have been running a book business online.  While I usually use these finances to live on, I have chosen to take everything that I make and give it to the World Race this year.  I am also accepting donations if you would like to clean out your bookcase!  Feel free to shoot me an email, I’ll even come do it for you ?  I have also taken up a full-time job working daily to raise money for the trip.

I am also trying to grow my photography business.  You can view my pictures HERE. In the next few weeks I will be posting pictures and prices.  All finances will go towards the Race.  If you see a picture you are already interested in, feel free to email me and I’ll get working on it right away!

The World Race is also partnering with another company to help us fundraise.  I am selling these wonderful World Race Shirts for only $20 each.  They have our specific Race route on it, listing each country.  They are a great means to remember our group in prayer, and join us in sharing God’s love with each of these countries.

Finally, I want to say a huge thank you to all of you prayer warriors who are hitting the floor for me and our team.  I cannot tell you how real God has shown himself so far, and I am so excited to see him continue to move.  I would love to continue to grow this group.  If any of you know any groups or churches who would like to hear about missions around the world, and what God is doing through the World Race, I would love to share with them!  If you know of any churches that would like to have a speaker come in for missions, I would love the opportunity!  I am free all summer until I leave, so feel free to shoot me an email if you know anyone interested.  I would really appreciate it.

I know this has been long, I am sorry I have not been more consistent in updating about finances.  I am going to try to be better ?  So total, as of today I have $6570 in my account!  I praise the Lord!!  The total cost of our trip is $13800, so I am right at half way there.  They will not send me out in August unless I have about $11000 in the account, so I still have a lot of work to do.  As always I am trusting the Lord, and remaining in a constant state of gratitude for everything ya’ll have done for me.  Thank you so much and I love each of you!!

First on the list, ladies and gentlemen, is what I am told is the biggest day of my young adult life.  That’s right, yours truly walked the stage cap, gown, magna cum laude and all.  Graduating from college was a surreal experience for me.  I love Lee University dearly.  God used this place to teach, grow, stretch and mold me more than I ever imagined could happen through an intellectual institution.  It is here that I found the beautiful mix of Theology and service, as I was taught beautiful doctrine and then challenged to put it into practice in my everyday life.  I was blessed to be very involved in campus life.  I worked with our wonderful Campus Pastor in a creative team that sought to breath new life into our corporate worship gatherings.  I also got to teach a Freshman class, Chaplain a Freshman dorm, lead weekly Bible Studies and work as a tour guide for prospective students.  I also had the privilege to be in a service sorority of the amazing women of Epsilon Lambda Phi.  I also was very honored to be a little sister for an incredible service fraternity, Alpha Gamma Chi. While I enjoyed all of my activities greatly, looking back I see that what changed me the most was the incredible group of friends that I made at school.  I am going to miss these people greatly over the next year.  The many Starbucks conversations, Theological conversations, and days of service is what uniquely shaped my outlook on life.  It is at Lee that I found the perfect mix of Orthopraxy (right practice) and Orthodoxy (right belief) in a beautiful culmination of what my dear friend has coined Orthonomy (right beauty).  Orthonomy is a challenge to life the beautiful way, finding value in both studying the Word carefully, and in putting it into practice.  I am so very thankful for my time at Lee, and for the amazing men and women who went out of their way to shape me into the woman that I am today.  For that, I am truly thankful.

In celebration of my graduation, my parents threw me a graduation/send off party for the World Race.  First off I have to begin with how incredibly blessed I am to have the family that I do.  My parents are absolutely amazing people, and I am so honored to be their daughter.  They hosted a beautiful time of prayer during the party, and I cherish each and every one of your prayers so dearly.  I am so very grateful for all of you who came out to support me as I prepare for the World Race.  I was overwhelmed by the love, prayers, and gifts that ya’ll so generously gave.  I would type for hours if I thought it would begin to express how truly grateful I am for everything that ya’ll have done for me.  I am so honored to have the amazing friends and family that I do.  I cannot say Thank You enough to each and every one of you!!  It is so excited for me to see the amazing group of supporters that God has placed in my life.  Know that as I go out, I carry each and every one of you with me.  This ministry is as much yours as it is mine.  What an exciting thing for all of us to unite together and minister the love of Christ to the nations!!

I am also working on growing my photography skills.  My dream is to travel around the world doing missions work and supporting it through photography.  I have had amazing opportunities to take pictures of some of the most beautiful places and people that I have ever seen.  My dream is to share these memories with all of you, and use that as a means of support for the ministry.  I posted a few more of my snapshots Here if you are interested.  I’ll be working over the summer to get the pictures ready for sale, but here is a preview of some of my favorites.

Again I cannot thank each of you enough for all of the prayers, support and encouragement.  It is humbling and exciting to know that the only way I am able to go is through the support of each of you.  Thank you dearly for your sacrifices and your love.  I wish I could write a blog to each one of you to demonstrate my gratitude.  Now that I am back home, I am hoping to update more often, so keep checking back!  I love each of you dearly.

You can visit our Agape Meal website HERE.

When I was in 8th grade I heard a sermon that changed my life.  I had always grown up in church, and was raised by an incredible family of faith.  After this sermon, however, I can still remember the incredible passion that I had for the Lord, and I remember hoping that I would keep that passion for the rest of my life.  A man named Darrell Scott came and spoke about his daughter Rachel who was killed in Columbine a few years before.  He spoke of her passion and love for the Lord, even at a young age.  She cared about everyone she came in contact with, and was killed because of her kindness.  (You can read Rachel’s Story Here). Listening to her father speak about her life and ministry was very moving for be because she and I had many similarities, even down to wanting to be famous actresses ?.  That sermon sparked a flame within me that still burns deep today.  From that moment, I made a commitment to myself and to the Lord that I would try my best to live everyday with the type of passion that is evident to all.

My journey of passion continued through high school as I pursued a deeper relationship with God. I got to go on my first missions trip when I was in ninth grade.  I went with my youth group to Piedras Negras, Mexico and knew from the second I stepped off the plane that I was finally doing what I was created to do.  I felt like I was literally moving and dancing within God the stream of God’s will.  I returned to Mexico three times after that summer to do missions.  Those trips embedded within me a love for people of other cultures, and a desire to travel to foreign places to share the Gospel.  Since Mexico, I have had the incredible opportunity to travel to Budapest, Hungary, New Orleans, Israel and South Korea to do missions work.  E ach of these trips was very different in context, and I learned many valuable lessons while on these trips.

May we open our minds to dream the big dreams of God for our own area of influence…right now….just as we are….and may we be brave enough to step out into them.

I pray that this letter finds you and your family well during this wonderful season!  I hope that God is doing many wonderful things in your life, as He is in mine.  My time at Lee University is quickly drawing to a close and I am excitedly anticipating Gods next steps for me.  It is my desire to share with you what the Lord has laid on my heart for this next year.  I feel as though there is something deep within me that is longing to do missions work overseas.  I have a burden for those less fortunate than I am, and I am ready to lay what I have down to help them.  I feel as though these past 22 years have been a training process for me.  I have been taught so much spiritually from my family and my church, and have learned incredible things at school, and now I feel like the Spirit is whispering to me, “Now my child, it’s time”.  So, it’s time for me to take a step of faith, it’s time for me to sacrifice my comfortable life, and it’s time for me to make a difference.

This summer I had the wonderful opportunity to serve the Lord’s People in Israel, and for that I thank you so much for your prayers and support!  This trip helped to solidify my desire to serve the Lord in missions after school.  I began looking for a program that would train me in hands on ministry, while also teaching me missions around the world.  I was very excited when I found the World Race, a program out of the ministry Adventures in Missions.  I quickly applied and recently found out that I was accepted!  Starting August 1st 2009, a team of 4-6 other people and I will be traveling to 11 different countries in 11 months.  Our goal will be working with people in poverty, teaching the gospel to them, and forming disciples.  Our trip will range from working with Arab children in Jerusalem, to feeding the poor in Uganda, to helping the girls oppressed by the sex market in Thailand.  We are going to Ireland, Romania, Kenya, Uganda, Egypt, Jordan, Israel, Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand.  As many of you know, Israel is so very dear to my heart, and I cannot tell you how amazed I am that the Lord has me going back there for the third time!  I am in awe of his wonderful plan!!  I am so excited to be a part of this ministry, and I have never been more sure of the Lord’s next step for my life than I am right now.

As a part of this ministry, we are asked to raise $13,500 before we leave in August.  While I am in great need of your prayers, there is also a financial need as well.  Will you prayerfully consider supporting me in this area as we partner in ministry together?  Information on how to do so can be found on my blog by clicking “Support Me”.