Today I got my passport in the mail, last week I got an email from the travel agent. I leave May 23rd, lay over in London [no I will not step foot out of the airport. Misty said she hopes I can find a good window to look out]. And on May 24th I land in Nigeria. Can I repeat that? MAY 24TH I LAND IN NIGERIA.
The fact that I'm going is beginning to feel real, or is it becoming more dream like? I'm not really sure, but either way it's getting closer!
Why yes, I do have roughly $2,000 to raise before then. In fact $1650 of that will be used to pay for my plane ticket, and needs to be raised by late April. But my God is Jehovah Jireh, the Lord who provides. So I'm not worried, just praying.
I read a blog Kisses from Katie. Katie is a girl, currently about 21 single gal who lives in Uganda, and has adopted 14 girls. P.s. She moved there at the age of 18, and started an organization that feeds, clothes, provides medicine, and schooling for 400 orphans. I started reading her blog from the beginning, and in a blog from March of 2009 here is what I found.
"As a young single woman, don't you think living in Africa is dangerous? Are you afraid?"
I am more afraid of America. Matthew 10:28 tells us not to fear things that can destroy the body but to fear things that can destroy the soul. I can literally feel my soul suffocating in the safety of Brentwood and all it's numbness, complacency and comfort. Scary.
C.S. Lewis puts it this way:
"I shall feel rather nervous meeting a lion," said Susan.
"That you will, dearie, and make no mistake," said Mrs. Beaver, "if there is anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking they're either braver than most or just silly."
"Then He isn't safe?" said Lucy.
"Safe?" said Mr. Beaver; "Who said anything about safe?! Of Course He isn't safe. But He is good. He is the King I tell you."
(The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe)
No, I do not always stay safe. He's the King I tell you! We are not called to be safe, we are simply promised that when we are in danger God is right there with us, and there is no better place to be than in His hands. We are supposed to SHUDDER, knees knocking, when we think of our Lord and all He has called us to. So here I am, trembling.
Monday, February 28, 2011
Thursday, February 17, 2011
I get by with A LOT of help from my friends.
Life this week has been crazy to say the least.
It all started last Friday with DNow. 7th grade girls= no sleep. But it was sooooo amazing! God really showed up. A weekend full of worshiping the Almighty and learning and talking about Him? Does it get any better? Only if you had awesome old friends to share it all with. It is always such a blessing to see people come to know God. WOAH. I still get chills thinking about it. And I love my crazy 7th grade girls so much! We all left with nicknames:]
Then Sunday afternoon I had been home for just a few hours and got a super discouraging email about Africa. It didn't really hit me until sitting down at the mission trip meeting for spring break. [We are going to New Orleans!:] Then I broke down while standing in a room talking to my dear friend Jesse. The meeting was still going on, so I walked back in to get stopped by one of the most amazing girls ever, Shelby. Oh how I love her! So she sat in the back with me while I tried to get a grip on myself. After the meeting God really just showed His love to me through my friends. They loved on me, encouraged me, prayed with me. And for those who went there I text asking for their prayers. If you think you can't feel love over text you have never had my friends text you. I really don't know what I would do without such wonderful Jesus loving people in my life.
Monday, yes only Monday. My brother once again informed me of my coming death in Nigeria. It's kind of a common theme with my family. While that was just added discouragement. Called Tia, talked to her about Jesus and Africa, we do that quite often.
Skip ahead to Wednesday. I realized that when I am exhausted, worried, stressed, discouraged, over thinking, surrounded by homework and anything else you can think of I am truly wonderful because God is in control.
Now to today. I got an email from Joey, the missionary who is in Nigeria [aka where I am going] about how things are going over there. He told me everything is far from where they are. PRAISE GOD. Please pray they remain there. That one short email is one of my favorite emails, right after the one about me getting to go.
I will end on Romans 8:18 which says:
"For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us."
It all started last Friday with DNow. 7th grade girls= no sleep. But it was sooooo amazing! God really showed up. A weekend full of worshiping the Almighty and learning and talking about Him? Does it get any better? Only if you had awesome old friends to share it all with. It is always such a blessing to see people come to know God. WOAH. I still get chills thinking about it. And I love my crazy 7th grade girls so much! We all left with nicknames:]
Then Sunday afternoon I had been home for just a few hours and got a super discouraging email about Africa. It didn't really hit me until sitting down at the mission trip meeting for spring break. [We are going to New Orleans!:] Then I broke down while standing in a room talking to my dear friend Jesse. The meeting was still going on, so I walked back in to get stopped by one of the most amazing girls ever, Shelby. Oh how I love her! So she sat in the back with me while I tried to get a grip on myself. After the meeting God really just showed His love to me through my friends. They loved on me, encouraged me, prayed with me. And for those who went there I text asking for their prayers. If you think you can't feel love over text you have never had my friends text you. I really don't know what I would do without such wonderful Jesus loving people in my life.
Monday, yes only Monday. My brother once again informed me of my coming death in Nigeria. It's kind of a common theme with my family. While that was just added discouragement. Called Tia, talked to her about Jesus and Africa, we do that quite often.
Skip ahead to Wednesday. I realized that when I am exhausted, worried, stressed, discouraged, over thinking, surrounded by homework and anything else you can think of I am truly wonderful because God is in control.
Now to today. I got an email from Joey, the missionary who is in Nigeria [aka where I am going] about how things are going over there. He told me everything is far from where they are. PRAISE GOD. Please pray they remain there. That one short email is one of my favorite emails, right after the one about me getting to go.
I will end on Romans 8:18 which says:
"For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us."
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Daniel, Weddings, and Heroes.
Lately I've been hearing and reading a lot about Daniel. At the leadership retreat for the BSM we talked about him, and since then I haven't gotten him out of my head. In fact others have been putting him there too. Like right now I'm getting ready for DNOW at my church this weekend, can you can guess who the study is over? If you said Daniel you're correct!
When you hear Daniel what's the first thing that comes to your mind? The lion's den right? I mean there are tons of movies about it. It's one of the standard Bible stories kids hear growing up. But yet, the lion's den was one night for Daniel. ONE NIGHT. Did you know there a 153 verses about Daniel's life before the night in the den? And 6 chapters after if? Yet only ONE verse about what went down in the den. The Bible stresses Daniel's life and yet we stress one moment in it. Isn't that how it always happens? We as people will plan, stress out about, and sooner or later have a freak out about one moment.
Let's look at weddings. They are in fact ONE DAY. Not even one day, just a few hours. And we spend thousands of dollars, and months planning them. Girls often spend a good deal of time researching wedding dresses before they are even dating someone, to wear a dress one time. When a girl looks at marriage her first thought is the wedding. Marriage will be her life, and yet she plans the day. We should spend more time thinking and planning for the life after the wedding. [I must admit I too have thought, and planned in my head for the day.]
Daniel's life lead up to the den. He chose to be set apart from a young age. He chose to follow God in a foreign land without knowing what would become of it. And he was rewarded for it. God blessed him and he became one of the king's trusted advisors. This job was hard to get, and pretty much impossible for a captive of war to get. Not only was he rewarded, people saw God through Daniel. While going over the lessons for this weekend I came across a sentence that I just really love. It says: Being set apart from the world means getting to be a part of saving the world. How awesome is that? How true is that? We can't be part of saving the world until we are out of the destruction ourselves. Look at Superman, or Spiderman, or any other super hero of your choice. Often they start off right in the middle of the trouble, but they can't save anyone until they themselves get out of it. They have to fly, or swing, away to truly see the problem before they can try to save Louis Lane or Mary Jane.
The point of all this was to say: why do we focus on one night of Daniel's life when he lived his entire life choosing to be set apart? And his story didn't end there. This are a 6 more chapters in the book of Daniel after his one night with the lions.
When you hear Daniel what's the first thing that comes to your mind? The lion's den right? I mean there are tons of movies about it. It's one of the standard Bible stories kids hear growing up. But yet, the lion's den was one night for Daniel. ONE NIGHT. Did you know there a 153 verses about Daniel's life before the night in the den? And 6 chapters after if? Yet only ONE verse about what went down in the den. The Bible stresses Daniel's life and yet we stress one moment in it. Isn't that how it always happens? We as people will plan, stress out about, and sooner or later have a freak out about one moment.
Let's look at weddings. They are in fact ONE DAY. Not even one day, just a few hours. And we spend thousands of dollars, and months planning them. Girls often spend a good deal of time researching wedding dresses before they are even dating someone, to wear a dress one time. When a girl looks at marriage her first thought is the wedding. Marriage will be her life, and yet she plans the day. We should spend more time thinking and planning for the life after the wedding. [I must admit I too have thought, and planned in my head for the day.]
Daniel's life lead up to the den. He chose to be set apart from a young age. He chose to follow God in a foreign land without knowing what would become of it. And he was rewarded for it. God blessed him and he became one of the king's trusted advisors. This job was hard to get, and pretty much impossible for a captive of war to get. Not only was he rewarded, people saw God through Daniel. While going over the lessons for this weekend I came across a sentence that I just really love. It says: Being set apart from the world means getting to be a part of saving the world. How awesome is that? How true is that? We can't be part of saving the world until we are out of the destruction ourselves. Look at Superman, or Spiderman, or any other super hero of your choice. Often they start off right in the middle of the trouble, but they can't save anyone until they themselves get out of it. They have to fly, or swing, away to truly see the problem before they can try to save Louis Lane or Mary Jane.
The point of all this was to say: why do we focus on one night of Daniel's life when he lived his entire life choosing to be set apart? And his story didn't end there. This are a 6 more chapters in the book of Daniel after his one night with the lions.
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Listen or be Fish Food.
Well then. I have never had one of these things before so where should I start? Perhaps I'll start with the beginning?
A few months ago we had a guest speaker at church. A missionary from Nigeria! Most people who know me know that I LOVE Africa. And I do mean love. So I was uber excited to hear him speak. Somewhere in the middle of him talking he mentioned going to the orphanage for the summer. I just about screamed! We talked, emailed, I applied, got accepted. And here we are now. I'm getting ready to go to Nigeria for two months! I mean WHOA. It weird to think about that I'm actually going. I mean I've been praying about this for what two years now? AND IT'S HAPPENING. Oh geeze I get chills and tears even thinking about it. It really is a dream come true guys.
So hopefully this blog is to help me do a few things:
1. keep an journal of my trip.
2. And keep you updated as well! Last summer I went to Mission Arlington for the summer and got into some trouble for not having one of these things then.
As I'm sure some of you are asking the popular question of "Why Africa?" Please allow me to explain, but sorry in advance it is hard to explain. God has given me a heart to go. Since the fall of 2009 I knew God was telling me to go there. He gave me the desire to go, and I'm just trying to follow Him. No, I haven't been there before. But had Jonah been to Nineveh. Heck he didn't even want to go, but he followed God's desire for his life and what happened? An entire city came to know the Lord from his obedience. Now I'm not saying God will use me to bring an entire city to know Him, but hey! He could. And who I am to stand in His way? I would much rather listen than be fish food.
A few months ago we had a guest speaker at church. A missionary from Nigeria! Most people who know me know that I LOVE Africa. And I do mean love. So I was uber excited to hear him speak. Somewhere in the middle of him talking he mentioned going to the orphanage for the summer. I just about screamed! We talked, emailed, I applied, got accepted. And here we are now. I'm getting ready to go to Nigeria for two months! I mean WHOA. It weird to think about that I'm actually going. I mean I've been praying about this for what two years now? AND IT'S HAPPENING. Oh geeze I get chills and tears even thinking about it. It really is a dream come true guys.
So hopefully this blog is to help me do a few things:
1. keep an journal of my trip.
2. And keep you updated as well! Last summer I went to Mission Arlington for the summer and got into some trouble for not having one of these things then.
As I'm sure some of you are asking the popular question of "Why Africa?" Please allow me to explain, but sorry in advance it is hard to explain. God has given me a heart to go. Since the fall of 2009 I knew God was telling me to go there. He gave me the desire to go, and I'm just trying to follow Him. No, I haven't been there before. But had Jonah been to Nineveh. Heck he didn't even want to go, but he followed God's desire for his life and what happened? An entire city came to know the Lord from his obedience. Now I'm not saying God will use me to bring an entire city to know Him, but hey! He could. And who I am to stand in His way? I would much rather listen than be fish food.
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