6 days!

I leave in 6 days! It's coming so fast and I still have so much to do before I go. We just moved into our new house in Huntsville, from which I moved things out of and to my parents for the summer to make room for my sub-leaser. Among other things I get my immunizations tomorrow morning...yay shots! Thankfully it's only one quick one, although I really have no problem getting shots at all. It's hard keeping track of everything I need to do or get, so I've taken to making to do lists and marking things off as I go, hoping that I have written down everything I need to do on the list itself. I'm so ready to be on that plane!

Also, I made my support budget! I have the best supporters for this trip ever! Thank you so much to everyone who has given. I am so excited that you want to be a part of what the Lord is going to be doing in Ireland this summer through my team and me, and so pleased for the blessings you will receive for giving as well.

It never ceases to astound and amaze me when God moves. I was talking with a friend the other day, and it occurred to me that most of the time blessings come from the most unexpected places. What we expect from a worldly standpoint is not, but God blesses us from what we instead see as unacceptable or consider as the unexpected. The support that I have received both prayfully and financially is amazing to me. What the world sees as unacceptable, God makes acceptable! I know that there is no limit to what God is capable of doing. What is supernatural to us is natural, or normal for Him. Yet, I never want to get to the point where I am not amazed when God does something extraordinary! I know that He is capable of anything and everything, but when He moves, I want to be in awe of Him. That has been one of the best things in raising support for this trip, and I expect, one of the great things I will have a chance to witness over the summer.

Thanks again to all my supporters! God Bless!

Almost There!

17 days and counting! With school over now missions preparations are in full swing - creating packing lists, checking the packing list, getting immunizations, and of course...still raising support! The deadline is May 15th (stretching it til May 18th) for raising the full amount and I still need about $1800. However, I did get my plane ticket! It feels almost real now, although it won't officially sink in until I'm on my way to the airport I suppose. Please continue to pray over this! Your support is very much appreciated!

slight redirection

Well there's been a slight change as far as the mission trip goes. I talked to my internship coach and she informed me today that the missionaries in Dublin, have decided to not do the mentor program anymore, or at least for this summer. Not to worry though! I am still going to Ireland, but the team will be redirected to Kilkenny, Ireland. The leader for the mentor program in Dublin will be moving to Kilkenny so we will follow suit. Pray for Barbara, my coach as she tries to sort through the changes and reconfirm that all the team members want to go. Pray also that the Lord moves in the hearts of the remaining team members to still pursue His good will and purpose and serve with those of us who have already confirmed with Barbara our desire to continue on. This is merely a speed bump.

On another note, I have recieved further financial support for my trip which puts me at $4300 so far! God is so good! I dont know the change in the budget yet but I will update that as soon as I know what it is.

God Bless!

Support Update

As of now I have $4150.00 in my support account. That means I still need to raise roughly $2850.00 of support for my mission. Thank everyone so far who has given money, and please continue to pray that I will raise the amount I need in time, and that God would keep the door open for me to go. Most importantly, pray that it is His will that is carried out. 

Thank you again for all the support! 

originality

This semester has seemed to slip by so quickly, and I've been so busy I've just now stopped to realize that it's almost over. God has really been speaking to me as of late, which is always a good thing, so I thought I'd share a little bit of it.

As most of you know, I am an art major. I spend a lot of time creating things and working with my hands. God has gifted me with a vivid imagination and the talents to express it, yet I came to the funny realization that I am not original. I am unique, yes; in comparison to every other human being who has been, or is, or will be in existence before, now, and after me I am the only one like myself. My personality, my physical characteristics, my thoughts are uniquely my own, BUT still I am not original. All that I am both internally and externally, all that is produced by me and flows from me is not original to myself. I am not my own original idea or creation; I am God's original creation, and my every thought, idea, action, creation was first and foremost thought and breathed out by God. He is the only original. Which, when viewed that way makes me in all reality nothing more than a copycat, a follower.

The scriptures say in Gen. 1:1, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth."
In the beginning God created...
In the beginning God...
This is reiterated in the New Testament in John 1, saying "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God...All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made."

Without him was not anything made that was made. So nothing could be created by our hands without first God having created us by his. Therefore all that is created by our hands or thought by our minds is done because "in the beginning God"; because first God, then us; because God acted and we reacted. We reacted. We did it over, we copied it, we followed his direction.

I've noticed that there is a reason that in the Bible, we are referred to as sheep. Because like sheep we will follow anything that catches our attention, anything that seeks opportunity to lead us, and the devil is all too eager to step in and be that leader. However, rest assured he will lead us astray. He wants nothing more than to direct our focus away from God, to separate us from Him. But God is our shepherd and he is faithful. We are like sheep because he made us that way, after all, so that we would die to ourselves and follow HIM.

This whole realization is humbling as an artist, to know that nothing I create is truly my own. Yet at the same time it frees me to simply enjoy being his creation, and allow the work of my hands to bring glory to him who created me. Essentially God is bringing glory to himself through what he has already created anyway.

new semester

This has been the first week of Spring semester and for once I can say it has been awesome! Everything feels different than it has in the past, and I know without a doubt it has everything to do with the Lord. He's showed me some amazing things this week. 

Monday I was in sociology, and we had a man from the reading center come in and speak about proper studying techniques, etc, etc. At the end of his presentation he held up the syllabus and told us that it would be the most important thing we would read for each class. He called it our "Bible" for the course. That made me think, it's a fairly common thing that we do. But, there is something to be said about the Bible, that universally it is understood as a book of such importance and value, that we compare other documents to it in order to place emphasis on their importance to a certain subject. 

Next class, math, same day my professor was in the middle of teaching and went on a tangent to explain that he is from Sri Lanka, and has been teaching for 10 years. He said he makes it a point to renew his material and update his teaching every year, which is good. He asked whether he would still be considered a 10 year professor had he not done this, immediately responding, no. He would be a one year professor because he would never have renewed his material, the knowledge would not be up to date. Stinkin' sweet! Relate that same story to our spiritual walks. If we were to never seek his word, never pray, never talk about him to others, our knowledge of him would be limited. We should all seek to know more of him, and allow him to be new to us everyday. Were we to not do this our relationship, our walk with him would suffer greatly! Think of it this way, if you were to never feed a child, would it grow? No, it would slowly die of starvation. In the same sense if we are never fed by His Word, our spiritual lives, like the starved child, would starve, and eventually die altogether. We are warned against being idle. A stagnant pond can yield no life. Neither can an idle faith.

Next day: In philosophy (already a promising course) the same man from the reading center came in to speak...on the same thing. However he made some points that I didn't pick up on last time. One was that if we aren't reading to learn every time we pick up a book, why are we reading? Good point. While there's certainly nothing wrong with reading for fun, when we are reading the Bible, or some sort of theology, religious, Christian book, and really if you think about it, this should apply to any book, regardless of subject, why are we reading it? What's the point if we do not approach each reading with the intent of learning something we hadn't known before, especially when it's about our Lord. 

In addition, learning is a social skill: being able to converse intellectually, or fellowship, in our Bible studies, small groups, community groups - take advantage of the people around you. Bounce ideas off one another, openly discuss things you've been chewing on for awhile. And lastly, why do we learn? We learn so that we can share that knowledge with others. This is important! As Christians, we can't keep to ourselves what the Lord reveals to us. Share it! 2 Timothy 2:2 states "What you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust to faithful men that will be able to teach others also." Here's the cool part, God reveals himself to us in more than one way, at all times. Whether by natural revelation or special (the Scriptures) revelation. But, he speaks to us in whispers. It's a slight nudging to notice him. Oh that we would all have the eyes to see and the ears to hear. The point is, however he chooses to speak to us, chances are, it's not meant solely for the individual. Do not be selfish with the knowledge of the Lord, because it is not meant to be kept a secret, and it is certainly not meant for one person. "What you have heard from me...entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also."

God is so good. He will teach us so much, but he always makes sure we don't fluff ourselves up so much that we get prideful. He loves us too much to see us become a Pharisee. After learning all this, I locked my keys in my car and was quickly reminded I'm not in control...He is. He loves me enough to keep me humble. 

support letter

I finally finished my support letter! Let me tell you those things are no easy task, but in all honesty I guess this is just the first draft. I want to run it by Pastor Clay and get his opinion on it and see if he has any advice on how I could make it better. Never the less, it feels great to at least have it written out.