It Is Here!

In less than 12 hours I will be beginning this adventure! My flight leaves OKC at 1:00 pm (and this has been confirmed!)! Wow!

It’s hard to believe it’s already here. I don’t think it has completely sunk in yet. I’m leaving the country? For two weeks? For the first time ever? Tomorrow? What?

I’m not really nervous right now. I think I am just overwhelmed with anticipation and a little stressed about what all needs to be accomplished before I leave. (I must admit… I have not finished packing. . I have a feeling it won’t really hit me until I’m there. It still feels a little surreal. I’m still in the “Looking forward to it” stage and not yet in the “It is here!” stage.

My parents came up this past weekend to help me gather things and spend time with me. I know Daddy is still nervous about me going. He couldn’t finish his dinner tonight! He’s afraid I’ll “fall in love with an Albanian prince and never come home,” “have to pull a Liam Neeson and save me,” or something terrible happen. I can kind of tell he’s preparing himself for the worse, and it breaks my heart. BUT I know this will be a really good experience for him because he will have to rely on something (or someONE, rather) else for comfort. I’m hoping and praying he turns toward the Lord and finds his hope and peace in Christ. Or at least that it will open a door that leads to that. I know the Lord is working in Him through this mission trip that will be taking place on the other side of the world!

 

Anyways.

I feel like I have so much to say, and nothing to say at all. So I guess I will leave it at that. I look forward to returning and being able to tell you all about the things the Lord has done!

It’s Almost Time

Wow. The last few weeks have truly been amazing. The Lord is doing some serious work in my life. I wish I could explain it all, but I simply can’t. It’s too great for words.

What Ican tell you is that my trip is fully funded! What a blessing! I have been seriously praying that the Lord blesses the people that contributed. You are a huge blessing to me!

Today, I realized I leave for Albania in three and a half weeks. Three. And. A. Half.

Woah.

How could this semester have flown by so quickly?

If I’m honest, I feel extremely ill-equipped and not prepared at all. But then I’m completely vulnerable and the Lord can use me in my weakness.

I’m a little scared, too. I may or may not have called my mom today and had a little emotional breakdown. I’ve never been out of the country before. And I’m going to  Albania in less than a month. what?!

Don’t get me wrong, I am SUPER excited. I know the Lord will change my life if not the lives of the people I’ll be serving. I’m still scared. I’m human.

Prayers are appreciated and valued, as always!!

Exactly What We Need

God is obviously trying to tell me something. I just need to shut up and listen. Allie talked about prayer during our last team meeting. Normally, it’d just be another little devotion about prayer, but just the day before I was at a retreat with the 8th graders at McFarlin and we had a whole session about prayer! And Allie and the speaker at the retreat talked about the SAME things. That is no coincidence.

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.”  –Matthew 7:7

Sometimes, when I don’t see immediate results from my prayer, I get discouraged. And, this is embarrassing, but sometimes I just stop praying. But God DOES answer ALL prayers. Just sometimes the answer is yes, no, or just wait.

“Now Thomas, one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!”

But he said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”

A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.”

Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!”

Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
-John 20:24-29

This was the passage that was assigned to my small group to discuss at the retreat. Out of six or seven groups, I was assigned this one. Then, at the meeting, Allie shared a personal story about her praying to God about something specific and asking Him to answer her prayer in a CRAZY way, and He answered it in that specific, CRAZY way she asked, at the EXACT moment she needed it. That’s basically what I told my 8th graders about the story with Jesus and Thomas; Thomas was doubting and unbelieving and needed a very specific and unlikely thing to be able to believe. And Jesus came and gave him exactly what he needed in order to believe.

It’s just blowing my mind. The whole time Allie was sharing her story, I could only think about Thomas.

I need God to do something crazy in my life. I want something absolutely INSANE to happen to me. That’s all I’ve been praying the last few days. God, do something crazy. Give me something insane. I want something prophetic to happen. I want to witness a miracle. I want things to get extremely personal with God. More personal than ever before. I want something to happen where it can’t be written off as a simple coincidence by non-believers. I want something crazy, God. 

I’m sorry if this post doesn’t make much sense. When my mind is blown, I have trouble communicating.

 

In other words, check out the sidebar on the blog to see how you can support my team financially! If you live in Norman or Houston and have anything that you want to give away, we will gladly take it to sell in a garage sale!

And, as always, please continue to support us in prayer! We appreciate that even more than financial support.

I love you! You truly are a blessing to me.

Crazy

Big Team Meeting Number 3! It was awesome and eye-opening. At first we played this ridiculous game that involves rolling dice, writing numbers when you roll doubles, throwing pens, standing on a chair and declaring “I farted and it stinks!”, and other wacky things. After that, we watched a couple of videos from Keith Wheeler. His story is absolutely amazing. Basically, he travels around the world, assembles a 12-foot cross, and literally carries it on his back across the countries. He has been beaten, arrested, thrown in jail, and threatened to be killed multiple times. But still, he persists in carrying the cross around the world. And through his obedience to the Lord’s call and his willingness to die for his faith, he has brought SO many people to know Christ! It’s absolutely inspiring. I really urge you to check out his website. It’s inspiring.

Watching his videos and hearing his story reminded me of a conversation I had with the middle school youth director at McFarlin, Tino. He once said, “Why do we pray for safety when we’re on mission trips?” Really… why do we? It’s for selfish reasons! We want to be able to come back home to our luxurious lifestyle unscathed.

I want God to MOVE in Albania. I want the country to be TRANSFORMED. I want God to do some WILD and CRAZY things while we’re there. In fact, I am expecting it. In one of our Team Meetings, we talked about having an expectant heart. After the Big Team Meeting, I was talking to two of my other teammates. We were just saying how amazing it would be if we were thrown in jail. Just think about how that could change lives! Of course, part of me prays that we don’t get thrown in jail, but if that’s part of the Lord’s plan, then I welcome it! I want it! I want to be thrust into a situation out of my comfort zone. I want to be in a situation where I have to depend ENTIRELY on the Lord, and absolutely nothing else. I want all the glory to go to God. I want something absolutely crazy to happen.

In other news, I got the typhoid shot. I didn’t even scream or yell when they did it! I may or may not have cried a little bit, though. I was literally shaking when I went to take it, and I told the nurse that. So she tried her best to distract me as I looked away from the needle by asking me questions about the trip. But it didn’t work. I knew exactly when she was going to put the needle in because her voice changed ever so slightly. Afterwards, my arm was a little sore for two days. And I forgot to take the bandaid off when I got home, so I left it on until this morning. But, thankfully, I didn’t react too badly to the adhesive. There’s just a slight red imprint of the bandaid. (I’m allergic to the adhesive in some bandaids and stickers. Once, I had the shape of a teddy bear sticker on my arm for three weeks. It was pretty awesome.)

Also, don’t forget to go to Sonic (24th & Robinson) from 1-4 on Sunday! And if you are in the Houston or Norman area and want to donate something to our garage sale, let me know! Houston people, I would need your things by March 24th because that’s when I’m heading back to Norman!

I love you all! Thank you so much for reading my blog and supporting me in prayer! The Lord is going to do some amazing things in Albania!

Gifts of Grace

Wow. I am in awe of God and His people. A week ago I posted about my struggle with my finances and giving up all my worries and cares to the Lord. Philippians 4:6-7 also happened to be the memory verse we had our kids memorize this week for Confirmation. Well, it’s all true. When you cast your anxieties, fears, and worries on the Lord, He takes full control and does some amazing things. Also, in Confirmation today, we taught the kids about the Grace of God and how we are undeserving of His love, but He showers us in it anyways.

Well, God is amazing. And He constantly brings me to tears with His Grace and the grace of His followers. Today, I found out that somebody paid for $60 of my Phi Lamb dues. This is amazing in so many ways.

Firstly, $60 is a HUGE deal to college students. The grace this girl showed me is magnificent and I am so undeserving, and SO thankful.
Secondly, $60 is exactly how much I need to pay for my vaccinations on Tuesday for the Albania trip. I KNOW that is no coincidence. That is utterly and completely GOD. (That’s also why I’m posting this on my Albania blog… without knowing it, this girl helped me be able to pay to get a Typhoid shot!)

I am so in awe. If you are the person who contributed to my dues, know that I am SO grateful, and you are a HUGE blessing to me. And I pray that the Lord blesses you in the way He’s blessed me. You are a beautiful person.

 

In other news, be looking forward to another post this week! We have another Big Team Meeting on Tuesday, and I also get my Typhoid shot. I can almost guarantee this will be a traumatic experience, seeing as I hate shots.