Category: Missions

Transitions…

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It’s hard to believe that the time has finally come…tomorrow morning we leave for New Orleans, which sets in motion the rest of the transitions I will be undergoing this summer. Yesterday was my last day of work at ADP. Today I moved out of my house, and into my car (LOL, well, my stuff is in my car)…tomorrow, my team and I leave for New Orleans, to rebuild houses and love people…and after I get back, I will be moving to Pennsylvania.

As I packed up my belongings today, shipped boxes to Pennsylvania, I realized that all of this is really happening. I really am moving across the country, to start a new life…and it’s an interesting realization. Part of me is excited beyond belief, as I love Pennsylvania, and I truly feel that the Lord has called me to serve there…however, part of me is also feeling nostalgic, and sad, as I have come to realize that Glendora has become my home.

There have been many things to ponder lately, and I am looking forward to the continued reflection…

Meanwhile, I don’t know how often I’ll be posting to THIS blog while I’m in New Orleans, but read our team blog to catch up on our adventures in “The Crescent City” 🙂 Also, we will be able to check email and voice mail about once a week, so I would LOVE to get messages from you all! 🙂 Feel free to call, text, email, etc. during the trip if you’d like. 🙂

It’s going to be a wild summer…and definitely one to remember.

Four Days!!

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Check out our team blog for updates during our adventure in New Orleans!

http://teamneworleans.wordpress.com

We leave on Saturday, and we are VERY excited… 🙂

In other news, in the past week I have gotten back in touch with a friend I met five years ago, and it has been awesome. Sometimes, God brings people into your life with whom you just connect SO well–and this is definitely an example of that.

Three more days of work!! 🙂

Weekend in New Orleans…

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Crawfish

Holland and I spent the weekend in New Orleans, preparing to bring our team there in May/June. We did some fun things–such as the Crawfish Boil depicted above–but we also worked hard to nail down some details for our trip.

How to describe the weekend…

Exhausting…enlightening…encouraging…sobering…intense…

I am left with much to process. Seeing the effects of Hurricane Katrina in person is an absolutely __________ experience. How do you describe it? As we took a “driving tour” of the damage, we saw hundreds/thousands of houses with the doors and windows still boarded-up, the spray-painted x still on the house (indicating that it had been checked, etc.)…but what impacted me the most was a portion of the Ninth Ward where there is nothing left…NOTHING…no houses, no signs of life…absolutely incredible.

This was home

We saw the FEMA trailers (that were dispersed very late)…we saw the areas that were hit the hardest–but also those who look like the storm ignored them completely…we saw a city struggling to get back on its feet, a city attempting to redefine itself for the future…

The television coverage doesn’t do it justice…you have to go there, to see the destruction that still remains almost three years after Hurricane Katrina and the breaking of the levees. It’s absolutely incredible, and very humbling.

On a more positive note, it was absolutely amazing to see the number of college students and other volunteers who are spending their Spring Break serving the people of New Orleans. I believe that the fact that we are coming to be with the people of New Orleans means more than the work that might be accomplished.

This being said, I am anxious to get there with the team to serve…to love…to bring with us the hope that we have in Jesus…it’s going to be an awesome trip.

I’ll post a link to more pictures later, after my team has seen them 🙂

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Passion…

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There are truly no words to describe the two days that I just spent at the Passion Conference…no words…the Lord is moving in a MIGHTY way in this generation, and in my own life…and I can truly say that I will never be the same…what a powerful weekend…

“Passion” is not just about worship–it’s about uniting worship and justice…so they gave us the opportunity to “Do Something Now”–and we had three challenges. One was to give towards the Passion World Tour which will happen this year. I hate to call it a “tour” because that makes it sound like it’s a concert. It’s SO not. Anyway, our “sister city” is Jakarta, and we gave $38,000.00 to help bring the name of Jesus to Jakarta! That’s SO amazing!

Another organization we gave to was the Blood Water Mission, which drills fresh, clean water wells in Africa that will last for the life of the village. It only takes $3,000 to do that…at the last annoucement they gave, we had given enough money to drill 16 wells!! PRAISE GOD!

The third project was for each of us to bring towels and socks to give to the homeless shelters in Los Angeles…I can’t remember how many of those we brought, but it was a ton!

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It was amazing…and that’s all that I will say for now…but I would highly recommend buying the CD when it comes out on Feb. 5th…AMAZING new songs…powerful songs of worship to our King…

“You’re the God of this city, You’re the King of these people, You’re the Lord of this nation…You’re the light in this darkness…There is no one like our God…Greater things have yet to come, greater things are still to be done in this city…”

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“Heal my heart and make it clean, open up my eyes to the things unseen, and show me how to love like you have loved me…Break my heart for what breaks yours, everything I am for your Kingdom’s cause, as I walk from earth into eternity…”

Wow…Amen…

Passion…

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At APU (and at ADP, actually), they encourage each student to take a strengths assessment called “StrengthsQuest”. This was put together by Gallup, and to be honest, I was quite skeptical when I first saw the test. But, because I was going on a mission team, I had to take it.

My top strengths were:

Arranger
Belief
Communication
Context
Developer
Positivity
Responsibility

After the test, and after taking time to learn about what each strength meant, I began to understand myself in a completely new way.

My most prominent strength is belief. It is simply defined in this way: “Your work must be meaningful; it must matter to you..your Belief theme will matter only if it gives you a chance to live out your values.”

Anyone who knows me KNOWS this is true. Think about politics…think about family…just about anything in my life! I am a passionate person, and when I stand behind something, or when something really means something to me, it’s hard to get me to not talk about it 🙂

I say all of this for a reason…missions is a huge passion in my life, and has been for as long as I can remember, thanks to my Grandmother. My whole life has been spent learning about missions, the whys, hows, wheres, etc…and now I have several short-term missions trips under my belt as well. The more I teach about missions, experience missions, the more I want to do that for the rest of my life. Period. I can’t imagine anything more satisfying than serving others and sharing the love of Jesus with them–which I realize you can do anywhere, but I feel like I might end up overseas…

I am really praying about the Lord’s call on my life…but things seem to be pointing toward career missions, overseas…most likely in an “unsafe” country…and that excites me to no end! It’s what gets me through the day, knowing that right now I am in a position to learn and to grow, and to receive training for whatever the Lord will bring my way…

Tonight, I spent 2.5 hours listening to a friend share about her recent missions experience in India, and then sharing about my own experiences. Another friend came in later who just got back from the D.R., and she shared about her missions experience as well. I am so fired up right now, so passionate about all that God is doing around the world…and I just had to post this. 🙂

God is doing amazing things in my heart, and in my life, and I am so excited to see where He leads me…because I’ll go wherever that is…

Navajo Trip Update…

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Wow–it has been a month since I’ve blogged! Life has been as crazy as usual…

Quick update…

July 6th-14th: Navajo Mission Trip…amazing! The Lord did some incredible things out there! I had my own personal miracle on the first day of the trip, which set the tone for the whole week. When we prayed in the church parking lot before heading out, I set my camera on the bumper of one of the SUV’s we were taking. We got in the cars and drove off. I realized as we were heading up I-15 (Cajon Pass) that I didn’t know where my camera was (and we weren’t stopping until Barstow, about 90 miles from Glendora)…so for 60 miles, I was trying not to worry, trying to convince myself that my camera was just in another vehicle. We arrived in Barstow, and my camera was STILL on the bumper! Nothing was holding it on! Praise the LORD–He knows what we need!!! I took 800 pictures with my camera this week, though I won’t keep them all. Many shots are worthy of framing, and I will be doing that in the coming weeks.

We had over 100 kids in our VBS during the trip–which is incredible! There were about 20 decisions to follow Christ! 🙂 Yay!

I’m still processing the trip, so I don’t really know what to say yet…but I do know that I feel even more strongly that I could be on the mission field for the rest of my life…

More to come…here are two small albums of pictures to give you a small glimpse into our week. These pictures do not do justice to the beauty of the valley!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2035798&l=f4a55&id=56901132

http://apu.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2035800&l=423ce&id=56901132

Oh–and an update to the previous post: my team got 2nd place, so we each received a $100 gift card to BestBuy!! 🙂 YAY!