let the adventure begin. part 2.

this past summer i made the move from MO to CO. it was a temporary move only lasting three short months. however, it was the best move i ever made. i worked at ymca of the rockies in Estes Park, Colorado where i was a day camp counselor. i traveled out there with one of my best friends ellyn. we truly had the best summer of our lives.

 we met some amazing people while we were out there. the kind of people that you stay friends with for the rest of your life even though youve only known each other for a very short time. a few of these people also share a passion for africa. it was amazing to see God bring us together from all over the country with such similar interests and be able to share and encourage one another. im not sure if i encouraged them, but they encouraged me in ways im sure they dont even know. this is just one more example of God working in my life and leading me to africa.

after praying and praying for literally years about africa and what i was supposed to do there i started looking into going on a mission trip for next summer. i looked at many different organizations but nothing clicked. somehow or another i was lead to my friend caleb's mom who leads mission trips. cheryl (calebs mom) and i set up a skype interview and when it was over i could not stop smiling. i knew that this was it. this was the trip for me to go on. you can read her blog here and the site for the organization we will be going with here. the trip is scheduled for july 14-26 to Ghana, West Africa. 

i continued to pray about this trip, the other people that would go on it, raising the funds to go, the people we would meet while in africa, and just that everything would fall into place. 

the Lord definitely has a bigger plan for me than i do for myself.  just the other day i read a post on cheryl's facebook wall stating that she has a friend in Ghana who has started a school and is looking for a teacher to come and help them. i wish that i could adequately explain the feeling that i had when i first read this post. my initial reaction was "wow! that would be amazing!", and then a quick thought of doubt that i wouldnt be able to do something like that, and if i could, surely this isnt it, and then a voice in my head told me to message cheryl about it. all of those thoughts happened in less than 1 minute and within 5 minutes of reading her post i had already messaged her.  there is no harm in asking questions and finding out information, right? immediately after i sent the message to cheryl, i recieved a text message from my dear friend nikki who is also friends with cheryl on facebook. the message simply said "do it" with a picture of the status cheryl had posted on facebook that i had just responded to. this was another goose bump moment. 

over the last few days i have been in contact with Di, the lady from Ghana who has started the school and is looking for a teacher. initially, i thought that this opportunity might be one that i could start after graduation in december 2012. after speaking with Di i learned that they would prefer to have a teacher there by september of 2012. this did not change my desire to go, but it does make me stop and think about what decisions i will have to make regarding school and graduating. there are many possibilities at this point that i will wait to dive into on here. 

so at this point i am in a slightly unknown spot. i absolutely 100% feel that God has opened each of these doors for me. i know that He is asking me to look into this. i know that He is asking me to consider this. i am willing to do whatever He asks of me. i do want to be sure of what He is asking and make sure that i am not just jumping at something because it is what i want. 

i ask for your prayers as i continue to seek out God's voice in this situation. i pray for an open mind. i pray that i will gladly quit school and move to africa if that is what He wants but i also pray that if He wants me to finish school and wait to go to africa, that i am okay with that as well. 

let the adventure begin

the beginning of something is always the hardest in my opinion. it is so unknown, and i dont always like the unknown. but there is one thing that i do know. and that is, the Lord loves me. my whole life he has provided for me and given me all my hearts desires, and much, much more. ive been on a journey the last 4 years of developing a heart for missions and specifically africa. it has been a slow progression of simply falling in love. with a country ive never been to and people ive yet to meet. this may sound crazy, and sometimes i think i am, but i really am just listening to my heart and following the Lord as best i can.


when i started school at college of the ozarks in the spring of 2009 i had no idea what the Lord had in store for my life. this passion began my first semester at CofO when i realized that mission work was even a possibility. it just wasnt something that i had really ever considered. there was just no way that someone like me, so broken, so human, so sinful, could do any kind of work like that for the Lord. i slowly learned that those are exactly the people God calls to do his work. people like me. and people like you. imperfect people to complete His perfect plan.


over the next few semesters i met many amazing people who encouraged my desire to travel to africa and spread God's love. it slowly became not only a possibility, but a great reality and something that was heavy on my heart. i have countless stories of times when i prayed for strong direction regarding africa and the work i might do there and the Lord gave me HUGE signs that this is definitely what he has in store for my future. the first time this happened was my junior year. africa had been on my heart, like it so often is, but i felt like there was no way i could go. it seemed so much more complicated than that. so i prayed my whole drive from home(Rogersville) to school(Branson), a 45 minute drive, that the Lord show me what he wanted and tell me if africa was just a silly dream i had for myself or if he was really the one putting that desire in my heart.  the next day, as i walked into the education building on campus to go to a class, i saw a poster on the front desk in the main lobby. it read "teach in africa". i immediately felt goose bumps raise on my arms and a few tears come to my eyes. i asked, and the Lord answered. as simple as that. the poster was supporting an organization that sends college graduates to africa to teach for a year. i knew this was not necessarily the organization that God wanted me to work with, but it was enough to tell me that "yes, this is a desire I have placed in your heart. keep believing. keep trying". another time of confirmation was immediately after i got back from colorado in the summer of 2011. i was in one of my first calsses of the semester and i was seriously doubting why God wanted me in school if all i was going to do was go to africa where my degree wouldnt even matter. the teacher opened class with a devotional. she began reading an excerpt from a blog of a former student. as she continued on i could tell that they were in africa. when she was done reading she told us that there is no limit to what God might have in store for us. we might be getting a degree in education to teach in a classroom in the states or maybe to move to africa and teach impoverished children and show them God's love. either way, she wanted to make sure that we werent putting God in a box. i walked up to her after class with tears in my eyes and thanked her and shared with her my plans for the future. she seemed very pleased that God had led her to share that. it was definitely a "God thing".


i have a lot more to share, but this has already become very lengthy. i hope to be posting more soon about where i am now on my adventure to africa and what the Lord is doing in my life. please be praying for guidance as i continue to follow this desire that the Lord has placed in my heart.