Emily's Joy

Life

2009-07-21T19:52:00.002-04:00

Wow it has been a long time since I have blogged! Well I am back in the USA now. In many ways my life right now is not as exciting or as full of adventure as it is when I am over seas, but life is good none the less. This summer has been very low key for me. I stayed home for the first time in 7 summers! Its been sad! :( I have, however spent 3 months of this year out of the country in Thailand and The Philippines! That should be enough to satisfy my need to travel, but no, it makes me want to go all the more! Well, it looks like the rest of this year I will be in this country, due to college in the fall.
The good thing about being home is that I have been able to work consistently. I have a great job as a nanny where I watch 2 adorable children (3 years and 4 months), cook and keep the house clean. Basically, I play mom and get paid for it!
In about a month I start college! I will be going to CPCC. I am excited but it still holds a lot of unknowns, and for me that is not exciting. Thankfully I know that God is always with me and will guide me.
That's all for now... em

Lapat!!!!!

2009-04-23T09:18:00.008-04:00

On April 9th we arrived in the Philippines in the capital city of Manila. Our flights to this side of the world were quite uneventful and thankfully, I was able to sleep almost the whole way here. I really enjoyed having 2 days in Manila to rest and repack before our adventure up north began! While in Manila David introduced us to Carin, she from church and went with us to Lapat. Carin is precious, she grew up in Saudi Arabia where her dad worked but also has an underground church. She has some pretty incredible stories of life behind enemy lines. She told me that going to Lapat was her first mission trip but truly it was her first missions trip without being in danger of being caught and arrested. Carin is also a medical student which was a huge blessing up in Lapat.

Then we were off... 15 hours, a bus, a trike, and a van later we were ready to hike. The trip was long and as the view out my window began to change, it was no longer filled with images of city life but now manly rice fields and occasional villages. I started to realize just how far out we were really going. I never have thought of myself as someone who wants to go and do what no one else wants to do, but there I was hiking that mountain where few americans had ever hiked before and loving it. Now don't get me wrong the hike was hard and i think i was more out of shape than before. Thankfully with God's help and plenty of time to rest along the way we made it! I can't tell you joy that filled me when we crested the mountain and could see the river and lapat down below!

The people of Lapat are unlike any people i have ever met, they have so little in the was of material things yet they have so much joy and life. They know a level of servant hood that I have never known in my life. Pastor Victor is truly an incredible man of God who loves God and loves people. He has lived up there for more than 30 years through good times and hard times he has stood strong. He and his family are like a light house, a point of hope among stormy seas. He has truly change the atmosphere of that place and it is amazing to feel the spiritual change as we walked farther and farther from his house. Pastor Victor and his wife have 4 kids Joel, Elvi, Zahldi, and Khas. Joel and Zahldi are still living at home while Elvi is working abroad in Canada, and Khas is living here in Baguio. I have had the opportunity to get to know Khas the best of all. She is wonderful. She is a women of grace and many talents, one of which is the ability to speak 4 languages! While up in Lapat she would have to switch languages on a moment by moment basis!!

We were up in Lapat for 9 days and while we were there we distributed 12, 100lb boxes of clothes to 3 villages of people. It was so wonderful to be able to give these people clothes and show them the love of Jesus. Through the generosity of others we were able to give each adult 2 articles and each child 8 articles of clothing. It was so exciting to see kids running around in their adorable new clothes! One little girl came in and she was just wearing an old tattered shirt. My heart went out to her and I found the cutest dress in her size and put it on her! I loved it she was so precious! Being up there showed me just how many little things we take for granted.

On morning we were able to have a mini VBS for the kids. We had the kids from all three villages which means some had to hike 30 minutes just to come! The children are the life and the joy of these villages and I love every one of them. We taught them motions to the song I Know Who I Am and they loved it! These kids love too sing and a few will walk around there village singing and it was so cute to hear "I know who I am, I am yours" come out of their mouths! After the song we made signs that said "Ni Jesus ay-ayatena ni ________" which means Jesus Loves _______. We were able to put each childs name on the front as a declaration that God loves them. The kids with great patients and joy assembled their signs and decorated them! They turned out great! Ash spoke to them and we prayed over them before they went home.

Later in the week we went from house to house praying for the families and it was soo fun to see the little foam signs when we walked in the door! I think that praying from house to house is one of the most exciting and exosting things we did in Lapat! It was really amazing to feel the spiritual atmosphere change as we walked from house to house. It was then that my heart was moved for this village and these people. There is a cathlic church in Nanawton the neighboring village and many families attend mass there. In the catholic church there is a lot of deception.

This is all I have time to write now but I will write more about Lapat soon!

from Thailand to the Philippines!!!

2009-04-01T17:42:00.004-04:00

Well it has been three weeks now since I graduated DTS. I left Thailand on February 21st and still miss it so much. We were in the US for two weeks before graduating, the first week we went to the YWAM Southeast conference in Talladega, Alabama. It was wonderful to spend time soaking up the Lord after some intense times of pouring out in Thailand. The second week we spent driving clear across the country to go speak in some of our team members churches about our trip and about YWAM Orlando. It was crazy but I loved it. We drove to Cincinnati, Ohio and from there to Chicago, and then to St. Joesph, Michigan, and back to Orlando! Our longest stretch of driving was about 22 hours!
After graduation I headed home kind of in shock that it was all over. It was so hard to leave my friends because we had become so much like family. We saw each other every day for 5 1/2 months and then all at once it was over.
Once home I started planning for my trip to the Philippines! My sisters and I will leave on April 8, 2009 and Martha and I return on May 8, where as Ashley will be staying on till July 10! This trip is very full as usual which will keep us quite busy! For the first week Ashley, Martha, and I are headed back up the mountain to go to Lapat (a small mountain village). Please pray for us because we have non stop travel from when we leave Charlotte to when we get to the foot of the mountain where we hick 3 hours up to Lapat. After Lapat we will be Baguio working with a local church doing worship focused ministry. I am so excited about what God wants to do during this trip! And now I really should start packing!

Where has time gone?

2009-02-16T19:28:00.008-05:00

This trip has gone by way to fast. We only have 4 more days in Thailand. I am really sad because I really love this country and its amazing people. I have really mixed emotions right now because I want to stay here, but I also want to go because we have the rest of DTS to finish and people to see. I would love to come back here one day.
Our time with the MST project went really well. I honestly enjoyed working with this ministry. Yes, it was hard at times, but all in all it was good. During our last week with the MST two other teams came to join us for a total of 50 people. It was good, but it got crazy at times. Because there were more of us, some were able to go out and do surveys, and the rest of us were in prayer groups.
I wanted to tell you about one of the conversations I had when I went out with MST. A group of us walk 25 min to the next red-light district. It is called Soi Cowboy. Soi Cowboy is a street that is lined with go go girl clubs and bars with love hotels up above. It is a very hard place to be. We were split into our survey groups and I was with Shea (one of the guys in our team). Anyway, we stood there like normal and asked the men walking by if they would like to take an anonymous survey. After a while, a man walked up to us and told us that he would take it. We never got his name but he spoke to us for like 45 mins about everything from prostitution to God to the Olympics. It was a really great conversation. He told us that he was from Canada and he is in the military stationed in Afghanistan. He was here in Thailand on holiday. He informed us that he was only at Soi Cowboy out of curiosity not sexual services, but a lot of men tell us that. One of the coolest parts for me was after we finished our conversation, he walked into Soi Cowboy and about 20 min later he walked out and struck up another conversation with us. I don’t know if anything we talked about changed his plans for the night, but I would like to think it did.
Over this past week, 2 more teams have joined us with the MST Project, which brings our numbers to 50 people! It has been a blessing in a way because our influence is greater, but it is also hard to work alongside people I really don’t know very well. Last night we crammed everyone into Vashi’s Tailor shop and did it in. The floor was already showing a crack but Saturday night something like a sink hole took place and the shop is basically caving in on itself. Not good! The men on our team are worked very hard to fix this crazy problem. They were able to cover the hole with wood but the bigger issue is still there.
On Sunday we went to the market! It was crazy! This market is only open on the weekend and covers 28 acres of land and has over 10,000 vendors! Yes Crazy! It is really fun and I love markets. This was like no other market I have ever been to because it had everything from food, to cute little clothing, to jewelry stores and animals. We went out in groups of 4 and all was good until we lost one of the guys in our group. It was really hard because there was nothing I could do. I miss cell phones! Thankfully, by the grace of God, we all met up right before we got taxis to come home. All in all, it was really fun.
Today we are going to the Island! I am excited! Our entire team is elated! We will only be there for 3 days but they are 3 greatly anticipated days! I don’t know anything about this place, so I don’t know it they have internet; but if they do, I will put up pics then.

Crazy Week

2009-02-07T22:16:00.006-05:00

This week has been pretty intense. Along with working with the MST project 5 nights a week, we are also helping the YWAM Thailand base by helping them clean and do a ton of painting! It really has been a blessing to them because painting is very important but they are under staffed and can't do it without help. The first few days I was on touch up painting and painting doors! Now I am going to another office to help paint. It has been fun.
Our schedule has been insane because we have been working about 6 hours a day painting and then a 6 hour night shift with MST! God has been good and given us the strength to push on without getting sick.
Us praying in the tailor shop.
We lost one of our team members last week. :( Lacey's Grandmother went into kidney failure and her mom needed her home. It was very hard to lose Lacey and she has been greatly missed.
For Lacey's last dinner with us we went out for pizza!
On Thursday we went to Cambodia to get visas! It was a pretty long trip but it provided a lot of think time. It was kind of sad for me to get a visa for Cambodia and not be able to actually go in to the country.
Our time here has flown by I am very sad. We only have a week of ministry left and a half a week of a debrief time and then we are off! Before we left Karl told us that there was a possibility for us to have our debrief on an island! When we got here however and found out that we were going to have to make 2 visa runs to two different countries, the island was out of the question. But, God had different plans... a anonymous donor gave our team enough money to cover the rest of our outreach cost as well as our trip to the island!!!!!! We are all pretty excited and very blessed.
As we approach the end of our trip please pray that we continue to press into God and all he has for us in this time rather than just coasting to the end.

MST Project

2009-02-02T04:27:00.002-05:00

This last week has truly been amazing! Monday was my 20th birthday! It is pretty crazy to think that I am no longer a teenager! This was my first birthday without Martha and I missed her. I had a good birthday, plus my friends bought ice cream and sang to me! I felt pretty special.
Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday we did 12 hour prayer for a ministry called the MST Project. MST stands for Male Sex Tourist or Men involved with the Sex Trade. This is the ministry that we are working with here in Bangkok and it was amazing to start our ministry immersed in prayer. Each team member prayed 6 hours a day. It really was a wonderful time spent with the Lord to begin to get his heart for these men and this ministry. If you would like to know more about the mst project go to:
http://www.mstproject.com/Vision.html
This wasn’t the ministry we all were originally planning to work with but, it became evident to our leadership that this was the ministry we were supposed to work with. To be completely honest I was pretty upset when I found out, I wanted to work with the women, they were the ones hurting and trapped not the men, they were just the creepers who keep these girls bound. That is what I thought, but it’s not true, these men are just as hurt and broken as the girls. Plus without the men there is no sex trade. These men are from all over the world and represent broken families and broken lives. Most of them are 35+ and are from Europe and the USA. There are 3 main red light districts in Bangkok and the MST Project works in all 3 but their main focus is Nana Plaza. That is where we have gone. There is a Christian tailor who has a shop right in the area of Nana Plaza, He opens his shop up at night for us to come pray and intercede before going out and while groups are out talking to the men. When we go out we go in groups of 3 with a clipboard and survey sheets. The survey is both a tool to get into conversations with the men as well as to give us a better understanding of who these men are and why they come to the red light district. The survey is anonymous and the questions range from “what country are you from?” to “What are your personal views on prostitution?” So far I have only been out for 1, 1 hour slot and I have spent the rest of the time in the tailor shop praying.

Chiang Mai

2009-01-23T23:09:00.006-05:00

I am in Chiang Mai! We left Pai two days ago. It was really hard to go because there are amazing people up there. The night before we left P-noi asked me if I was going to miss her. It was so sweet. She told me that she was going to miss me a lot. She is a phenomenal cook and I would go in the kitchen and help her. She is funny, she doesn’t speak much English but she laughs a lot.
Yesterday we went to Myanmar to renew our visas. So we were in the back of a pickup truck for 8 hours! We were hoping and praying for a 30 day visa but we were only given 15 days. That means we have until the 6th of February to leave the country or get another visa. I am not sure yet what we will end up doing but I will keep you posted. Myanmar was a very interesting place, we were only there for an hour but it was amazing how much poorer it was than Thailand.
Today we get to chill and rest at a wonderful guest house in Chiang Mai! Tonight we take a 10 hour night bus to Bangkok! I will updated you when I get there.

Teaching in Pai

2009-01-13T03:23:00.009-05:00

Kids!
On Thursday and Friday afternoon we went up to a town outside of Pai, it was only about a 20 min drive away. There is a small church up there and we did a mini VBS for about 35 kids from the area. Each day we prayed about what God wanted the theme of the day to be and each time he gave three of us the same thing! On Thursday our theme was LOVE and Jesus’ love for us. Then on Friday our theme was JOY and the joy God gives us. The kids were so sweet I really enjoyed spending time with all of them. They loved duck, duck,… goose! I don’t think they have ever played it before.

Church!
I was really excited about going to Church on Sunday because we had been here at the church a week but never seen what a Sunday morning was like. It was really good. The congregation is quite small even though we are in a highly populated area, only about 11 people. Half of our group did the kids ministry and the other half stayed in the service. I was in the service. It really was a precious time and I am excited we are going to be here until the 22nd of Jan. Please be praying that we would be able to effectively go more in depth into the word and all that God has for them. P-nom and P-noi are deacons in the church, and since there is no pastor at the moment, they do a lot for the church. They are also the most precious people you will ever meet. P-nom has a pick-up-truck and we go everywhere in it!

We have two translators, Anna and Kwan who are amazing. They are precious women of God! It has been a lot of fun getting to know them! They are both in their late 20’s and married. Anna is very sweet spirited and Kwan in spunky, they are so funny together.

School!
Yesterday we started a new school! This school has 160 students and unlike the last school this one is a day school. The atmosphere seemed different, the teachers and the kids seemed happier. My group of 4 taught 28, 6-10 year olds! It was pretty crazy but a lot of fun. I really think this is one of my favorite ages to teach. We taught them colors and we colored pictures. I was actually quite impressed with their drawing ability! We also drew the body and sang head, shoulders, knees, and toes. It was really fun. Please pray for fun and creative ways to teach English and share the gospel with these kids and their teachers.

Team!
Please pray for my team, a number of people have been struggling with sickness and just not feeling their best. Over the weekend 6 people were pretty sick but now thankfully everyone is on the up. Thankfully God is bigger than sickness and the devils schemes. Sunday, Shea had a bike accident and came back quite beat up. Ouch. It took Sahlyn and I and a lot of gauze and tape to bandage him up!

Other than that our team has been great. I have been blessed by everyone’s good attitudes and servant hearts!

Pai!

2009-01-07T03:00:00.007-05:00

We are in Pai! We arrived Sunday the 4th via a Tuk Tuk (back of a pickup truck). It was about a 3 hour drive! Being here we have seen a shirt that says, “Pai 725 turns” so yeh, it was a pretty crazy trip up the mountain! Thankfully, no one got sick! Pai is an amazing place. It is like a combination of Hippy culture, Thai culture, and tourist culture. Apparently, Pai is the last stop on the famous Hippy Trail, which means it is a real destination for hippies. The spiritual atmosphere is really intense and we have to be really aware that we are always under attack. It is good to recognize these things and come against them. Monday we started teaching English! Honestly, it was something I really didn’t want to do because I feel like I’m not that great at English and I’m not that great at teaching, but thankfully it has been better than I expected. We will be teaching in the mornings over the next 2 weeks in local schools. The school we are in this week is a boarding school of 600 students from grades 1-12 and only 2 English teachers in the whole school. Part of our time is in a classroom teaching basic English and the other part is one on one conversational English with the older students. The first day we were at the school it was very hard because we didn’t know what to expect but thankfully it has just gotten easier since then. Yesterday I helped teach the 1st graders. I had to create a lesson plan on the spot because we had prepared for the wrong age group. We ended up teaching them colors and they loved it. It was a lot of fun. Today I had a group of 5, 16 year olds and I helped them with their pronunciation of their vocab words. They were very sweet but so shy it was hard to get them to really talk.
In the evenings we go out in groups of 3 and talk to anyone who speaks English. Some of the conversations we bring up God and some we just build relationships. Our leaders have really encouraged us to make friends and meet up with them throughout the time we are here. It has been fun. More stories to come…
We are staying at the only church in Pai and it is located right in the middle of the town. Some of the girls and I are staying in a room in the back of the church and the others are staying in a house next door. It is really awesome.

Fun day

2009-01-03T04:41:00.010-05:00

I'm in THAILAND!!!!!! It is so good to finally be here! Our trip was good but very long with a total of 22 hours of flying time. We got in to Bangkok New Year’s morning at 1am. I got to sleep like five hours then we had orientation and a scavenger hunt and we left that evening for Changmai! Yesterday we went to a Buddhist temple way up in the mountains. It was beautiful in a way but I could feel the spiritual oppression was very heavy. The temple we went to is one that many Buddhists take pilgrimages to.
Today we went on an excursion! First we rode on elephants! It was pretty crazy! It was quite a bumpy ride, and a few times I really felt like I was going to fall off! It was an amazing experence.

Next we went to a beautiful waterfall! It was fun we got to get close to the water and I got really wet and cold!
Our trip down the river on the bambo raft was probably my favorite! I rode with Shea and Lish and it was a bit of a wild ride, and yes I did fall in!

Off to Thailand!!!!!!!!

2008-12-30T08:02:00.002-05:00

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! I was able to be home from Dec 18th to Dec 27th for a greatly appreciated Christmas break. It was so great to spend time with my family; I have missed them all so much! I had a wonderful Christmas, and this year it really was about being together. I was able to unpack from my time in Orlando do laundry, shop for Thailand and Christmas, do our annual Christmas crafts, and repack all in 9 short days. It was quite busy to say the least!
I am off! I am back in Orlando now, and then I will be heading to Thailand tomorrow at 5:45am! After getting over the stress of having to put everything I will need for the next 2 months in a backpack I am starting to get really excited! I am leaving December 30th for Thailand and I will be there until February 21, 2009! At the moment our itinerary looks like we will be in Thailand the whole time. Originally we were hoping to go to Cambodia for part of the time but due to communication break downs on the part of YWAM Cambodia we are unable to go. I am sad but I am also thankful that God knows best and He will have us where he wants us. For the first month we will be traveling up to a small mountain village called Pai, where we will be working with a small local church to reach out to the community. It looks like another VBS is in the plan which I am excited about! We will also spend a lot of time building relationships to encourage and disciple the local believers. Our second month we will spend in Bangkok working with a ministry to the sex trade victims. The ministry is called The Well because of Jesus’ encounter with the women at the well in John 4. I am not exactly sure what we will be doing yet but I will know soon. I am so excited about working with the girls. I can’t even imagine what these girls have been through at such young ages.
I don't know when i will be able to get internet again but i will bo my best to write again soon.

To NC and back again

2008-11-25T22:32:00.009-05:00

Well first I want to apologize for waiting over a month to update my blog. Well this has been quite an eventful month! Classes have gone very well and I have learned a ton.

Last week we drove to North Carolina to the YWAM Charlotte base in Monroe! We went for a gathering of all the south east YWAM bases. Back when I went to Scotland in 2003, ’04, and ’05, I went with YWAM Charlotte so, I got to see my old friends who are on staff! Kristina, and Amy my Scotland leaders in 2005. I love them!It was fun to get to meet DTS students from different YWAM bases around the area. It was so much fun! We had a very exiting 12 hour trip up in an old yellow school bus. I was in the back which meant I got the breeze of all the slightly open windows, it was chilly. Plus to add to the drama the bus stalled out twice! Oh No the bus died again! (my roomates Kelsey, Jordan, and carsia)Me and Lish, staying warm

I also got to go home for a few hours which were amazing. It was so great to be back in the NC, cause I have missed it. I have also really miss fall and cold weather. One afternoon a group of us went to the YWCA and had a great time with some inner city kids, I loved it so much. We did a little teaching on the fruits of the spirit, and then danced and sang a bit. Afterwards we helped them with their homework and played. It really wasn’t much but you can tell it meant a lot to the kids. Me teaching the kids some motions to the fruits of the spirit
Our teaching last week was on evangelism and spiritual discipline, it was good, although most of it I already knew. But my highlight of the week was on Thursday night when my family came down and Ken Helser came and we worshiped and just had fun in the presence of God. It was so awesome! On Friday we drove back to Orlando!

This week is Thanksgiving! And although it feels nothing like Thanksgiving due to the fact that the temp is in the 70’s I am convinced it is. ;) YWAM Orlando has a big Thanksgiving blow out every year and although I am sad to miss my family I am excited about the YWAM Thanksgiving Extravaganza! Each person is supposed to make something but if you know me one thing is never enough, so…one of my house mates is helping my make 4 dishes. We are making sweet potato casserole, cranberry relish, fresh broccoli salad, and a cheese ball. It is going to be sooo much fun, I can’t wait. Even though it looks like I will be up all night Wednesday night to get it all done, it will still be fun.

Destination...Thailand!!!

2008-10-22T22:09:00.005-04:00

I found out yesterday that I will be going to Thailand on my outreach!!! I am very excited. My DTS is made up of 29 students and the outreach possibilities were India or Thailand. Our school leader asked each of us to pray and ask God where he was leading us to go and write it on a little piece of paper. So we did, and 14 people wrote down India, and 15 wrote down Thailand. It was an even split...crazy. So God knows what He is doing after all. hahaha. Today we found out who our team leaders and staff are and I am thrilled. We are not sure at the moment what we will be doing in Thailand but I know it is going to be awesome.

This week we have David Hamilton as our teacher. This man is truly devoted to God and to missions. He has been to 183 nations in his life time, preaching the gospel and spreading the love of Christ around the earth. He is teaching on knowing God, because only when we are in pursuit to know God can we begin to make him known. One thing he said that really stood out to me was his definition of true love, “To discover the dreams of your beloved and to live your life to make those dreams come true.” It is so crazy to think this is how I am supposed to approach God. He is my true love, wow, what a concept. What then are the dreams of God? Anyway, this week has been filled with treasures both big and small.

Got to Love YWAM

2008-10-11T19:08:00.013-04:00

Well tomorrow is the 3 week mark of this adventure! This has definitely been a time of learning and fun. My second week of class a woman named Jill Bills came to teach us about hearing the voice of God and intercession. It was wonderful. I realized that although I have been around intercession a lot I haven’t had any formal teaching on it. It is crazy to think that God is always speaking and he is just waiting for us to stop and listen. The power of intercession is incredible, and I was really blown away by the importance of it. The God of the universe has given us dominion on the earth and he wants us to ask him to move. Jill’s parents Jim and Joy Dawson were very influential in the beginning days of YWAM so it was awesome to get to hear from Jill.

Jill Bill's and Me

This last week Ezra taught on Lordship and Missions. Ezra is great. He really went in to depth on how to make God Lord of all areas of life. It was very good and convicting. The second half of the week he spoke on missions and the 10/40 window. It is crazy that the largest concentration of unreached people in the world have the fewest missionaries. In some Muslim nations there is about 1 missionary for every 1 million people. The harvest is indeed plentiful but the workers are so few. Life on earth is so short it seems crazy to not devote my life to the advancement of God’s kingdom.

"People who do not know the Lord ask why in the world we waste our lives as missionaries. They forget that they too are expending their lives ... and when the bubble has burst, they will have nothing of eternal significance to show for the years they have wasted." - Nate Saint

The girls in my dorm Nichole, Brianna, Erin, Kelsey, Me, Jordan, and Carisa.

Our House

Friends!

Theresa and Dean Sangrey, my amazing DTS leaders!

I'm Here!

2008-09-25T22:36:00.009-04:00

Well I am now offically apart of the YWAM family down here in Orlando along with about 60 other students! It is very exciting. I am living in a house with 7 girls plus our dorm parents. Yeah 7 girls and one bathroom its crazy. Out of the 60 students 31 are in my DTS! The YWAM staff down here are awesome and I am so glad to be down here with them.

New friends! Jordan, me, Shalyn, and Leah!

Elizabeth and me

Lauren, Erin, and Brie

Today we went on an outting to Kelly Park, a local fresh water spring. It was a beautiful day and it was an awesome place to be. We had a huge cookout I had so much fun floating down the river in a tube.

Off to Orlando

2008-09-17T10:42:00.005-04:00

In 3 days I will be heading down to Orlando, Florida to join Youth With A Mission Orlando for a 5 1/2 month Discipleship Training School. I am really excited about this opportunity to pursue God and missions. This has been on my heart to do for a long time so I am thrilled that it is finally here. The adventure ahead is completely unknown to me and it is a bit scary to jump in with both feet, but I know God has led me here and He will not leave me now. I found out that my DTS is about 33 people, which is very exciting! I am not sure where I will be going on outreach yet but probably either Jordan/India or Thailand/Cambodia! These options sound amazing to be me and I will gladly go wherever God sends me. Well, I have a ton of packing to do so I should go do that. :)

Cookies

2008-08-25T12:29:00.003-04:00

For the past few years Martha and I have been decorating cookies and selling them to my grandmother and her friends. On Saturday for the last time in 6 months we made cookies! On next Saturday Martha will be leaving to go to IHOP Atlanta for the pursuit internship for 3 months. I am really going to miss her. :( Anyway we had a lot of fun with our individual pieces of edible art!

Home from Haiti

2008-08-17T16:51:00.007-04:00

Well I just got back from a month in Haiti! It was wonderful to be back with all the kids. Many things at the mission have changed since we were there in January, Keith and Cindy now have their own home placed conveniently between the boys home and the crèche, and Vance and Hanna now live down at the boys home where they are the parents to 32 boys as well as their own 5 children...wow. It was such a privilege to be able to join this family in serving over 60 children. Due to the current crisis in Haiti many have come to our doors in need of help. There is so much hunger and so much need in this tiny country. Our family grew by 6 children in just the month I was there, one of which was a 12 day old named Davidson his mother had died from child birth and his father could no longer take care of him. He is a precious baby and I loved holding him even though he liked to keep me up all night. I was blessed to be able to spend a lot of my time down at the home helping Aunt Hanna and getting to know the boys. Each one of those boys is wonderful and I am so excited to watch them grow up in the Lord and one day change Haiti from the inside out.

Davidson

Some of the boys at the home

The beautiful girls at the Creche

Us making banana bread for 94 people!

Hanna and Vance's daughter Emily Grace and me

first post!

2008-07-10T16:44:00.004-04:00

Well this is where I will keep all who care to know about my life and current adventures updated. I am just writing this so I can see what it will look like to have posts on my blog. I am still working on the design of this blog and I am sure it will need quite a bit of help before I am done.