At the end of the Spring 2009 semester, I was excited beyond belief that I had the opportunity to go to South Africa for a mission trip. I've never been on an overseas mission trip and I hadn't been on a mission trip since Spring 2007, so you can kind of see my excitement to have the opportunity to serve God overseas. The opportunity came to a close when many different reasons began to stumble in and prevent me from going. I grew bitter because I thought God had opened the door for me to go to Africa, where I had prayed and wanted to go for so long. Although one door clsoed another door opened.
I ended up spening my summer in Panama City Beach, Florida experiencing a collegiate program called Kaleo, sponsered by Student Mobilization. I had a full-time job and lived with 3 other amazing women, one of them being my leader. I was equipped and was taught how to share the gospel in a relevant way. And on every Sunday throughout the summer we evangelized along the beaches and store fronts of PCB. There were many experiences where I truly saw the hand of God on people's lives. Right there before me lives were being changed and Jesus Christ was being accepted and given a chance in people's hearts. I wouldn't have been able to be an instrument of God last summer if I had gone to SA instead. My heart was letting go of bitterness and gaining love.
My heart was opened when I learned about the 10/40 window. It's home to the world's largest population of deep poverty and the lowest quality of life. It has the least amount of access to Christian resources because of laws and rules of the 'leaders' that govern the countries. It's home to 70% of the world's population and it's where 95% of the unreached people groups in the world live. As the journey through my summer grew, my heart continually grew for Africa and the 10/40 window. Towards the end of my summer, Kaleo had a missions conference. My life was completely changed and I knew that God wants my future to be missions. Whether He wants me to go or wants me to send, I have no idea, but I am excited to see what God has in store for my life.
Just a short few months ago, I had an encounter with one of me best friend's, Austin Taylor. The guy is a missions freak and when I mean freak, I quite frankly mean for God and God alone. He's inspsiring to his family, friends, and the people that surround him. He told me about this trip to Africa, where we would be with VisitingOrphans and doing ministry with orphanages in Ethiopia (a country in the 10/40 window) and Rwanda. I completely flipped out and got on VisitingOrphans.org faster than he could say the website. ;) I prayed and I prayed and something clicked. I knew that this was my time to go to Africa. Not only am I going with an amazing team, filled with some of my amazing friends, but I'm going to be surrounded by wide-eyed orphans, loving them and telling them about God's love for them.
I am fully registered and I am well on my journey to raising funds and preparing for God to use me and change my life. So the big question right now is, will you please go with me or help me get there? There are a ton of ways to help! I'm launching a H4A (headbands 4 Africa) program, where all funds will go to my trip and part of my team and I will be selling Africa shirts :) If you are interested let me know.
Another way to help me get there is to go to www.visitingorphans.org/donations/donate.aspx
If you fill out the information and click continue and then put my name in the donation box and put the Ethiopia and Rwanda December for the trip, you will have successfully donated to my trip and all of the amazing things God will use me for over in Africa.
"...God loves a cheerful giver." 2 Corinthians 9:7b
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