Africa Update!

I'm exactly 59 days away from leaving for Africa! It is finally starting to seem real. I am getting to know my team, turning in paper work, and getting my shots next week!

I can't believe the incredible support and love that has been shown to me through this whole process so far. To be honest, sending out support letters wasn't the most fun thing in the world. I don't like being asked for money so asking others for money wasn't something that was on the top of my list to do. I am humbled, amazed, blessed, and honored that people believe in carrying the name of Jesus to the nations enough to support me as I go and try to do just that. I can't believe the incredible love that has been shown to me through donations and promises of prayers.

 Throughout this whole process one verse has been tugging at my heart. Ephesians 3:20 says "Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us." I cling to the words of this verse everyday as I continue to prepare for my trip. I know that my God lives inside of me and it is only through his power that I am at the 75% support mark for my trip and only through his power that I believe I will completely meet my goal. I'm always overcome with emotions when I think about the fact that God's power lives inside of me. That in and of itself is worthy of its own blog (I'll save it for another time). I know that there is no way Africa would be possible without God opening doors and completely meeting all my needs. God is going to blow my mind while I'm in Africa. He has already done so numerous times as people open up their hearts with support that I could never have imagined.

On another note, my trip has turned into an all girls team. Although we are meeting a co-ed team over in Africa, I am so thankful for the friendships that have grown out of knowing these girls only a short amount of time even though we haven't even met in person. We communicate on a daily basis through Facebook and these girls have amazing hearts for God that are going to completely win over the hearts of the African people. It’s amazing how God has orchestrated this specific group of girls for this specific time in our lives to go to a specific place that He has planned out for us. Acts 17:26 says "From one man he made every nation of men, that they would inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live." We were created for this exact time that we live in. We are "God-created" to take God's name to the nations and He knew when He created us that He was creating us for that purpose in this time of the world.

My requests as I close in on exactly two months before I leave are that anyone reading this would pray. Pray for the beautiful girls who are going to Africa with me. Pray for the hearts of the people who are going to hear the Gospel. Pray for the team who we are meeting. Lastly, pray for the rest of my support. As the deadline closes in for all of the money to be turned in, pray for God to do "immeasurably more than we ask or imagine".

Be still...

At times I feel like this world is spinning at 90 miles an hour and we are just running to keep up. With work, nursing school, Africa deadlines, and various other commitments over the past few weeks I sometimes felt like I was forgetting to even breathe. Every time I would take a moment to pray or read my Bible I couldn't focus because I was thinking about all the stuff I needed to do when I finished. When I prayed about the anxiety and stress from the countless things going on in my life I felt like God was telling me to just "be still".


Be still? Yeah, right. I didn't have time to be still. I had stuff to get done and not enough hours in the day to do it. When all that was going on became to overwhelming towards the end of the week, I broke down and finally listened to God. I realized that his command to "be still" was for my benefit and I was just being too stubborn to actually listen. He wanted me to take a minute to realize who I was praying to.


God commands us to be still:
Psalm 46:10-"Be still, and know that I am God."

How many times have we read or heard this part of verse 10 but forget the true meaning of it. God is the Lord Almighty. That's not something to be overlooked. Do we really understand what it means to know that He is God? I am constantly in awe of how big and powerful God is, yet, when a lot is piled on my plate and I feel like I can't handle it I push God to the side and forget how supreme He truly is. God commands us to "be still" because He wants us to understand the magnitude of Him and to realize that we don't have anything to be anxious about. In Philippians 4:6, the command is simple. We don't have to worry about anything. All we have to do is give it to God. We have to understand and know that He is God, not little "g" god, but God over everything and sometimes it takes being still and quiet in His presence to try and grasp that.


I realized the importance of the command of just being still in a week where the world around me seemed to be running at a sprinters pace. It's a command that I don't need to overlook because in doing so I wasn't taking time to remind myself of how big God really is. If I had taken a moment earlier in this past week just to "be still", I would have realized sooner that there was nothing to stress about because my God was bigger than everything I had to do. It's incredible to know that we have the God over all of the heavens and earth on our side. No test, deadline, or anything else we have going on is bigger than the God we serve. 
Philippians 4: 19 says "And my God will meet ALL your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus". He will meet all my needs. There is nothing to worry about. I need to learn to step aside and let him be God.