Packing, Packing, and Re-Packing

Here we are, with only five days left!

All this week I have been busy packing, weighing, and re-packing all my bags.  It seems that over 20 years of never having  moved I have collected a lot of stuff.
While discovering all my keepsakes, I am oddly connected to the strangest of things; such as: Lots of special rocks, special words torn out of newspapers, special leaves, special sticks, special shells... and so on. It is silly, I know, and don't worry those where not the things that I spent my week packing in. But, silly as it is, these are small reminders I have picked up along the way, that are little reminders of times in my life. I packed up all my old journals and read of all the ways God has been unspeakably rich in love and mercy. I have journals filled with proof of a faithful Lord, who is good and never once has left me, or forsaken me.
These last few days are the worst, because I don't know how to name my feelings. All the sudden I am ready to go! It seems as though my hands never moved, but my feet are now about to walk onto a plane, and into a whole new country, and asking myself "how did I get here?"

::A Bit of History::
It is not me at all.
Like I said, the Lord has been faithful, preparing this path for me for many years. I am not sure exactly when I felt the Lord calling me to proclaim His name to the Nations. I never heard a voice call out to me in a burning bush (though I know He could have, like He did to Moses) instead the Lord knew how my heart works. He knows me, and knew this wasn't an overnight thing. I always knew what the Lord has said to do starting way back in Genesis throughout Revelation.
And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them ^to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” -Matthew 28:18-20

The spring of my senior year of high school  I was coming out of a time where God was fixing all the brokenness I was holding on to in my heart. I was so scared of my unknown life ahead of me!
In 2010, the day after I came home from a month long trip to visit my sister (where God turned my scared, hard, hurting heart into clay) and I went on my first missions trip!
A week after that I went on another. I then knew I really wanted to serve the Lord cross-culturally.

God showed me how much He loved me, I knew and felt this powerful love, and as I learned He showed me, THIS is His heart for ALL PEOPLE!

How could I not share this love I knew with people who knew nothing of it?

I began learning as much as I could because I had been filled with this new passion God had given me!

:: So Here's The Funny Part::
I would pray over this passion daily, asking, "Lord, I have this love; how will you, have me use it?"
Always asking, " Lord use me, send me, give me strength to love You, and Your people."
and " where shall I go?". The funny thing is I was in this continual "waiting"position, but God was using me- His clay-all along without me knowing the plan.

Last March, I went to South Africa, and my life was totally changed. I came home and knew I didn't want to go on anymore "trips".

This winter I decided to take more steps to see what doors God would open, or close concerning missions, and see if this was something God would have for my life.
 I filled out a long application for a missions internship in the Ukraine, then I got an email about South Africa!
.... and here we are!


I think these next couple of days will be the hardest. The realness of all this is sinking in. I am very excited, but goodbyes are always hard!

 And really hard for my friend Laurie, ( *Lu-ree; Who will be in S.A. with me for four months) whose family finally sold their house.  It will be really hard, since her family will have to move while she is away, and she will back to a different house. 

::This Passage Has Been a Comfort::

Thus says the Lord who made you,

who formed you from the womb and will help you:
Fear not, O Jacob my servant,
Jeshurun whom I have chosen.

 For I will pour water on the thirsty land,
    and streams on the dry ground;
I will pour my Spirit upon your offspring,
    and my blessing on your descendants. 

 They shall spring up among the grass
    like willows by flowing streams.

This one will say, ‘I am the Lord's,’
    another will call on the name of Jacob,

and another will write on his hand, ‘The Lord's,’

    and name himself by the name of Israel.”... 

Fear not, nor be afraid;

    have I not told you from of old and declared it?  

And you are my witnesses!- Isaiah 44:2-8

::Please PRAY For::

•  Laurie: with all new emotions of leaving "home" and goodbyes.

• Traveling: Laurie and I have three connecting flights before flying into JoBurg. That is scary stressful to get to each gate in time. 

• Goodbyes: Grace for all the tears that go along with leaving home for a while.
  
• The Missionaries: Amber and Louis O'Tool and there two children, Meridith and Drake traveling home to the states, and Brian and Lois, Niehoff, and there three children Liam, Lindy, and Charley adjusting to "The Village" without the O'Tools.

• And PRAISE the Father: I now have 90% of my needed support raised! Praise the Father for all the people who are sending me. I am so blessed to see the body of Christ at work in many ways, and places!