9/6/2018 0 Comments Ethiopia 2019 Updates!I am so excited to tell you that my psych interview/pre-field assessment went AMAZING (aka I passed with flying colors). I have been approved by the SIM psychologist to go on this internship, which is pretty much the last element of the process of getting approval. So now what comes next? Well, all of the fun stuff! The next steps are getting confirmed country placement, support letter writing and approval (one of my favorite parts, since I get to connect with my supporters!), and fundraising! Mixed in with all of this is also getting plane tickets and appropriate visas! I want to thank you guys for continuing to pray for this process! God is so faithful and I am so excited to continue these next steps. Be on the lookout for ways that you can support this Ethiopia 2019 trip, and I am hoping to get some letters out and fundraisers going soon! Thanks, everyone!
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8/22/2018 0 Comments Life Updates and Trip Progress!It has been a while since I have posted, so I wanted to update you guys about all of the crazy new things going on. I recently moved to Emporia, Kansas in order to continue my education at Emporia State University (if you have questions about why, please visit the about page or contact me for details!). Throughout all of the unpacking and adjusting to a new environment, I have also been inching closer and closer to getting completely through the vetting process for my SIM Ethiopia mission trip/internship.
The application and vetting process is quite long for this internship as compared with regular mission trips in the past. They basically want to make sure that you have the skills and are capable of being okay overseas for a longer period of time. It is a great process that includes the usual questions and references, as well as goes deeper into psychological evaluations and placement in order to make sure that you are equipped and are given the necessary tools for working overseas. As much as I would love to have this process done by now, ther is a reason for each step of the process and each step is important. So everyday I am getting closer to being fully through the vetting process and able to make one step closer to fundraising. Please know that though this is a long process, actions are taking place in order to get to the end goal! Which is to be able to experience this internship and to be able to grow in my faith and skills, and at the same time share the gospel with those in Ethiopia. If you have any questions about what has been going on or how you can contribute to the spreading of the gospel around the world through these trips, I would love to talk with you! Please never be hesitant to ask about everything that is going on. I will do my best to keep everyone updated about the process and about fundraising, once it starts! Thank you for your thoughts and prayers and I will hopefully have another update soon! Exciting news! I just submitted my 2nd application (the big one) for my SIM Ethiopia mission trip/internship for the summer of 2019! I am so blessed to have so many supporters praying and asking me about my progress throughout this application process, as well as have had the application fee paid in full by supporter donations! This is a very exciting process and I have loved every minute so far working with SIM (Serving in Mission). SIM was one of the first missions organizations that I heard about growing up and I have had a desire to work with them not only short-term but also long-term after school! This is an exciting first step in the direction of serving in long-term missions one day! I will continue to update everyone on this process and the trip progress, and hopefully, fundraising will be able to begin soon! Thanks, everyone! This morning I realized how spiritually empty I feel. I realize that while I have been preparing lessons, I have not for myself been digging into the Word. So I decided to change that this morning. I flipped to Nehemiah and began reading about his grief for the exiles and his prayer being answered (the first couple chapters).
As I read the Bible college student in my screamed to make sure that everything I share and write has all of the context in mind so that I don't misread or misinterpret anything, but I knew that God was trying to show me something through my reading. I really felt like my own cry was like Nehemiah's request to go rebuild. I plead for God to allow me to rebuild the spirits of these trafficked people. Based off of Nehemiah 2:5, I wrote my own prayer to the King, pleading to allow me to go wherever He calls me. This was a helpful exercise for me and I encourage you to do the same. This morning I have also had much anxiety about today. The number of places we are going as well as the lessons we are preparing. I do not feel prepared to say or teach anything and I'm honestly a little scared. Praying, praying, praying.... Nehemiah 2:8 stands out. "And the king granted them to me because the good hand of my God was on me." Throughout the things that god calls me to and the ministries that I have become a part of, I need to remember that the good hand of my God is on me. It is on me. He is with me. He goes before me in all that I do and in all that I face. I pray that I am not anxious about the words I speak because I do not want them to be my words, but His. I am realizing more and more how quickly this trip will be over. After today we only have 3 days left, and the last of those days we end at the airport heading back (duh, but this seemed crazy soon to me). It is crazy to think how long the hard moments have been and how quick the easy moments have been. I know that I will be joined to these women that I have ministered with for long after this trip ends. We will always remember theses moments, especially the ones when we were at our lowest and just had to pray together. If not anything else, we are joined by those beautiful small moments. Like Nehemiah and the builders of the wall, I will fight for God's people and will not run when mocked or oppressed. I will arm myself with Scripture and Truth and will continue rebuilding what Satan has tried to destroy here... 12:08 We are done with visiting another mission. This one teaches women to sew and then sells the product in order to fund their program. They also teach the women English which is a huge salary booster here. We talked to the founders as well as bought from their boutique. The owners were extremely encouraging and we were all very motivated by their hearts and their work. Since there were no women currently in their program due to a recent graduation, I must go back some day in order to see their training facility. It has seemed like a fairly calm day which is nice for us since we have been so busy and a bit stressed. We will be eating lunch with the women at one of the centers and then teaching a lesson. 7:48 pm Today was a big blessing. I was overwhelmed in the best way at both women's homes that we visited. The women were amazing and their hospitality was overwhelming (seems to be the word of the day). We had lunch there which included biryani, our interpreter's favorite. It was delicious to say the least. We watched the women put on a skit for us of the nativity and one girl sang a song she wrote about Jesus. The women also sang a song for us all together. We sang O Holy Night in a three part harmony that we had been rehearsing for quite a while. All of the songs were beautiful. We could feel the presence of the Lord in the room. There is something about singing a Christmas song that seems so traditional to me, just to have the women ask what it means right after we sang it for them. It was a beautiful moment to be able to share with them the meaning of O Holy Night. A song that all of us were simply used to hearing every Christmas. We gave them gifts and they gave us all flowers which was amazing because we did not expect them to be so generous. I can't lie, I was holding back tears the whole time. When you see someone with so little and that has been through so much, and they decide to give something to you, that is something so special. One of the women asked me to pray for her as we were leaving... it of course took me a while to understand what she was saying due to her broken English and my crazy teary-eyed emotional state. Of course I prayed for her but then I cried again (not surprised). It was in that moment that I was praying in which the whole course of the last 5 months really hit me. How God opened up this opportunity and provided everything I needed for it, all of that to bring me to this one moment with this one woman. This is what ministry is. This is what missions is. This is what being a Christian is. Hearing God's call to a random opportunity, Him providing everything I need, and me just going and doing what He leads me to do. This is what it is. I am overwhelmed by the transforming power of Jesus Christ. He truly makes us new creations. 4/14/2018 0 Comments Journal Entry #6 ~ 1/01 ~ 8:22 amYesterday we went to church. It was FANTASTIC. Couple of my fav jams that morning were Thank you Lord and Glory to God. I have never felt so a part of a church that I have not been to before. We of course had to take our shoes off before going in (we were very accustomed to this by now). The Pastor, and everyone, was so friendly and kind. His sermon was on the Parable of the talents. The point was that there will always be some sort of risk required in order to get a reward or result from our hard work. The main part of the service was people within the congregation giving their testimonies about what God had done for them in their lives this past year. I will continue to keep all the requests of the congregation in my prayers as several of them were more serious than I have and may ever experienced. The two women that were specifically working to rescue trafficking victims came over that afternoon to do a presentation of what human trafficking is (and more specifically what it looks like in India) and what they do. Going back briefly to the church, we also had the best chai I have and will ever have, and cookies before entering the building. Back to the women, they talked about not only the women and children involved in trafficking but also boys. That really spoke to me. They told us about how they have to have full proof and evidence, and complete police help before raids and convictions. They cannot raid a brothel without the police. I found that interesting. They also mentioned how the police that are corrupt will warn the brothel owners who they know so when they do the raid there is no one in the building that they raid. They also mentioned how human trafficking is the most popular business become of the resale factor and trading factor. One brothel owner does not have to find new girls, they can just trade with other brothel owners. The girls can also be reused unlike drugs or alcohol.
3:35 pm Today was our sightseeing day. We went to a government building by the high court, a palace of one of the Kings and its corresponding gardens (extremely British and reminded me of Kensington Gardens), and a temple (can't remember the name for the life of me/also their are a bunch of them). We had lunch at Infinitea, probably the most hip and modern place I had seen so far. I had a cream spinach pasta dish and it was so good. More specifically it was penne with pink sauce, creamed spinach, and steamed vegetables. I had a boiled egg and toast that morning which held me over until this lunch. 6:27 pm Today I really enjoyed getting to see the area for what it is and the many different parts of it. The government building was a good place for pictures with the team and I learned from our translator that the national flower is the lotus, national animal the tiger, and national symbol the lion. At the temple there were THOUSANDS of people. (I guess we failed to realize that it was New Years and there would be more people their than normal, oops). We went through different areas in lines with what seemed like short metal fences between us (a cross between the line you would go through at an amusement park and the metal fencing used for holding in groups of cattle). Men blew their whistles for everyone to move...speaking of cattle... kind of felt like it. Honestly it was not the best experience. Of course that would be a "duh" moment considering I am a Christian going through a line intended for the worship of Hindu gods, but in my American mind I expected a somewhat royal, godly experience. I was wrong. It was a useless feeling being shoved through a bunch of metal gates and squeezed into this supposed "godly" space. We continued to walk through the lines to finally get to the place that this specific god would dwell. My stomach became full of knots. Honestly it became as if instead of going to see a false god I was going to see Satan himself... instead of just his handiwork. I definitely did not expect to feel this way but it was such a foreign experience that it became extremely dreadful and my stomach continued to tie into knots the closer I got to the center of the temple. I prayed a prayer of protection and that the love of Christ would drive out my fear. When we finally got into the temple there was suddenly music and I looked up to see a giant gold structure which housed the idol(s). The structure itself was beautiful and magnificent. The line went in a circle while there were people meditating and worshiping the god(s) in the middle of the circle. There was also an area to buy offerings (coconuts and fruits). I looked at those meditating as we went around the idols and prayed for them. I realized that this was a prayer walk for Hindus, but that it could also be a prayer walk for me and that I could take the opportunity to pray for these people in the very temple of their false god. I honestly teared up realizing the scale of false hope that was being placed into these idols by such a hurting and vulnerable people. I new in this moment that my prayer of protection had come to pass and that the love of Christ for these people that I was feeling was a result of that same love driving out the fear that I had only seconds before entering the temple. The prayers in my mind began to be the prayers of my mouth, and those silent prayers began to be verbal as I spoke the prayers to my God, the true God, for these people. It was like I could feel the empty worship of these people. They were praying and meditating so hard, but for what? For nothing. This is the work of the devil. He tells us lies until we are working for him, but it is truly all for nothing but our own destruction. I was seeing and feeling the empty worship of an empty god. I wondered whether they also felt that emptiness and are just trying to feel something somehow through it. It was one of the most hopeless feeling to watch thousands of people worshiping a false god, and empty god, and not seem to know it. If they knew it was empty and all for nothing, surely they wouldn't worship. I went in further after the end of the circle that we were walking, and saw all of the vendors selling offerings, statues, pictures, etc of and for the god(s). All I could think about is when Jesus went into the temple and saw all of the vendors and overturned the tables. Apart of me wishes that I would have done the same... How bold Jesus was to do such a thing. Am I that bold? Are you that bold? Would I be willing to make such a statement for something that I believe in? That questioned seemed to "haunt" me for the rest of the trip. .... On another note, there is security everywhere in this area. I cannot bring my backpack into the grocery store, instead I have to leave it in a locker or with a guard and with the locker they give you a key to open it when you come back (I felt better with the locker than just leaving it with the guard). They also have security when going through the temple, but it was super casual and far less with the ladies than the men. The men had to go through a metal scanner (like at the airport) and be lightly padded down, while the women when into a small area enclosed with black curtains. When we went into this area there was a old woman sitting with a handheld metal scanner and she just waved it in our general direction as we walked through. She seemed to not care much if we had anything at all and smiled at us as we went through. At the palace we got a guided tour which was interesting... language barrier and heavy accents were of the utmost problematic parts of this tour. Many questions could not be answered or were not answered correctly due to the language barrier but hey we laughed about it afterward. After the tour we went to the gardens just outside of the palace. They were gorgeous and for a moment I thought I was back in London. We honestly were all feeling a little stressed and so we decided to walk and pray together. It is nice to always have God to talk to and rely on. It is also nice that he provided these amazing two ladies for me to go through this trip with. I feel at peace about our day tomorrow even though we have so much to do. Praying for energy. If I get through tomorrow, I think the rest of the trip will be a breeze. I think we go to 4 places... weew... Goodnight. Thank you Lord for this day. I have noticed that the local pastor that we are working with is probably the best dad I have ever seen. His girls are beautiful, polite, smart, and most importantly they know they are valuable. He is so loving to them and his wife and that is what a father should look like. I was amazed when I went to their home and saw that the daughters sleep on a mattress in their own room while the pastor and his wife sleep in the living room. That just took my by surprise so much. The local pastor's church has one room and he is currently the preacher while they are looking for a new one. His family are indeed rich. Not necessarily financially, but with love. They are so close and happy. We had a fun time watching Moana with their daughters, and it seemed to be that much doesn't change when it comes to kids loving movies... even in different countries. The highlight of the time with the local pastor was when we went into his church and all got on our knees and prayed in a circle. It seemed like such a "holy" moment. Like God was their with us in the room... and the amazing thing is, that He was. We didn't have to go to a temple or wash our feet or bring offerings in order to commune with and cry out to our God. We just called out to Him and He was there.
When we returned to eat dinner after our prayer, the pastor asked for someone to bless the meal and of course I could not pass up the opportunity (I have no problem praying for people OR food). I am stating to realize how hard it will be to just go home and live on like before. Of course I do plan on changing certain things I do and how I do them as a result of this trip, but I also wish that somehow I could provide for all of the ministries' needs. I wish I could adopt the boy I met and the rest of the children, but that is not (yet) what God has called me to do. I also wish I brought a blanket because the ones here do not cover both my shoulders and feet... I guess I'm tall in India?! Anyways... This morning we are having banana pancakes. I will also have a granola bar since I haven't eaten one yet and for some reason I brought an entire gallon bag of them. I think that my jet lag is finally going away and I'm getting used to the time change because I am finally hungry now and in the mornings. Also just a tip... crumbling a granola bar on top of pancakes is going to be my new habit since it was delicious. We came across a few serious prayer requests today which I will be continuing to pray for. One new thing that I learned today about the Indian culture was that naan with meals is more of a North Indian thing while rice is more of a South Indian thing. Last night I slept most of the night (which feels amazing today), except that my arms are kind of sore from holding so many kids yesterday... but I wouldn't have it any other way. My heart is so full. I would not trade the experiences that I have had so far for anything. Today we are going to Crossroads Church. Side note: the amount of trash on the streets has taken me by surprise (not in a good way). It is everywhere and people just throw their trash on the ground like it is normal (well it is here, but my "American-ness" screams about it). It is around 5 am and I have pretty much been up since 3:30 am. I feel rested and ready but it is obviously not the time to be ready (time change stinks). I thought through more of the devotion I will be giving today. I am going to talk about Nahum comforting the Israelite people with telling of their enemies destruction. In the same way, and through Jesus' sacrifice, we are able to proclaim comfort to those around the world in the midst of the destruction caused by our enemies. God is coming and when He does, He will destroy all of our enemies. He is providing for His children who serve Him and will one day defeat the true enemy, Satan. I think that this devotional will be a motivating start to our first day of ministry here in India.
8:36 am There seems to be a bit of tension this morning and a lot of plans are unclear. I have learned so far that the best thing for me is to always be honest about how I feel. I am becoming less and less worried about others' opinion of me and just follow what God tells me to do and say. 8:40 pm Today we visited a children's home, a HIV/AIDS hospice home, a slum, and a local pastor's house (He has been helping us get around and has been showing us his various ministries). I had cereal for breakfast, chicken sandwiches and Spanish tomato tango chips (SO GOOD), and mixed fruit juice for lunch. For dinner we ate at the local pastor's house. We did not plan on this but his family was so generous to make us a home cooked traditional Indian meal. It was by far my favorite food of the entire trip. His family fixed us rice with chicken and pork, cucumber onion salad, and cucumber slices. It was amazing. At the children's home this morning, my heart was taken aback by a specific little boy who just clung to me the entire time. He slept on my shoulder and in my arms for a while and my heart melted to say the very least. A little girl was caught up with how long my hair was and decided to "style" it the entire time, which I of course had no problems with at all. My heart had never felt so full. I am honestly so glad that God gave me hair, and long hair for that matter. It has helped build relationships and a sense of "closeness" even in the midst of a language barrier. At this children's home, I found myself with a hurting heart... especially for the boys. I don't understand this but I know that God will use it when I begin to make plans for my missions in the future. It is starting to really set it... what I am doing here, but also what I plan on doing in the future. This is all very much a hard thing to do and is extremely uncomfortable at the beginning at lease, not to mention dangerous. These people know that what they believe and teach brings danger to them. Yet they live the Gospel better than anyone I have ever seen. 2/18/2018 0 Comments Ethiopia 2019 ~ Application
I include such a high cost for additional trip supplies because of possible different clothes I may need to buy as well as any special supplies and possible visa costs if those are not included in the cost of the trip.
Length of trip: 3 months Application fee: $30 There is quite a process to go through until this trip is set up and I am approved for it. I have filled out the first application and have had a phone interview, and have been approved for the second application process. Now I am filling out the second, more in-depth application. So far I have had nothing but a good experience with SIM and it is a unique situation because SIM was actually the first missions organization that I discovered when I first took and interest and felt God calling me to missions. I am excited to hopefully get the opportunity to work with them soon. I am not sure exactly what this internship will look like right now so I am not able to give a lot of (or any) specifics right now but I would love and appreciate your prayers throughout this process! I am also looking for donations for my $30 application fee. I currently have $20 that has already been donated that is going toward this fee, but I am in need of $10 more dollars. In addition to financial help, I would love prayers for motivation... or maybe just against my own tendency to procrastinate.... in order to complete this larger application. I love the trips and the opportunities that God gives me through them... but in a moment of raw honesty, I hate filling out applications. I think everyone does. I am very excited and humbled to have this opportunity. This trip is very special to me not only because it is an opportunity for me to reach people with the love of Christ, but because I have felt called to work full-time as a bi-vocational missionary in Ethiopia for a very long time. Those of you who know me have heard of all of the crazy stories that I have told of how God has continually reminded me of the work that He wants me to be a part of in this country. I have tried and tried to go on missions trips to Ethiopia in the past and have continually received closed doors and a simple "no" from God, without understanding why. I have prayed for years for this opportunity and so far deeply feel as if God has been saying "yes" to this opportunity. I will continue to update everyone on this trip and I already know that God is going to continue to do amazing things as He always does. Today we met our guide. She is by far one of the sweetest people I have ever met. We get up and ready and she came in order to give us our orientation as well as show us around and act as our translator. We walked a ways until we arrived at a small American looking coffee and snack plane to get breakfast. It is run by American who may also be doing ministry (?). But of course that place was closed, so we walked to a different coffee and food place that the owner of the closed shop recommended to us, and followed behind us to go as well. It was some how comforting to be greeted by another American and be able to talking in English with them. I had an egg and cheese sandwich (which was amazing) and an iced latte *thank you, Lord* (also amazing and something that I didn't expect to get on this trip). The cafe was of a super industrial/steampunk vibe which seemed for me to clash with my traditional kurta. In conclusion, it was probably one of the most edgy places that I have been to. I'm going to be extremely honest, today was not the best. It was exciting to get out and about in the area, but between the remaining jet lag and "gutting" out schedules for the week, our to-do list for planning filled up quickly. I was instantly stressed with the idea of visiting three different groups and planning a lesson, songs, games, and skits for two of those groups. One group which knows zero English whatsoever (thank you, Lord for our translator). We are thankful for our translator, but translator becomes a bit more difficult in game and skit format. Again in all honestly, things have not been the way I thought they would e, and that has made me a bit frustrated. There has been some clashing in the group and awkward tension that has already been tough to deal with today. Of course in the midst of my stress and frustration, God decided to work through an amazing piece of modern technology.... The Bible app. My verse of the day popped up and it was Matthew 28:19. Matthew 28:19 ~ This verse was a reminder of my purpose of being here in India. To make disciples of all nations... no matter what that looks like or what stress comes along with it.
Anyways.... tonight we had Indian food and it was amazing. We all squeezed into one auto (like a tiny green and yellow, three wheeled taxi with no doors) several times today, which was really fun. We also went to a large store called the D Mart and bought Indian clothes (kurtas, leggings, and a scarf). I got 3 kurtas with three different colored leggings and I would not mind wearing them for the rest of my life. (They are super comfy) Something that was interesting was that you have to give your bag up to store security before going into the store. I of course took our my tiny sling bag (meant for holding my passport while traveling) with all my important documents in it. But before we went shopping, we went and exchanged money. I exchanged some (to spend and some to take back home). Back to the store.... For safety, we also had to go through a metal detector into the store and after buying our clothes we had to show our receipt and get it stamped before going out of the store.... ~continue to next journal entries for more~ 2/2/2018 0 Comments Journal Entry #2 ~ 12/28
long it will take us to understand that what is said in the media should not define how we view God's creation, yes even those in the Middle East. God loves the people in the Middle East. God loves Arabs, and Syrians and Iraqis and the Kurdish in the mountains. God loves all of these people... so why are we still turning our eyes away from them? I understand that this is a touchy subject and this is more complicated than just loving or hating a people group... but id it really? God calls us to love everyone and He did not say that excluding those that may be hard to love because of culture or whatever. Loving people can be extremely hard, yet for some reason we think that if it is hard we don't have to do it. God commands His people to do difficult things throughout history and this is no exception.
So I challenge you, as well as myself, to chose a people group that has disgusted you or that you have said several negative things about before, whether in the Middle East or outside of it. Choose a group or region and pray for that region. Once a day or once a week or something. Just pray for them and allow God to change your vision to be able to see what He sees when He looks at this people group. Lord, I pray that you will forgive us for hating people. Your creation and the ones You love. I pray that you will soften our hearts and allow our eyes to be changed to see what You see when we look at others, whether across the street or across the world. We love you. We desire to be more like you, and because of that we will strive to show the love of Christ to all people. Thank you for thinking about us when you died on the cross. It is because of Your perfect love that we are now able to be with you again. Restores into a relationship with You that we had lost because of our sin. Help us love others. Amen. |