My Month in Numbers

1 dog watched for  5 days.

5 days until my 23rd birthday!

13 days until I'll be back in Haiti!

20 hours put in during my first week at work.

10 field trips booked.

30 clubs planned.

10 students registered.

1 new camp office decorated with: 14 feet of fabric and 3 canvases; which were made into 1 curtain & 3 art pieces!

$1000 of product sold at our recent Thirty-One fundraiser.  

Meaning we raised $200 for my trip to Haiti.

All  $998 for my trip is now covered, with an extra 

$60 to save for the next trip!!!!

2 brightly colored spring dresses &

5 new pairs of shorts added to my wardrobe over the last few weeks 
*Happy Birthday to Me!!*

 All equaling 1 very happy, content, & busy girl who can't wait to get back to Haiti!!

To Grandmother's House We Went

This past weekend, all the grand kids headed up to Grandma & Pa's for the weekend, with a couple of extra people in stow :)! 

We've spent plenty of weekends at Grandma's with the whole family, but we've just recently started making it a habit to take grand kid trips.  It's such a fun time for all of us getting to hang out with Grandma & Pa without the chaos when the whole family goes up.  It also thrilled Grandma & Pa so much last time, that we knew it would become a tradition!

So after a little bit of planning, we packed up the car & headed out.  Unfortunately Stephen couldn't go on this trip, but we still had a lot of fun!

Here are some highlights from the weekend.  Prepare yourself for the craziness of my family :)

A trip to Wal-Mart is always a necessity when at Grandma's.  Andy never fails to make us laugh with his discoveries.

 We challenged Andy to make the ugliest outfit possible.  This was his selection.  Ha!

 Erin & I before heading to church!

Old timers!! Reading the newspaper and doing word searches.  Also let me make note of the rivalry in the shirts going on here.

 Andy decided to join the youth choir on Sunday morning.  To say the rest of us enjoyed this would be an understatement!! We got a good laugh out of his attempts to follow along.

 The grand kids!  (this picture is required after every trip to grandma's)

 Along with a few candid shots of our crazy family.

 The whole crew for the weekend after church.

 Andy being Andy.

Ain't they sweet!

We had a lovely weekend!  We all ate WAAY too much food, laughed hysterically, and had a ton of fun reminiscing. 

Thanks for having us Grandma & Pa!  We love you!!!!!

Trusting YOU God!

So many questions....so few answers.

My mind has been racing endlessly over the last couple of days.  My mind, wanting the details and answers now, has been fighting with my heart, that knows I must wait.  The questions seem to multiply every day, leading to sleepless nights and unproductive days.

I've been in prayer over all of this every step of the way, and even though I know God is going to make the path clear, I find myself completely unsure of which path to follow.

I covet your prayers as I take this journey.  Please pray for my patience, ability to discern God's will, and courage to walk where He leads.  Please pray that God would make HIS path clear and provide me with the resources, finances, and skills needed to follow through.

I've got two mission opportunities I feel led to follow right now.

One option is what I thought I'd be doing.  It sounds fun, challenging, exciting, right up my alley, and the path I want to take.  It will be hard, and I don't know that I am quite equipped for the job yet, but I know with His help I could do it and bring Glory to His name.

The other...well it is not at all the path I thought I'd be taking.  It's one I have fought every step of the way.  One I feel completely inadequate to fulfill, and one that requires more commitment than I even know if I can make.  It's one that would require more sacrifice than I imagined.  It is an option I know I could do, and would probably be good at once trained, but I just it's a lot to take on!  However, I know God would be glorified through it, and there must be a reason He keeps laying it on my heart.

I can't get either option off of my mind.  Each consumes my thoughts in more ways than one every. single. day.  I find myself at peace over one, one minute, and the next anything but.  I have no clue which path I am supposed to take.

Are they supposed to overlap somehow?

Do I do one now, and the other later?

Do I help with both in a way I haven't even thought of yet?

I simply don't know, but I am covering it all in prayer, waiting for God to reveal His plan.

I just need a HUGE dose of patience until that happens.

Weekend Recap

What an amazing weekend this has been!!

My weekend started off with a trip to High Point to spend Valentine's Day with my old roommate, Jessica Rose.  Neither of us had plans, so we decided to get dinner, see Safe Haven, and catch up.  I haven't seen her since October and have really missed hanging out with her every day!  I forget how long the two of us can sit and talk, without ever running out of things to talk about.  We sat on her bed for like three hours catching up.  It was SO nice to spend some time with her.  I couldn't have asked for a better valentine's day lol!

I also spent Friday and Saturday with Grey Stone's youth helping out at Metamorphosis.  A few weeks ago, I was asked to be a small group leader for our church's Metamorphosis Weekend.  I said yes immediately, because I have always LOVED Metamorphosis (formally known as D-Now).   When I was in the youth, this was an event I always looked forward to.  I loved having college aged group leaders come in and teach us, I loved the scavenger hunts, and how it always seemed to make our youth group grow closer together.  I still remember the small group leaders who taught me and how much of a difference they made in my walk with Christ.  I was SO excited to, again, get the opportunity to have that kind of impact on a young person's walk.

Our theme this past weekend was Upside Down.  We taught the students how Christ came and turned this world upside down.   How he changed our world forever, and how it was our job to continue that cycle.  We went through a study teaching students how they can turn our current world upside down and that the change must start with them.  It was so cool to watch God work in their lives!  This was the first D-Now event, that I've helped with, where the students genuinely seemed to want to know more about Christ.  Almost every student really wanted to be there, not to socialize with their friends (even though that was a perk), but to learn and grow in their own walk. 

I led the High School Girls with Sheena & Lauren.  The three of us leaders hit it off right away and really clicked on our teaching methods.  We met before each lesson to make sure we had a plan and were all on the same page.  I loved getting to hear their thoughts on how they interpreted the message and then getting to add my own thoughts into the mix.  What would have been a great bible lesson with just one of us teaching, turned into an AMAZING time for the girls to learn.

Our girls asked some very difficult questions, and pushed us leaders to not simply teach the lesson provided, but to truly teach them about every area of Christ.  I was genuinely blown away by their willingness and eagerness to learn.  I think we all made some great connections this weekend, and I truly hope and pray something we said will stick with these girls forever. 

We challenged each of our High School girls to find one thing that stuck out from the weekend, more than the rest, and to really take the time to explore it further and help it grow in their life.   I also loved that one of the lessons challenged us leaders to ask every student where they wanted their walk with Christ to go, and how they planned to get there.  Hearing these girls' dreams and steps they planned to take was so encouraging.  We have some GREAT leaders that are about to turn this world upside down!  I just ask that you would all join me in continuing to pray for the students who participated this weekend.  That they would no longer be comfortable living how they currently are, but that they would have the courage and boldness to turn this world, their world, upside down for Christ!

Today, and over the course of the weekend, God has truly blessed me by letting me see some of his plans for my life come together!  As you all know, I'll be moving to Haiti sometime in the next year.  When I told everyone that, I still had a lot of unanswered questions, and still do.  However, the opportunity to go to Haiti in April has opened up, where I'll get to meet Amber and really try to get some plans put into action.  She and I have been talking about living together, and will be looking into apartments/housing options during that week.  We are also going to work on getting that building, or at least getting an idea of how much money we'll need to raise for it.  I know God has HUGE plans for this trip, and I am so excited to meet Amber, work with her, and watch His plans unfold!

I posted a note on facebook last week, asking 5-10 small groups/Sunday School classes/churches/ businesses/etc if they would be willing to sponsor $100-$200 for this trip.  I've already got some people on board (a pampered chef party, a parent's night out event with camp, and some Sunday School classes donating) and have been so blessed to watch God take care of the financial needs.

God is absolutely amazing, and blows my mind away EVERY day with his love, guidance, provision, and grace!!  Please continue to keep this journey in your prayers!!

Haiti here I come (again)!!!!!!!!!

My Journey to Haiti: Part Three

These last couple of months have been filled with the most eye-opening and amazing moments, all of which have been orchestrated by God!

Let me give you a little bit of background that I left out of part two.  Once I hit that moment of realizing that God wanted me in Haiti and I had to give him control and join the ride, fears/worries of different kinds started creeping in my mind.  You see, I graduated college last year in May, and I knew my loans would be entering into repayment VERY soon.  Most college graduates have 6 months after their graduation date before that repayment period begins.  Around the time all of this realization took place, I was about 3-4 months away from having to make large loan payments.  I went into the loans websites to get an idea of how much I would be looking at paying each month.  I have 3 loans, through 2 different organizations, and came to the understanding that I would be paying around $350/month starting December 2012.

Yikes!! That's all I could think.

At this point, I had no job, no prospect of a job, was contemplating moving to a fifth-world Country, and honestly had no clue how those payments were going to take place.  Honestly, I panicked.  I thought there was no way I could ask people to support me each month to live in Haiti AND ask them to send enough to make those payments.  I just didn't feel right asking people to do that, nor did I think there was any way people could do that.  I reached a point where I figured my only option would be to find a job, work for a year or so, and save up enough money to make those payments before I could move to Haiti.

To say I was bummed and feeling discouraged was an understatement.  The job search had yielded absolutely NOTHING, I didn't have a peace about working in design any longer, and truthfully felt like I had run into a brick wall that I couldn't find a way around.  I kept praying and asking God to show me a solution to this problem.  I know God is bigger than any financial hurdle, and I simply had to trust that he would take care of it.  Until then,  I had to keep looking for jobs and going about life.

During this whole ordeal, our team was preparing for our upcoming (my fourth) trip to Haiti (Dec. 2012).  We were raising the funds, gathering supplies, planning our week, and getting really excited for the upcoming adventure.  I prayed constantly that the Lord would use our team in ways we hadn't even thought of.  That He would go ahead of us and prepare the hearts of those we were going to see, as well as prepare us for the journey.  I prayed that He would use this trip to make my calling clearer, and give me a better understanding of his plans for me in Haiti.  I prayed every way possible over our trip.  I knew God had big plans and I was so anxious to see how they would all unfold.

About a month before our trip, I attended the Missions Committee meeting at Grey Stone.  I spoke with Randall that night, and he really pushed me to make the move, step out in faith, and wanted to know when I was going.  I jokingly laughed and brushed it off, knowing that I was still afraid and genuinely had no idea when or even if things would ever get to that point.  It wasn't until I was on the way home that it hit me...

God had taken care of my financial hurdle.

A week prior, I received a letter in the mail letting me know my first loan payment was due.  That payment was through CFNC, on one loan, and was a $50 payment.  When I went online to make the payment, I realized I hadn't heard anything from my other loan company.  I went on their website and realized that they had my loan listed as not going into repayment until 2015.

2015!!!!

I didn't realize it at first, but on the car ride home that night I broke into tears over the realization that God had just cleared the path.  He had given me a 2 year window where I could go to Haiti and not have to worry about paying the  $300/month.  This may seem so silly to some of you, but in that moment I felt more blessed than ever before.  I've heard of this kind of thing happening to people who are faithful with their giving, but I had never experienced anything this big before. 

So let me recap:
I have no full-time job holding me back.
I no longer have to worry about a $300/month payment.
I am single and don't have a family that needs me here.

There was no longer any reason that I couldn't go to Haiti.  Nothing at all was standing in my path.  I had to go!!  I had to; and this was the absolute perfect time!!

I loaded that plane with our team on December 28, 2012 knowing deep in my heart that this was not a trip where I was just visiting.  I was no longer going simply to love on the people of Haiti and visit old friends.  For the first time, I was going to make plans for a full-time move down there!  The best part, was that we were staying with Jim & Debbie Hambrick, who took me on my first trip to Haiti.  It was so fitting that the people who helped me fall in love with Haiti would be the ones who helped me move there full-time.

If you read my blog posts (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) after we got back, then you know how incredible the trip turned out to be.  God worked in my heart in ways I hadn't even imagined.  He opened up some doors, reaffirmed once again that Haiti would be my home very soon, and created some lasting friendships.  After talking with Jim, Debbie, and Donna that night, there was no longer any question or fear in my mind.  Even though some hard questions were asked, and I knew the journey would not be easy, I finally felt 1000% at peace about everything.  My heart was fully in love with Haiti, and I finally announced to my family and everyone else that I was moving to Haiti!!!!

Through this whole process I have come to realize just how amazing God is.  He orchestrated all of this from the time I was born, and will continue to work in my life until my time on earth is finished.  I have come to appreciate my relationship with the Lord so much more than ever before over the last few years.  Even though so many thoughts, decisions, and actions deemed me unworthy of this relationship, I am so grateful to serve the Lord who forgives ALL sins and loves us anyways.  I am so thankful that He never gave up on me and has loved me unconditionally through every stage of life. 

I've learned that no hurdle is too big for God.  If it's His will, He will see that it comes to pass.  I've learned to relinquish my fears, worries, and concerns and trust that God is bigger than anything I could ever come across. I've learned that God uses our weak moments in life to shine just how big his Glory is.

If he can use me: a 22 year old girl with a messed up past, then he can use you too!  I never in a million years would have guessed this is where my life would take me, but I am so glad this is where I'm going.  I know this story is still being written, and that it's still in its early chapters, but if God has done this much already, I can't wait to see how the rest unfolds!!

Please keep me in your prayers as I take each step in Faith.  Please keep this journey, wherever it may take me, in your prayers.

I say this a lot, but we genuinely serve an AMAZING God yall!!  If you are reading this and have never given your life to Christ, or are on the fence, take it from me:  jump in with all you've got!!  You will never, EVER, regret it!!  If you have questions, or would like to know how to give your life to Christ, please ask!! I would be honored to share that with you!

So here we go!  Part four is just beginning.  I can't wait to see what God is going to do!