One Gauntlet Story for Tonight...(and prayer requests)

About 1,400,000 children are orphaned,
400,000 of them because of AIDS.

I'm sobered once again by this fact tonight. I was reading back through the stats I shared two weeks ago and couldn't help but realize this is exactly why God is sending me over. He is my heavenly father and wants every one of His children to know of this truth.

Here's an awesome story for you from last week...it occurred during worship the last night we were involved in the BigStuf conference in Daytona. To paint a picture for you...I was in a room with 4,000 youth (middle school and high school students) and their leaders. 1,000 people in the room were from Anderson, SC from NewSpring Chruch where I am a member. I had already been blown away so many times about the favor God has placed on my church and the blessings we get to experience day in and day out. So at this particular moment we were corporately worshiping to Hillsong's "Arms Open Wide". The words of the song are, "Take my hands and make then clean, keep my heart in purity, that I may walk in all you have for me. Oh here I stand arms open wide. Oh I am yours and you are mine"
I was standing with my arms outstretched to my side head tilted back in complete surrender and immediately God spoke to me and placed a picture in my head. I was in Africa crouched down with my arms just as I had them (outstretched as far as I could reach to each side of my body) with tons of children and babies running and toddling toward me with nothing by smiles on their faces. I wept with the excitement that is what God has for me if I am willing to keep begging for the strength, courage, and faith to follow His plan!
I cannot wait for this to be a reality! (It will be sooner than I can comprehend!)

Oh and for one more affirming story of the week...in normal God fashion the Kenyan children's choir led us in worship one morning! Again I wept with the realization of the love God has placed in me over the last few months (without me realizing it) for His children in Africa. I definitely never thought I would be in Africa and wasn't so sure I would have the same connection/draw toward/love for the children their as I do here. How wrong could I have been!? I'm humbled and in awe of how God has prepared my heart this summer for what He has to come.

A few quick prayer requests...
~I would love prayer for God to continue to prepare me through my time with Him and through the experiences I have these last few weeks in the States.
~I am currently begging God for a group of believers in Africa that I immediately click with and am able to study with and be held accountable by. I desperately want that!
~I had a draining but wonderful and exciting conversation with a dear friend last night who is really going through a rough time in his life. I would love prayers for him that he continues to question God and search for answers in Him and nothing else. Also I am begging God that my friend will be lit on fire for Christ and set back on the path God has for him!
~Last for all the goodbyes that are continuing to be a reality in my life. I want them to be sweet and meaningful but not tear me to pieces and am having trouble finding that balance. I want God to be the center of each one of them.
~Ok one more...for my family who is obviously realizing their only daughter is going over seas. I am begging God to comfort them and bring them to peace with my departure, something only He can do!

Much more to process from The Gauntlet so there will be more headed your way...

The Gauntlet...complete

First- a HUGE praise. I have reached my initial goal of $10,000! God is good and absolutely had a plan. He deliberately told a friend of mine to give me $100 yesterday...she asked how much I had left to raise and I shared I was only $103 away from my initial goal. In obedience and joy she wrote me a check for exactly that! Praise only God and may every penny of the money raised go toward making His name famous!

Second- Yesterday I got back to Anderson safe and sound after the Gauntlet...a week that could only be described as God-filled, fun, and exhausting all at the same time. I'll be sure to share some stories soon as I process what I heard/learned/took in...
As for today thanks to those who prayed as I moved all of my belongings back to Aiken. Everything is here, the Uhaul unloaded and most of it inside (minus some boxes who's home will be the garage for another few days until all of my brother's stuff is moved). What awesome parents I have to move my brother yesterday and then drive to Clemson to move me today and deal with a daughter who is exhausted. I'm glad it's done.
I think tonight will be filled with lots of tv time on the couch after Mom gets back with the Chinese!
Promise to share Gauntlet stories soon!

One month and counting...

So as of yesterday I have exactly one month left in the States. Craziness! To describe where I'm at:
Physically- busy! Tomorrow at 4AM I leave for what my church calls The Gauntlet. It is better described as over 700 high school and middle school students as well as over 200 volunteers spending a week together in Daytona, Florida for teaching and fellowship. We are loading count them 18 buses for a 10 hour drive tomorrow. I'm very excited and a little nervous/desperate for God to work through me! I can't wait to report what God does throughout this week when I return! As for other news...I'm still babysitting 4 days a week for two weeks after I return from Florida. And my parents are working on putting together a trip to Puerto Rico August 9-12. We'll see if they comes to pass.
Emotionally- excited, stressed, tired of saying goodbyes, nervous...basically my brain is on overdrive trying to figure out what I need to get done before leaving. I'm hopeful this next week will give me some time away when I can't get anything physical for Africa departure completed so I'll be able to sort through feelings and prepare my heart and mind a little better.
Spiritually- being able to speak last weekend was definitely a dream come true as well as a huge blessing (I don't think I've admitted this yet, but one of my dreams is to become a public speaker! I would love nothing more than to spend my life getting share with others what God has done in my life to inspire them!), my time with the Lord (whenever I can find some quiet time) has been filled with closeness and lessons, this summer has definitely been about God showing me sinful areas of my life and us SLOWLY (on my part) but surely working through them, it has also been a time for God to teach me about earthly relationships and what they were made to look like...basically great times learning some hard lessons

Ok that is it for now. I have to get some sleep before our VERY early departure time. Please pray for God hand to be ALL over this whole conference. I want to see heart change in the girls I'm going to be leading and for them to absolutely be fired up to return to school this fall. God definitely has HUGE plans for this week so anticipate some wonderful God stories when I return!

Mozambique Information

I think it's time I share some statistics with you about where I'm going...(and time for me to look them up for my own benefit as well).
So here it goes...

Basics
Gained indepence from Portugal in 1975.
Civil war devastated the country until 1992.
Maputo (where I'll be) is the capital city.
It is 309,475 square miles. (Slightly less than twice the size of Calfornia.)
Mozambique has a tropical climate with two seasons, a wet season from October to March and a dry season from April to September.
Average temperature ranges in Maputo are from 55 to 75 degrees Fahrenheit in July to 72 to 88 degrees Fahrenheit in February. (I hear it really goes up to about 120.)
Main language spoken is Portuguese.

People
Population is about 20.4 million; 48.2% male and 51.8% female.
Religions: Christian 40%, Muslim 20%, indigenous African and other beliefs 40%
Education: females remain in school about 7 years, males 9 years.
Life expectancy at birth, males 49 years, females 51 years
Literacy Rate: 44%
5.8 children born to every female

Health Concerns
About 1,500,000 people living with HIV.
About 810,000 of them women- transfering to their babies at birth.
About 1,400,000 children are orphaned, 400,000 of them because of AIDS.
104 babies out of every 1000 will die in infancy.
57% of the population has no clean water access.
Malaria, TB, HIV, Hep A are all real daily concerns.
25% of children under 5 are underweight.
There is 1 physician for every 33,333...in the US there is 1 for every 390!

Economy
Division of Labor- Agricualture about 81%, Industry 6%, and Services 13%
21% of population is unemployed.
70% of population is below the poverty line.
36% of population is living $1/day

Ok that is what I have for now. Definitely sobering. A realization for sure.

E-mail Updates

Hey there...if you are reading this and would like to be included in my list of e-mail updates/newsletters once I'm in Africa please let me know your name and e-mail address. I'm trying to get the initial list put together this week!

And praise God for the support raising process...check it out at the bottom on this page!

Sermon for Reading...

The readings for the service were...
Amos 7:7-15
Psalms 85:8-15
Ephesians 1:3-14
Mark 6:14-29

Here's what God lead me to write and preach. My absolute prayer is that it glorifies God and challenges those who heard and are going to read it to check their salvation and seek God's perfect plan for their lives!

Listen again to Amos’ reply to Amaziah from our lesson today, “I’m not a professional prophet, and I was never trained to be one. I’m just a shepherd, and I take care of sycamore-fig trees. But the Lord called me away from my flock and told me, “Go and prophesy to my people in Israel.” Amos stands just one example in scripture where God sends the weak to lead the strong. He chose Amos and sent him, a man who describes himself as unprofessional and never trained. Timothy is another perfect example of someone God chose to do His work, listen to what he says in 1 Timothy 1:12-14. “I’m so grateful to Christ Jesus for making me adequate to do this work. He went out on a limb, in trusting me with this ministry. The only credentials I brought to it were invective and witch hunts and arrogance. But I was treated mercifully because I didn’t know what I was doing—I didn’t know Who I was doing it against! Grace mixed with faith and love poured over me and into me. And all because of Jesus.”

Can you see that the first step is accepting the love and grace-filled forgiveness God has offered us through His son Jesus Christ? This is perfectly described in today’s reading from Ephesians. “Even before He made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be whole and without fault in his eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ.” The common denominator here is a public belief in Jesus Christ. So if you believe in Christ and have confessed him as Lord and Savior, the next step is to discern his perfect plan for you. I think telling you the story of the last year of my life may show you that God does call people like Amos and Timothy in real ways slowly revealing His perfect plan.

It all started with a phone call from a good friend of mine while I was attempting to study for a nursing test during the fall of 2008. She knew my computer was broken so I would have to travel to campus to use the internet. Our conversation went something like this, “I feel like I should tell you about this orphanage in Africa.” “Can we talk about this tomorrow? We both really need to study.” “Sure, but if you want to look it up. It’s run by Iris Ministries and is called the Baby House. I just feel like if there is anywhere you would be happy, it’s at a place called the Baby House.” So I left my books right on my bed and headed to campus to look up this place. I spent a few hours reading about the orphanage and the organization and was captivated by what God was doing through Iris Ministries. The minute I saw a picture of the nursing staff all I could think was, I could be a part of this. The next morning, only because of God’s grace I made it to my test and ended up with an A!

This same week another friend saw me looking at the babies on the website and asked me about it. I looked right at him and said aren’t they amazing. They look so happy and excited even though they are living with nothing. I also showed him the nursing staff picture and timidly asked, “Do you think I could do this?” Within a few minutes he had convinced me to e-mail for information about becoming a nursing missionary, saying its only information you don’t really have to go. The e-mail I got back astounded me. It basically said at the time when you are graduating we are going to have a nursing shortage so if you feel led to fill out our application we would love to consider you without the normal 3-4 week initial visit. Crazy! I wrote back that I needed to talk with my parents prior to filling out the application because I did not think it was fair to make this decision without them. The organization was completely supportive.

In the next few weeks to months God was extremely clear that this was His plan for my next year. Prior to this, honestly my plan was to move to Charleston and be a pediatric or labor and delivery nurse and live happily ever after. But to give you a few examples of how subtle God can be…Before bringing up the idea to a close friend when I said I was trying to figure out what was next after graduation he said, “Why don’t you just get on a boat and go work in Africa?” I sat stunned for a minute before I explained that that might actually be what I was doing. Also, I am a tour guide on Clemson’s campus and several times members of my tour groups came up to me and said something like…have you thought about taking your nursing education to Africa and becoming a missionary? They would each tell me stories of their sons or daughters being missionaries and how people with medical knowledge were priceless to them. God also used things like the radio. One morning I turned my car on and the first word said was, “Africa”. I sat peaceful and amazed listening to this missionary talk about her last year spent in an Africa village spreading the gospel to children there. Each one of these moments and many more transformed my heart. The realization was that God’s plan was perfect and mine was flawed. I slowly but surely got over the idea that my American nursing education was quote “going to waste” by not working in a hospital setting and completely fell in love with each African child I saw a picture of.

Don’t be tricked into thinking this process has been easy. But God has been faithful in providing a push in the right direction every single time I got discouraged. Now my plane ticket is bought and I will be leaving on August 18^th to spend the next year outside of Maputo, Mozambique working as a nurse at a Christian orphanage called Zimpeto that cares for about 300 children. At least the first few months my responsibility will be in the Baby House…exactly what started this whole thing! There are about 40 kids under 4 that I will be working with. Since this decision was made, God has revealed to me at least a part of the vision He has for my ministry through scripture. I firmly believe that one of my jobs is to share the hope and excitement of Isaiah 30:19-21 with the missionaries, workers, and children at Zimpeto. Just listen and I think you’ll be excited along with me. "O people of Zion (substitute of Mozambique), who live in Jerusalem (or Zimpeto), you will weep no more. He will surely respond to the sound of your cries. Though the Lord gave you adversity for food and suffering for drink, he will still be with you to teach you. You will see your teacher with your own eyes. Your own ears will hear him. Right behind you a voice will say, 'This is the way you should go,' whether to the right or to the left."

I stand here a modern-day example of Amos or Timothy. I am humbled and blessed that God had this in my plan from day one and don’t for one second think I could do it without Him. Many people have asked how I’m feeling right now, with only about a month left in the States. Currently I am extremely excited to see God’s plan worked out in front of me; I am also beginning to glimpse how excruciating it will be to say goodbye to all those I love; and I am desperate for God to calm my fears of being inadequate and unworthy. But in the midst of this year, my prayer has been that others will see me for who I am. I believe Timothy describes it perfectly. “Here’s a word you can take to heart and depend on: Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. I’m proof—Public Sinner Number One—of someone who could never have made it apart from sheer mercy. And now he shows me off—evidence of his endless patience—to those who are right on the edge of trusting him forever. Deep honor and bring glory to the King of All Time—One God, Immortal, Invisible, ever and always.” This is me, saved only by the blood of Christ, now sent to do God’s work in a land desperate for his saving power with children who have no parents, are starving, and sick.

I would love for each one of you to be a part of my journey in whatever capacity you feel led. There is a sheet in the back for you to write down your name and e-mail address or street address to receive more information on how to contact me, following my blog, and exactly where I’ll be. Thank you so much for this opportunity to tell you about what God has been doing in my life. My prayer is that it has challenged each of you to ask God what His plan is for you, daily and long-term.

Let us pray…

Preaching Tomorrow!

So I just finished writing my sermon for tomorrow. I will be preaching at St. Augustine's tomorrow morning and would love your prayers. For now I'm headed to share with a few friends and practice a few more times. I'll definitely share what I spoke on tomorrow night! I would love your prayers for myself but more importantly for those who will hear this message that God would speak to their hearts and that His message for them would sink in! I'm getting excited to see what God's plan is for this!

A realization...

One more thought for the day. I realized yesterday morning as I had to say goodbye to the Clemson Crew at the beach how excruciating it is going to be to say goodbye to all the people I love so much here. I did the normal hugging goodbyes yesterday and did my best to hold back tears as they all shared their thoughts on my next year. I had to take a walk downstairs to "get my purse" in order to pull myself together before I got in the car. It was tough but, what a blessing to have all these people in my life who are proud of me and excited to see what this next year brings! I huge part of me is excited and another part of me is not sure I have the strength to say goodbyes...I'm desperate for only God to get me through this next month. He is my Prince of Peace, solver of all problems, and lover...those things are what I need!

There are pics here of the Clemson Crew I love so dearly and the awesome beach I spent the last week soaking in!

Back from the beach...

So I spent last week in the Outer Banks with all my Dad's friends from college...seriously some of my absolute favorite people EVER! We have been going to the beach every summer for as long as I can remember and also meet up every fall for Clemson football games. I couldn't ask for better extra family members! It was relaxing, fun, and just all around fun!
~I have to tell you about one of the members of this group...that I lovingly refer to as the Clemson Crew...her name is Sara and she is struggling through cancer. I saw her in early May and again this past week and each time I have been blown away by her positive attitude. Please pray for her healing and recovery! We all celebrated this week as eye lashes and eye brow hairs popped out! Seriously her courage, laughter, and hope are breathtaking!

Ok...that's enough about the beach...a little on funding...I have a little less than $9000 at this point. Honestly I have been humbled and blown away by the provision God is sending my way! After talking to Erin (one of the nurses at Zimpeto now), I am thinking my budget should have been closer to $13,000 instead of $10,000...but I KNOW whatever God's provision ends up being my life will be perfect and abundant in Him!

Enough on that...this week I'm praying hard to try and figure out what I'm going to talk about when I preach this coming Sunday. If anyone is going to be in or around Aiken...I'm preaching at 10:00 at St. Augustine's in Aiken! Please send along your prayers that I hear God loud in clear on what the message should be and I am able to be a conduit for God's word!

That's all I have for now!