Hi everyone!
Wow. It has been a year (almost to the day!) that I came home from the World Race! Without going into the longest blog of my life, let me just say that the 11 months that I spent serving, traveling and learning was the most incredible year of my life. There were so many things I took for granted (community and feedback to name a couple) but not a day goes by where I don’t practically use the lessons I learned, or miss the friendships and ministries I was a part of during that season.
Quick life update for those that don’t know!
I’m living in Colorado now in a community house with three other women. It’s amazing! We host community nights once a month for people who are looking to connect, make friendships, or feel slightly marginalized or outcast. It’s been so fun opening our home up to strangers – who have now become friends!
When I returned last July, I started working for a non-profit sending missions organization called WorldVenture. I was their Africa missions assistant and helped long-term missionaries with their transition onto the field to over 13 countries in Africa! It was the perfect job to have right after getting home, and I felt really supported by the team working alongside me.
Another incredible thing was over Christmas, Pastor Moses from Rwanda came to Colorado and stayed with my family! We hosted a small dinner gathering for him to talk about his ministry in Kigali, the churches being shut down and asked for support to help his family. We were able to raise over $4,000! And his main downtown church is weeks away from finishing renovations and opening again! Praise the Lord, seriously!
In April, I was planning to return to Rwanda with WorldVenture and see P. Moses for a couple of days before attending conferences in Kenya and South Africa for work, but God had other plans. My home church, Flatirons, called me and offered me not one – but two jobs! It was the most bizarre thing. I honestly had been praying about working for Flatirons for years and the timing/opportunity was never right. I felt like I had been stalking my church for positions forever and had finally given up hope, resigning to volunteering there and just being part of the church from a different place. Which I was finally okay surrendering that to God!
When the Aurora team and Denver team called offering me a position, I was floored. But I was also committed to WorldVenture, and Africa at that point. But through a crazy amount of God moments, and turn of events, I ended up leaving WorldVenture and accepting a kids ministry directors position at our Aurora campus! I started working weekends at Flatirons, and week days at WorldVenture and moved full-time to Flatirons May 1! The only sad part about that was I gave up my work opportunity of traveling to Africa.
I prayed so hard for God to fix it, and make it right. Honestly, I was angry. Excited that he had answered one prayer, but angry at His timing. (How selfish am I?? Geez!) But God always provides, and He cares about the little things, too! Within a week of starting at Flatirons, my pastor (and boss) Cole, asked if I wanted to go on the Musana VBS trip with our student ministry director Nicole! I was floored! YES!
Flatirons has been partnering with Musana for so many years and it’s a place that I’ve always wanted to serve with, but timing and trips have never worked out in the past. I will be leaving July 18th for a 10 day trip to lead VBS with team of women from Flatirons!
What’s incredible about Musana is it’s almost completely Ugandan run. About 8 years ago, Flatirons was doing so much in terms of logistics and running the VBS weeks, but now Musana is practically doing everything. The hope is that Musana won’t need teams to go lead these trips anymore, sad, but AWESOME!
Musana has a beautiful community development and sustainability program for their city, which helps to empower their people to learn, develop and grow on their own, so they don’t depend on Western influence. They are almost completely self-sufficient with both primary and secondary education, a hospital and skill development programs to help people in their village learn a trade and make a living on their own.
This trip is to come alongside the Ugandan team and help them assist leading hundreds of kiddos over the week in VBS, so that they can learn a little more about how much Jesus loves them. We are also providing them with some short-term educational materials and supplies. This trip is a learning opportunity for me. My hope is that I can educate myself more on sustainability and community development, so that I can teach and lead teams in the future and help communities like Pastor Moses in Kigali and other places around the world become self-sufficient and not have to rely on Western influence, but know they are smart, and capable of accomplishing and creating a thriving community on their own.
I need to raise $1,500 in three weeks and I truly believe I can get there! Please considering joining me in prayer, or financially to help me reach this goal! This $1,500 will cover the cost of flights, lodging, food and materials that we will bring the Ugandan team while we are there.
If you feel led to support me, please follow the link below to make a tax-deductible donation! Anything helps!
https://my.flatironschurch.com/page/465?GroupId=398191
Thank you so much for your support of me over the years. I can’t wait to see what God is up to in my life in the coming months!
You are a blessing to me and I will always be forever grateful for you.
