¡Hola!
My name is Anne, and I am 21 years old. The first 17 years of my life were spent living in central Minnesota. I grew up in an extraordinary family composed of my mom & dad, 2 brothers, 1 sister, and various cats along the way (and I now have 3 wonderful sibling-in-laws and 4 marvelous nieces as well!). Everyday I realize more and more how blessed I am to have such a supportive family. My parents are strong Christians and have been a constant example to me throughout my lifetime of what it means to live out one's faith and demonstrate God's love. As a result, I accepted Jesus as my Savior at a young age. Since the age of 11, I have felt God calling me to missions in some form. After several missions trips to Mexico with my youth group in high school, my passion for missions began to focus on Latin America. Upon graduating from high school, I decided to attend Evangel University in Springfield, Missouri, where I have been studying Spanish Education and Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) for the past 3 1/2 years.
I'm very excited to say I will graduate in May, then in July it's on to the next step of God's plan for my life – the World Race! I'm so looking forward to what God is going to do in me & through me during this whole journey. Although I grew up going to church regularly, it's really been in the past year or so that I feel like my relationship with God has really come alive, and I've felt so desperate to follow after Him and know Him more (more to come on that in the near future). I haven't always made the greatest decisions in my life – not by any means…it's just so mind-blowing to try and fathom that God always loved me in the midst of every bad choice I've made, He continues to love me now, and He loves every single individual throughout the world who feels worthless, too full of mistakes, like they don't need God, unloveable, etc… Wow, God is amazing.
As I said before, I'm a Spanish Education major with a passion for missions in Latin America. So why on earth did I sign up to travel for 11 months to countries nowhere near Latin America? Excellent question! In short: God told me to…and in spite of my hesitancies, initial qualms, and trying to convince God that He had finally gone crazy – I said okie dokie, let's do this! I'm super stoked and kinda scared out of my mind (but in a good/thrilling way) because I've only traveled outside of the US to Spanish-speaking countries, so I've still been at least slightly in my comfort zone at all times (which is wear I like to be). But not anymore! I'm going to be forced to rely solely on God, and I just know that He's really gonna rock my world! I feel so humbled and blessed to have this opportunity to serve alongside of some pretty awesome people to be used by the Lord and reach out to the nations of the world. I'm so thrilled for every step of this race!!
Alright, now to end with a few random facts:
*Before this, I could count the number of times that I've blogged on zero fingers.
*Sometimes I secretly wish life could be a musical…in Spanish.
*I realized this past year that eating lutefisk at Christmastime is one of my favorite family traditions.
*I'm from Minnesota, but I fully support the Green Bay Packers (Super Bowl XLV Champs!!). However, during baseball season I fully support the Twins.
*I thoroughly detest coffee. Hot water with lemon has become my beverage of choice.
*I never set my alarm clock to a time ending in 0 or 5.
*Thinking about all of the cultures, people, foods, memories, ministries, and times in God's presence that I'm going to experience during the World Race makes me excessively excited!!
