Hello friends and family!!
I would just like to start by giving a HUGE thank you to everyone. Thank you for the support in prayer and financially! You aren’t just supporting me in my missions, you are supporting and reaching the lives of those I will come in contact with. The sex trafficking victims, young orphans, single moms, etc. So I am not only saying thank you from me, I’m saying thank you from them. Right now I am sitting at about 87% funded, wow!! That means I have raised a grand total of $12,367 out of $13,805 so far…that is amazing and God has blessed me ABUNDANTLY! As most of you may know, I went to training camp last month (I can’t believe it’s already been over a month) and it was the hardest, most challenging thing I have ever done in my entire 18 years of life. I know this blog post is way past due and many of you are dying to know what the heck happened in those ten days, so here it goes…
I will be completely honest with you guys, I hated training camp and I told myself that I was going to quit almost every day. I wanted to go home, especially because the days drug on making it feel like we were there for 3 months. Fear filled me and when they added a fourth country to my route, Cambodia, I felt overwhelmed. I had made up my mind that I was backing out of the race and paying back everyone who had donated to me. There were things that I didn’t understand, and things that I didn’t agree with, but I had God behind me and an army of prayer warriors. Every ounce of doubt or fear I was having got cancelled out at the end of the day either by scripture, encouraging words, or the simple voice of God. The first response of most people when they find out what I will be doing this year is “9 months?! That’s a long time!!!” and trust me, I know how long it is, sometimes it scares me, but that fear and those words swallowed me at training camp. I literally said “there is NO way I can do this for 9 months.” And at that point God really opened my eyes and showed me these 9 months in comparison to my entire life. These 9 months are a speck of dirt compared to a lifetime. God showed me the heart I was already beginning to grow for the many lives we will reach. We are called to be uncomfortable in times, but we are called and we must go.
“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of age.”
Matthew 28:18-20
Let me tell you about my squad…these girls are the BEST. I can hardly put it into words how encouraging and amazing they were. Every day we would build each other up, the girls on my squad are part of the reason I was able to make it through training camp. People quit half way through training and go home because it is too difficult, but not a single person on our squad went home, we are all standing strong! And we are the first ever all girls squad and I strongly believe we are going to fight for the people in these countries like we fought to survive training! I have never laughed so hard in my life (I practically came home with a 6-pack), and I have never been able to grow so close with people in such a short time. Being apart for the 6 weeks after training camp is really tough and we all can’t wait to get back together on October 1st! These girls are my best friends and we’ve built life long friendships. I can not wait to learn from them and grow in faith together.
Adventures in Missions makes these 10 days as difficult as they possibly can, no it’s not to torture us and have a good laugh, except when they fed us crickets for breakfast and cow stomach for lunch, it’s to prepare us. The point of the difficulty is to make the field seem like a breeze. We have conquered obstacles at training camp and now we can conquer anything!!
I learned how hard it is to leave friends and family, even though it was only ten days, I learned how to live in the HUMID Georgia heat and dirt, I learned how to depend on total strangers, and I learned how to acquire the most genuine relationships in just ten days.
I can’t wait to see how God transforms each and every one of us. Launch is approaching quickly and I’m not sure I’m ready to leave people behind yet, but I know God has amazing things planned for this next year.
I have a prayer request for you all..
Nearly six months ago I was at a 13 hour prayer and worship conference called Azusa Now. This was very shortly after I had been accepted to the World Race. About halfway through this conference they wanted everyone to pray with those around them so we began praying with the men in front of us. In the midst of prayer the man, who I had never met before, began praying over me and said these exact words.. “you have three nations in your path right now and you will end up staying behind in one of these places.” WHAT?! That was crazy scary to me and I didn’t know what to think…and then it happened two more times at training camp. Two of my squad mates (who don’t know anything about the Azusa incident) said something along those lines as well. I would love if you guys would pray for me and those words spoken over me. Pray that it won’t influence the way I go into these countries, and that God will reveal to me what he truly means by these words.
Thank you all so much again, I’m moving to Cambodia in 15 days!
