Hello everyone!
I wanted to take a moment to thank everyone who has supported me on this journey. I now have $2,813! THANK YOU! I am so incredibly blessed to have come this far, but I am still short $687 for my first deadline. With that said, my main goal for this blog post was to say thank you. When I first realized that God wanted me to embark on this journey, I knew that God would use me to impact change wherever He sent me. He would make Himself clearly visible in the eyes of the “least of these” that I encountered while serving. What I didn’t expect was the outpouring of love and support that I would receive before I left. God has made himself visible through every prayer, thought, donation, and word of encouragement from YOU! Thank you for letting His love flow through you.
I also wanted to share a little story/thought. Saturday night my dad, older sister and I were watching The Amazing Spider-Man 2. (We’re kind of big superhero fans.) In this movie, there’s a part when a young boy, carrying a school project, was being bullied. As the bullies taunt the boy and cause him to drop his project, Spider-Man swings down and stands behind their terrified victim. Horrified, the would-be harbingers of emotional turmoil turn and flee. Imagine the relief of that little boy! Spider-Man then fixes the school project and escorts the kid home. What if a hero, like Spider-Man, defended you and everyone that saw you knew your benevolent protector? Talk about how amazing that little boy must have felt for those few minutes! Later on in the movie, Spider-Man (spoiler alert!) lost someone very close to him, so he put away his spidey costume. To make matters worse, evil never sleeps. Literally. NYC is being torn apart in Spidey’s absence. These villains ravaged the city while taunting its absent hero. That same little boy watched his world fall to ruins from the sidelines whilst wearing the iconic uniform of his favorite masked vigilante. Much to the dismay of his mother, he dawned his little mask, slipped through the barricades, and ran to confront Rhino – the villainous definition of tall, dark, and ugly. Rhino began to taunt the little hero but the boy did not run or cower. He stood strong. Rhino’s cackling was silenced when Spidey, once again, swung in behind the little boy. Long story short, Spider-Man saved the day.
That scene got me thinking about Jesus, and what would happen if your bullies saw Jesus standing behind you. Would they run in fear? Because for all the times they told you that He wasn’t real and you were idiotic for believing a fairytale, Jesus didn’t forsake you. He defended you and his city (read people). Although Spider-Man is one of my favorite superheroes, Jesus is THE superhero. Instead of saving one person, or even a city, He saved the world. Instead of helping one person at a time, He helps all of humanity. He does more superhero stuff then any superhero. He gives us hope that tomorrow will be better. A promise that someday we will live with Him forever. And yet, we don’t go around dressing up like Him, ready to defend our city and our beliefs. (Although, it would be incredible to see little children around dressing up like Jesus.) Jesus did so much more than any superhero and He did it without using an alias or a mask.
I started thinking, how many times has Jesus been my superhero? I’ve had so many close calls in my life when I should have been really hurt but walked away with only little scratches. Where I almost hit a car because it ran a red but something told me to slow down. I was grateful that I listened. Today, there are so many freak accidents that doctors can’t explain why someone is still alive. Like when a boy drowns and prayer is the only reason he lived. What happened next isn’t a medical miracle, it’s Jesus being a superhero and much more. We don’t get to see Jesus face to face, we can’t see Him walking us home. Sometimes without even knowing it, He is protecting us from demons getting a hold of us. I can’t tell you how many times my mother has said, “Kylene, you’re giving Satan a foothold in your heart. You need to be careful.” I have hope in Jesus – tomorrow will always be better. No matter what happens, He will always be there when I need him.
Unfortunately, that statement is not felt universally; some people don’t have hope. They don’t know what’s going to happen next or why things happen to them. This is why this mission trip is so important to me, because I will be able to talk to people about how super Jesus is. How much He loves them. He wants them to know, and I want to deliver His messages to them. Thank you again, for everyone who has supported me so far. Just $687 more to go for the first leg of my fundraising!
THANK YOU AGAIN! 
