What's Your Story?

Hello everyone!

Last week, as you know, I had my McAlister's benefit dinner, where 10% of all sales went toward my mission funds.  I don't yet know how much money was raised that night, but I do know that the support I felt from all of my friends who traveled out to be there was overwhealming!  It was also a great opportunity to mingle with the other customers I didn't know and get a chance to tell them about what the Lord is doing and will be doing in my life.  Several were interested in my ministry and some even asked about how they could send in donations!  The manager was also great, encouraging me to come back and do another dinner in July.  So keep your eye out for another McAlister's invite.  If you didn't get to come last time, you may get another chance :) 

A few days after I got back from Nashville, the Lord blessed me with the perfect job as a summer youth ministry intern for a large, local church.  I'm working with another intern, Ronnie, and our first big assignment is to come up with high school cirriculum for the entire week of VBS.  After a whole day of reading tons of awesome passages and stories from the Bible, we finally decided on the theme of "God's Story for Your Life".  We're taking the stories of biblical characters such as Esther and Gideon and Jonah, who were all faced with a choice of being obedient to God's plan for them or shrinking back in disobedience.  We'll look at how each of these characters reacted and the things in their lives that did or could have held them back.  The challenge will be for the kids to ask God what His story is for their lives and what things they may have in their lives that could hinder them from being obedient to His will.  So I challenge you, now, to do the same.  Have a blessed week!

Pleasing God

I was just blessed to have a fantastic and much-needed visit with my sister and her family out in Nahsville for Memorial Day weekend!  We went to her friend's church on Sunday night and for about 30 seconds during worship, I remember feeling so at peace!  It was a moment when I could genuinely say that I wanted nothing else in the world but Christ!  I thought I had experienced that feeling before, but now I'm not really sure that I had.  I cannot even describe to you the overwealming feeling of comfort and satisfaction to truly, deeply understand that Christ is all that matters.  I hope you all get a chance to experience that sometime as well.  A recurring theme in the sermon that night, as well as in my life lately, was finding your validation in Christ and not in man.  That is something that I have definitely struggled with throughout the years, being annoyingly good at people-pleasing.  I have always done my best to please everyone throughout my life--conflict and confrontation make me quite uneasy.  But I've come to the realization that that's just not a practical way to live.  No one person can make decisions that will make everyone happy.  I need to learn to live my life concerned only with pleasing the Lord.  I know there are some who would prefer me to not go to Peru, for various reasons (usuallly selfish ones).  But I can't not go to Peru because some people don't want me to.  However, neither can I go just to satisfy others' expectations.  So why am I going?  I've been re-evaluating everything just to make sure I'm in the right place and I can honestly say the reason I am going to Peru because it's what the Lord wills for my life at this time.  It pleases the Lord that I am obedient to Him and it pleases me to please Him :)  I encourage you to watch the video below and take a moment to "get lost" in God.  It'll be the best 5 minutes of your day, I promise!

Things are still going well as far as preparations are concerned.  Just after I wrote my last blog post, another church donated $1200 to my ministry in Peru!  That's another $50/month for two years!  I'm still at just above 50% of my monthly support goal, but it is creeping up a little at a time. 

For all who are curious, the yard sale on May 21 went really well!  Thanks to everyone who came out and helped set up, sell, and take down, and to all those who donated and purchased items!  It was a great success, increasing my mission funds by $752.35!!!

And just a reminder that I have my McAlister's fundraiser coming up this Monday, June 6, between 5pm and 9pm.  I hope to see many of you there!  Click HERE to see the Facebook event page with more details.

Thanks everyone for your love and support!  I will be keeping you in my prayers as you keep me in yours.  God bless!

Answered Prayers

When I wrote my last blog about a month ago, I was feeling pretty confused and discouraged about going to Peru, not because I wasn't sure if God was calling me to go, but because I was so sure He was that I didn't understand why the support was coming in so slowly.  In fact, for the month and a half before I wrote that last blog my funds had increased by 0%.  Not good. 

Well, after spending some time in the Word and prayer with the Lord, I gained some refreshment and determination.  I've been staying busy setting up fundraisers which I'm hoping will boost my funds and also help promote my ministry to get the attention of other potential supporters.  Tomorrow (Sat, May 21) I'll be having a yard sale/bake sale/car wash at Bethel Baptist Church where 100% of the profit will go toward my missions funds and on Monday, June 6 between 5pm and 9pm I'll be having a benefit dinner at McAlister's Deli in Rock Hill (off Dave Lyle Blvd.) where 10% of your total will go toward my missions funds if you mention my name at the register.  Feel free to check out the Facebook pages: Yard Sale and McAlister's

And although I'm a firm believer that "God helps those who help themselves", He has been doing some things on His own too, to remind me that He is the all-powerful God who is control, I suppose.  He wants me to work for my goals, but He's also capable of making things happen without my efforts.  He showed me this when, out of the blue, within only a few hours of each other, I got two calls from friends of mine who committed to pledge monthly support, which brought me from the 39% support that I had been stuck at for so long up to 50% of my monthly support!!!  What a blessing and encouragement to know that God answers prayers and is constantly working, even when we may not see it.  But that is faith--being able to trust in the Lord when you can't rely on anything else.  So I leave you with the Scripture passages that have helped to comfort and encourage me these last two months: Matthew 6:25-34 and Matthew 7:9-11. 

Thanks for reading and have a blessed day!

Great Unexpectations

These last two weeks have been interesting ones.  I've been doing a lot of thinking and praying and am finding myself in a fairly ambiguous time right now.  God's presented me with some new options recently that I was not expecting.  The big one that has been weighing on my heart is the question of the amount of time I will be staying in Peru. 

I've been telling everyone that I'm going for two years.  This may still be true, but only if I can discern that that is God's will, and to be honest I'm not sure right now.  I've been thinking about how I arrived at the decision to go for two years, and I feel like it was my own pride.  The mission agency originally suggested going for one year to see what it was like and then I could decide if I wanted to stay longer, but I brushed that off immediately, claiming that anything less than two years was not worth it, as it takes at least one year to get acquainted and comfortable with the culture.  And I'm ashamed to admit that my attitude toward other missionaries who only went for one year before coming back to the States and settling down was that it was not a true missions experience.  Wow!  What a jerk I've been!  I realize now that wheather someone goes for one year or twenty years, as long as they are obeying the Lord's personal calling on their lives, their missions efforts are not only genuine, but effective. 

I want to have a genuine missions experience too.  I want to do the Lord's will and have the most effective ministry possible.  Please keep me in your prayers that I will be sensative to hear what God is asking of me and to be obedient to His will.  Thanks.

Weapons, Work & Monkeys

Just to give an overview of everything that's been going on:

This is my last week of self defense training...watch out bad guys!  You don't want to mess with this girl!  If anyone's interested in getting some great self-defense weapons, some that were recommended to me were the Hideaway Knife and this cool Tactical Flashlight!

There was recently a SAM missions conference in Peru.  I was unable to go but some of the people from the home office who were able to go re-assessed the needs on the field and my new "job description" is actually a variety of jobs: Bible and P.E. teacher at missionary kid school, abstinence teacher through Latidos de Esperanza (the crisis pregnancy center), and, still, outreach and discipleship ministry to the youth through the development of a community recreation center.  I've been informed that I will have very little free time, but that's ok.  They don't call it the Lord's "work" because it's easy. 

To make some money until I leave, I've been working part time at the SAM home office in Fort Mill, SC, and doing some yard work and cleaning jobs on the side. 

Also, I've gotten to talk a little with the two other single women I'll be rooming with when I get to Peru.  One of the women blessed me so much this week by praying for me continually and then pledging $50/month for a year to my mission fund just to help get me down there sooner!  Yeah, that's right...another missionary is pledging money to me out of the little savings that she has!  Incredible!  The other woman also is a blessing to me as I keep hearing about her contagious happy spirit and energy.  Below is a picture of a baby monkey she saved and is now keeping as a pet.  His name is Scott Sawyer :)

Thanks for reading, everyone, and please keep me in your prayers as I continue to prepare in faith to head to Peru very soon!  God bless!

The Art of Jeet Kune Do

So the ministry I'm planning to do in Peru may not seem dangerous, but actually it's quite risky business. 

Where I'm going, the concept of male domination (commonly referred to as "machismo"), has been severely twisted, to the point where women do not only submit to their fathers and husbands, but to all men.  The men have taken advantage of this and as a result it is common for boys, upon reaching puberty, to be taught that if they don't begin to regularly engage in sexual activity, they will stop growing and will actually begin to lose their health!!!  Now, we have 13 year old boys getting 12- and 13- year old girls pregnant.  These girls, then, get abortions.  However, due to the unsanitary conditions, 17% of the abortions result in the death of the mother as well as the child!!!

One of the questions I asked the field director in Peru when I found this information out was, how is this teen pregnancy issue in Peru any different from the issue in the U.S.?  He told me the difference is expectation.  These kids are not sneaking around their parents' backs to engage in this promiscuous behavior, it's expected.  Just as it is expected that the women submit to men.

Being that I am a single, white American, adult woman who is a virgin and will be teaching Peruvian girls that purity is something to strive for, I am definitely putting myself at risk.  I am going to be a target.  But the good news is, I don't plan to be an easy target. 

In fact, for the last two weeks I have actually been taking self defense classes at a place in Charlotte called Hard Target.  They teach you how to defend yourself in gun fights, knife fights, empty hand attacks and in confined spaces.  The primary idea behind their teaching is the art of Jeet Kune Do, developed by Bruce Lee.  So far I have practiced fighting and defending with knives, sticks, machetes and boxing gloves.  It's pretty awesome to know that the ability to defend yourself does not depend on your size or strength but on your knowledge of how to manipulate a person's body and use proper leverage. 

Check out this video to see Bruce Lee explain and demonstrate a little more about Jeet Kune Do:

What is ICC anyway?

As you may have heard, I just completed an intercultural communication course (ICC) where the focus was on ministering effectively in a cross-cultural setting and building and working with teams of people from different cultural backgrounds.  I and the other thirteen students in this course also learned about different world views, personality types and the importance of understanding the culture you’re living in.  We studied the Incarnation Model of ministry which uses Christ as the perfect model of a missionary, having come to the culture he was ministering to and learning from them the language(s), culture and customs in order to minister most effectively to them.  In preparation for the course, we read Duane Elmer’s book Cross-Cultural Servanthood, which expounded on the Incarnation model, demonstrating that to truly be Christ-like and minister as he did, one must become a servant to the people he is ministering to.  We also memorized Philippians 2:1-11, which speaks of Christ’s humility and how we are to be imitators in that way.  If you’re not familiar with this passage of Scripture, you should check it out or quiz me the next time you see me! 

The whole course is very interactive and we did a ton of activities and role playing that I would spend way too much time talking about if I attempted to explain it all on here.  So if you’re interested in more details, just ask me!  You all know how much I love to tell a good story…  But to at least give you an idea, I’ve included a few pictures here for you all to savor.  No captions.  If you want to know, you’ve gotta ask!  Thanks for reading and God bless!