Man, it has been so long since I have sat down, gathered my thoughts, and shared with all of you how the Lord continues to prove himself faithful in my life. So, here I am on a Wednesday morning ready to spill.
So, I moved back to Johnson City about a month ago. I live in a great house with three great girls. So thankful God has put them in my life. It's so fun having a house that you can make your own. We have had some really great times adding our personalities to it to make it awesome :) Young Life at Elizabethton High School (where I lead at) has started back up! To open our year, we had this huge thing we like to call Ice Cream Olympics! It was crazy! We had about 250 high schoolers show up, which was so incredible! Last Thursday, we had our first club, and it went really well. I love this ministry so much, and I love that God chose to put me in it. Sometimes, it is hard and exhausting, but I am always shown along the way that God is working at Elizabethton High School, and I am filled up all over again! Since I was only placed there last semester, I am still adjusting and working on being patient on building relationships with girls. I know it takes time, and I am excited to see the relationships I form with some of these girls!
 |
| The Ice Cream Ammo |
 |
| My awesome Young Life team |
 |
| So thankful for my roommates |
Alright, moving on. I applied to nursing school this semester. I will find out if I was accepted mid-October or early November. This is something that easily captures my thoughts and makes me anxious. Everyday, I have to remind myself that the Lord's timing is the best timing and that if I don't get it, then He has other plans for me. My human self likes to complain about how I have no other thing I would be interested in, but let's be real, there are lots of things that I could do. So, I am trusting that when God closes doors, He opens others.
Back in July, Lauren (my friend from Knoxville who was on my team the first time I went to Uganda) and I were talking about how much we missed Uganda and really wanted to go back next summer. Everyday, we would have the same conversation over and over again about longing to be back. Finally, we decided, Heck, let's just go back in December. This instantly excited me, but then without fail, ofcourse tons of fears arose. Is it safe for us to go back alone? How will I fund this? How do I even go about this?.... How come we so easily forget what God has done in our lives? I always result back to how will I.....when it should always be, I am trusting GOD. This is a lesson I am continually being taught. So.........If you don't know me super well then let me enlighten you a little. I am the type of person that if I want something, I will do whatever I can to get there. My parents will testify for this. They have many stories where I persisted and persisted when I was young. haha sorry mom and dad. The first time I decided I wanted to go to Africa, I found the trip, raised my money, did everything I needed to do. In fact, I didn't even tell my parents I was going until the day after I signed up and had already paid my deposit. But, I am so thankful that they understand that God has called me to Uganda, and they support me so much. But still, sorry for the late notice :) Needless to say, we got straight to work on our own making it happen. We sent emails. Came up with a plan.... and ofcourse, I started feeling helpless. I had emailed one of the homes we wanted to work with and for two weeks heard nothing back. I kept thinking to myself....what is happening? Doesn't God want me to go back? The day I moved back to Johnson City, I was driving my car all alone and was able to spend some precious time in prayer about this. I asked God to show me that I am on His path for me. To show me that December is the right time to go back. To show me that this is about Him and not me. I kid you not, 1 hour after this, we received the two emails we were waiting to hear back from. Isn't God good? Man, He never ceases to amaze me. So, the planning began. We had a place to stay. We had a mission. Things were coming together.
Neither of us really know how we are going to pay for this trip, but I know that God will provide. Lauren and I decided to have a garage sale in Knoxville to raise money. I was nervous about this because seriously, who makes a ton of money off of a garage sale? But, despite that, we decided to give it a go anyway. Lauren's family had a ton of family friends donate stuff to sale. I don't know any of them, but I am extremely thankful. When I got to Knoxville on a Thursday night to get things ready, Lauren and I decided that a good goal would be if we could purchase our plane tickets after the sale. Now, if you don't know, flying to Uganda is CRAZY EXPENSIVE. 1500 dollars each. So, total we needed roughly $3000. Friday morning, the chaos began. I was shocked at how many people came on Friday. At the end of the day, we had raised $1400. Which was awesome! Saturday, I was really nervous, because I knew we needed to buy our tickets, because the prices rise the closer it gets to the departure. I knew that I couldn't just throw down $500 to $1000 on this. We didn't see as many people on Saturday, and I began to get anxious. (See the pattern.... God has to remind me CONSTANTLY that He is in control...will I ever learn?) Also, it was supposed to rain all morning, which didn't help the situation. I began praying about it and felt this weird feeling that God was going to provide a big chunk at the end. I just needed to be patient. I went over to Lauren and told her that I felt like we would make it or atleast get close. I told her it would all work out in the end. Believe it or not, 10 minutes before we shut down, this girl came up and bought some patio furniture for $350. And, 10 minutes after we shut down, it poured the rain. Not once did it pour during our sale. God is so cool. The total we raised was $2600 which left about $200 for us each to put down. God is good.
We still have a ways to go with raising money, but I am so thankful that the big plane purchase is out of the way. We are trying to come up with different fun ways to raise it, so I will post to keep people updated on different plans we have. This whole process is unfolding beautifully, and I know now more than ever that I am following God's voice in the right direction. Pastor Samuel from Kerith Children's Home that we will be working with while we are there, messaged me yesterday asking how he can pray for me. I told him a few things, and he said every morning at 5, 30 kids will be lifting me up. This brought tears to my eyes. Even when I am not there, I am still so blessed by these kids. It's crazy to me that I got so much more from them then I could give. These children changed me. They showed me what a real relationship with the Lord looks like. I found myself wanting what they have. I love this! Even though physically, they are poor, spiritually, they are so rich. They know that the Lord delights in them, and they love Him with this love I have never seen before.
"I have come that you may have life, and have it to the full." John 10:10
