Update on my life.

This summer has been an interesting, crazy, fun, hard, great, different one. After I got back from YWAM, I felt a little lost in Cleveland trying to figure out what I was doing and what I was going to do. I came back with a greater love for Jesus and others and didn't quite know what to do with it in Cleveland. Don't get me wrong, I love Cleveland. It is my home and I love so many people there. I just feel that everyone is a "christian" but there isnt much of a passion, just religion. I just knew this wasn't where I really wanted to be. A few weeks after I got back, I went to a bible study/worship gathering that had been advertised in the Westmore bulliten. It was hosted by this team of people from Florida who was going to plant a church in Salt Lake City, Utah. I went to it thinking that this would be a neat time for me to just hang out with other christians and learn more of the Word. So I went one Monday night and we talked a lot and they told me all about their dreams for Salt Lake and we talked about Jesus. The team was so welcoming and sincere. I felt like I had known them forever. After this, I felt like this might be the direction that I was supposed to go in. So after a month or so of praying about it, I decided that God was calling me to go to SLC with them. I will be leaving on August 27th to join them there. They left in early July. I stayed behind for a while to finish my job and to spend some extra time with my family. I am so excited about moving out there. I will be helping get the church started and I will be helping with children's ministry! 

Also, this summer, I had the amazing opportunity to work at LUDIC (Lee University Developement Inclusion Classroom). It is just a center where children with autism come and learn. I absolutely loved it. The kids were precious. It was hard at first, but after I got the hang of things, it became easier and more routine. 

In other news, I have a new wonderful boyfriend. His name is Chris Schelich. He is from Indianapolis and goes to Lee. We've been friends for like 4 years but just started dating a month and a half ago. He has one more year at Lee to get a double major in youth ministry and theology. We're gonna do the long distance thing while I'm gone, but we'll see where it goes from there. 

Other things have happened this summer that have made it interesting, but God is good and I know everything is going to work out. I know that this new phase of my life will be a wonderful one and I am so excited about it. 

Home.

I'm sorry that it has been so long since I have updated this. My time in South Africa was amazing. I worked in the clinic and in the Creche most of the time as I wrote before. I saw a lot of transformation in both of the places. God has so much love for Masiphumelele and I know He is going to continue pursuing the people there. There are so many disciples being made and I know that the number is going to keep multiplying. I miss that wonderful township and hope that I will be able to go back and visit sometime.
So I have been home almost a month now. It is great being home and seeing my family and friends, but it is also kind of hard. With YWAM, I was always so busy doing things I loved doing. And I was doing it with amazing friends who encouraged me and I grew so close with them. Here I am just at an annoying waiting phase, waiting on the Lord to show me what's next, trying to get into schools, looking for jobs, etc. I don't feel like I am doing anything worthwhile. I have quite a few options of what to do next...but I am waiting on which one. I know God has an amazing plan but it is hard to wait when you see everyone else doing all these great things. I miss my YWAM friends so much also. We all got so close, because we grew together and lived together and worked together. They are some of the most amazing people and I know I will remain friends with many of them forever. I am enjoying being with my friends here though. I missed them so much when I was gone. Anyways, I know that  God will reveal His plan to me. I trust that He is in control. I'll update when I know what's next. Stay tuned.

Life in South Africa.

It's hard to believe that I have been in Capetown, South Africa for 6 weeks. It is such a beautiful place with amazing people. We are living in a town outside of Capetown called Fish Hoek. We have been ministering pretty much every day in a township called Masiphumelele. A township is where during the apartheid the government forced the blacks to move into separate little towns. And even now about 20 years after the end of the apartheid most of the blacks still live in townships. They are just  a tiny city with mostly run down housing and shacks. In Masiphumele( or Masi, as we call it), the people are super joyful and friendly. Most people speak english as well as xhosa(pronounced closa, but the cl is a click). The children are so beautiful and always run up to us screaming "maloongoo" (white person) and hug and hold our hands. I have a few different places where I work. I work in the medical clinic a lot, filing papers and doing whatever random things they need help with. We get to hang out with this sweet man named Prince and other awesome doctors and nurses. There is such a great, joyful presence amid all of the sickness and sadness. Also, I have been working in a cresh, or daycare, a few days a week. We play games with the kids, sing songs with them and read to them. The kids are so beautiful and sweet. There is one little boy who I hang out with everyday who has the most adorable smile I have ever seen, who I am falling in love with. Reading to them is kind of a challenge because they don't speak any english at all. They usually just take the book from us and look at the pictures. But it is so fun to just hold them and tickle them. Another thing I just started doing the other day was working in this store called African Hope. It is a store that hires people with AIDS from Masi and teaches them to make jewelry and pays them for every piece they make. It is a amazing store who really helps a lot of people out and has beautiful jewelry. We just put tags on jewelry and do random things. I have grown to love all of the places where I  work at and am praying that God will use me greatly in every one of them.

South Africa, ready or not, here we come!

So we are leaving tonight to go to South Africa. I am excited and just so ready to be there. The last few days have been stressful with packing and cleaning and getting last minute stuff. I am not really looking forward to the long trip... it will take about 3 days to get there. I just wanna be there. I am expecting so much out of this trip. On other mission trips I've been on, I went with the mindset of oh I'll just go help these people. But for this trip, I am believing that God is going to do some amazing things through us and we can really change things. We're still not sure what we are doing the whole time. Some of us are working at a daycare,reading and playing with the kids in the township. Some guys are going to be mentoring teenage boys. Some people will be helping in a clinic with office work. We will mainly just be trying to build relationships with the people of Mossi and loving on them. I am so excited and I know God has great plans for us there.

Lecture phase is coming to an end.

It's crazy to think that I have been here in Kona for almost three months. It has flown  by. During this time I have learned so much and grown so much in my relationship with God. I wouldn't trade these three months for anything. I have always known so much about God but never felt as close to Him as I do now. I know I can never go back to my lukewarm faith that I had before. I always wanna continue to grow closer to Him. I don't want to ever think I have hit the ceiling and can't get closer or learn more. 

This week we have a speaker named Jake Hamilton. He is a crazy guy who is so in love with God and is bringing so much new fresh stuff to us. He has been challenging us to test our beliefs and deconstruct things that we have been taught that are false so that we will have a strong foundation to stand on. Having a strong foundation is something that has really been resonating in my heart lately. If you don't have that, you will be easily swayed. If you're not rooted deeply in God's love then when storms come you will not stand strong. I want to be rooted so deeply in Him that whatever may come against me will fail and God will have His will in my life.

I am so excited that we are leaving for outreach in 2 weeks. But at the same time, I'm kind of sad. There are some people from our class that I got to know really well that are going on other outreaches that I will greatly miss. I love the people that are on the South Africa team with me though. We mesh so well and are becoming like a family. I know that after outreach we are gonna be so close. I am so excited to see the things that are going to happen in Cape Town and the township of Mossibumbelele. I know that our team has a passion for kids and we will work some with the kids in the township. But besides that I am not exactly sure what else we are gonna do. We just wanna build relationships and love on people. We are going to listen to the Lord and do whatever He tells us to do. I will try to update my blog as much as possible but I don't know how much time I will have. I am looking forward to this time in South Africa of bringing kingdom to earth. 

Thanksgiving in Kona.

Yesterday was such an amazing Thanksgiving. It was my first one without my family so that was a little hard, but I got to spend it with my awesome YWAM family. We got all dressed up and made a day of it. We had the big meal for lunch and it was very good. We were all stuffed. We talked about what we were thankful for and praised the Lord. Then we had a dance party which was super fun. I am a horrible dancer, so I usually don't dance in public but I did yesterday and it was great. Then last night we watched Charlie Brown's Thanksgiving, had appetizers and watched Amazing Grace, which is a great movie. It was such a good day and such a good way to celebrate being thankful. I am so thankful for such an marvelous God of mine. I am so thankful for his amazing love and grace that I don't even deserve. I am so thankful that Jesus came down to earth, became a human, taught us how to live and died for us. That is crazy love. I am so thankful for my wonderful parents who have always loved and supported me in everything and taught me and modeled how to live a Godly life. I am thankful for my awesome brother and sister. They are two of my best friends and I always love spending time with them. I am thankful for my friends at home. They are all amazing and make my life so much more fun. I am so thankful for this wonderful experience I am having here, learning so much about God, myself and missions and for the amazing friends I have made here. They are so great and have become like my second family. There's so much more I am thankful for, but it would take forever to list.
So today we spent hours making a tent city on the soccer field. Tons of people from everywhere are coming here this week for YWAM's 50th anniversary. So some of them are staying in tents and some of us students are sleeping in them so they can sleep in our beds. This week is going to be crazy but great! I am so excited to see what is in store for us.

I'm just a dumb sheep but I have an amazing Shepherd.

So, I'm finally starting to get a little homesick. I mean, I absolutely love it here. But there's nothing like family and best friends and familiarity. And I really miss Fall. It is my favorite season. I miss going  to Chrissy's football games with my family and going to bonfires and corn mazes with my friends. It doesn't seem like fall at all here. I wear shorts almost everyday. I see pumpkins and stuff at Walmart but it doesnt quite fit. Oh and now they have christmas stuff out in the stores. It doesn't seem Christmas could possibly be a month and a half away. It just still seems like summer. I am so excited for Christmas though. My family is going to come visit for a week and I am thrilled. Then after that I am off to South Africa! I am so excited about that. I absolutely love my outreach team. We are already becoming close like a family. I'm not exactly sure what we are gonna do when we get there but I know it is going to be amazing! 

The last couple weeks of classes have been intense and awesome. Two weeks ago, we had a guy named Andy Byrd speak. He is so on fire for God and that definitely came out in his teaching. One thing he talked about that really stuck out to me was about Psalms 23. It is a chapter of the bible that I've had memorized forever but didn't really think that much about. He talked about how sheep are one of the dumbest animals. He said that they commonly wander into gravel and try to drink from rivers with like class 5 rapids. But the shepherd is there to rescue them from that and lead them to green pastures where they can graze and to still waters where they can drink without getting swept away in the current. This is how we are. We are dumb and think we can do things on our own. We wander off and get stuck in the gravel and drink from a crazy river. But God is the good shepherd and he knows the paths to take us on. If we keep our eyes on Him we will never be lost. Wow! God is so amazing! 

This past week we had a guy named Brian Brennt speak. The whole week was mind blowing. He taught about so many different things. We learned about fear of man, gossip, dating, hearing God's voice, being forerunners and other stuff.  Alot of us were set free from lies that the enemy had us believing. I am learning how to overcome fear of man with God's help. The whole week I just had so many crazy amazing moments and I am just falling more and more in love with God. 

Wow, sorry this post is so long but i hadn't written in forever. Love and miss you guys. Thanks for all your prayers!