A Change of Plans

"So I’ll stand
With arms high and heart abandoned
In awe of the One who gave it all

So I’ll stand
My soul Lord to You surrendered
All I am is Yours"
~The Stand by Hillsong

What do you do when things don't go as you had planned? What if "worst case scenario" happened? My first response is always to scream then shortly followed by a bout of hysterical crying. But this time I learned the best thing I can do is to throw my hands in the air and worship Him for who He is and not for what He does for me.

Truth be told...I'm coming home!!! Being a missionary is a team sport and without monthly supporters it is difficult to stay on the field. Over the past couple of months I have slowly been losing my financial supporters so I must come home and pick up new ones. The plan now is: Cuba July 23rd-August 10th, Home August 12th, back to the field August 26th. The next Nomad internship (the 4 month trip) begins August 27th and I was scheduled to lead one of them so I would like to be back in time to still be a part of it.

I hope to be sending out a newsletter sometime early next week to let my friends and family know who don't have Internet access, but I wanted you all to know sooner than later so that you could be praying with me. Next week I will be calling pastors to set up times to meet and talk about potential financial support. Please pray for the Lord's favor and be praying 1 Peter 4:11 over me:

"If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen."

Amen!!

Also if you know anyone who might be interested in supporting a missionary or you have a church that might be willing to meet and talk with me please let me know. Thank you for being a part of my team. Thank you for your love and support. Without it, well, I'm in Ohio sleeping on a friend's couch instead of in Africa sleeping on the ground :)


I wanted to show you Pat. She is the amazing Lady that I spent most of my time in Honduras with. We are so much alike that my nickname is "Mini Me" :)


Here I was talking with a group of kids at a school. I think they thought I was funny because I spoke poor Spanish. Either way, it was a blast!

Would you like to adopt a baby?

Me too! But not now, silly...I'm not ready :) I'll tell you who is ready though, my friends Matt and Kathryn Clover. Kathryn works in the offices of Book of Hope and is so great to work with. Kathryn and Matt have been married for 8 years and have yet to have any children. Until now...the Lord has opened their hearts and the Clovers have opened their home to a little baby from Ethiopia, Africa. They are in the process of adoption but as you may know adoption is not cheep!!! To help offset some of the cost they are selling really cool looking t-shirts. I bought one and wanted to see if any of my friends or family would also like the opportunity to help out the Clover family. I figured that it didn't hurt to ask. Check out their website for more details!!!!

http://ephesians1baby.wordpress.com/t-shirt-sales/



This is the imagine on the back---whoo yoo!!

Thank You!!

I wanted to send out a special thank you to all those who had band together on my behalf and prayed this past week. I most definitely felt a difference from my 2nd team my the 3rd. In the beginning of my last team there was a lot of miscommunication but at the end so many things came together. It felt like a weight had been lifted off of my shoulders!! Really, I can't even accurately explain the difference I felt. I know it was the Lord working and not just for my benefit or in response to my prayers but He was working in response to all of my amazing prayer worriers from around the world. Thank you for taking the time to fight for me and for the mission.....it worked!!!!!

My God pour out His blessings on your life. Amen!



She says "thanks" too :)



I thought this was pretty....I hope it brightens your day :)

Jesus in the Mountains of Honduras

We, my team and I, were all sitting on the tiny stage in front of the tiny, tiny church. We almost had to sit in the car during the movie because I didn't think there was going to be enough room for all of us inside. Instead we all sat behind the screen. We were showing the GodMan for the 4th or 5th night in a row; our clothes drenched in sweat with more beads rolling down our faces. The Pastor's wife had brought us an oscillating fan but the team had decided to fan the small children in the front instead of cooling themselves down. The faces of the kids were mesmerized as the story of Jesus unfolded in front of their eyes. One of the ladies from my team tapped me on the shoulder and motioned me to look up at the rafters. There was a small slot between where the roof came together with the walls and in that small amount of room you could see little heads popping out. The church was so full that the kids were climbing up on the roof to peer in and watch the movie!!! About 120 people crammed into a room that probably held 50 comfortably and all together we watched the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. When the movie ended and we asked how many children, young people and adults wanted to be friends with Jesus everyone raised their hands.

It is moments like these that make all the frustrating, lonely, and seemingly impossible moments melt away. It is moments like these that help remind me why I am doing what I am doing. You know, it really is true that you see the face of Jesus in every one of those kids when they look at you and smile.

I hope and pray that Jesus fills you today with His spirit. That you would feel His presence all around you, His fingertips guiding you, and the pure love that He has for each and every one of His children would overflow from you onto everyone you encounter today. Amen


I am chatting it up with some kids at their school after doing a presentation and giving each one of them a Book of Hope :)


A beautiful young lady from one of our schools. I kept trying to get a picture of her smiling but she would throw her hand up at the last minute.... :) Even still she is beautiful!

Hello From Honduras

Wow!!! I have only been in Honduras for a little over a week and I am blown away by what God is doing here  I flew into Honduras on June 11th and met up with a team of 22 mostly high school aged young adults on June 12th. Another missionary lady with Book of Hope named Pat was training me up to get me ready for the trip I would be leading on my own next week. We took a 7 ½ hour bus ride from the airport to a bible institute which we called “home” for 4 days.

One day we walked door to door inviting the community to that week’s church service and asking if they knew Jesus personally. We stopped at one house and spoke to a lady that had a small child, he was probably 2 or 3 years old. We asked if she had a personal relationship with Jesus and she said no. We were able to share with her how God sent Jesus to die not just for the world but for her specifically because His love is personal and He loved her very much. We explained that this whole “God-thing” isn’t about getting her into church but about a personal relationship with Jesus. Though she did not give her life to Jesus right then and there she was open to having someone from the church return and share more with her at a later date.

“I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow.” 1 Corinthians 3:6-7

We are not out here for numbers or another notch on our belts. We are out here to share the truth and love of Jesus. I want to thank you again for being apart of that….whether through financially giving each month or through praying for me or even if you pray for the mission. Thank you for praying for workers and the individual people who are out there living their daily lives without Jesus. They need you. They need you to give. They need you to pray. They need you to go. Thank you for what ever part you are playing right now and for what ever part the Lord may have in store for you in the future.

Next up…Pat and I are resting up this weekend and on Monday Pat’s next team comes in. I will be hanging out and helping out where ever I can. My next team comes in on June 27th. Please pray for the team to get to Honduras safely and that they would be pumped and excited for what the Lord is going to do. Pray for servant hearts. Please pray that our words would be effective and that through our lives that God would change the lives of others. Thank you  And I will write again as soon as I can! I tried to add pictures but the computer I am using would not allow it....bummer!!! So hopefully next time!

AAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!

"In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps." Proverb 16:9

This is one of the scriptures the Lord brought to my attention back in the middle of February. It made me wonder: if a man plans his course by his heart then how does he not mess it up? How do you know if what your heart wants is what the Lord wants?

Then I was lead to Psalm 37:4 "Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart." So what you are telling me, Lord, is if I delight myself in you (which means that I choose you and surrender all that I am and all that I want to what you want) then you will set in my heart my desires. And then you say that I can plan out how to achieve these desires and you will guide me? That is quite the deal if you ask me.

And this is just what I did. Costa Rica was a stretching time for me and a series of events drove me to dig into Jesus and delight in Him often. During this time my love for Jesus multiplied and soon He began opening my heart more to a dear friend of mine back home. I was home for a few days when Kyle McAllister pleasantly surprised me and asked if I would marry him. With a giant smile on my face I said, "Yes!"

AAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! We are so excited about what Jesus is doing!!!! A lot of friends and family have offered to help us with wedding plans since I will be out of the country during the majority of our engagement. I will be finished with Book of Hope sometime in August of 2009 and we look forward to getting married in September of 2009.

I will be leaving Ohio June 9th and headed to Honduras on the 10th. I will be there for about 3 weeks helping to lead a few 10 day teams. I will go back to Florida for a week or so on July 2nd and then out to Cuba at the end of July. Book of Hope has been distributing books in Cuba for years but we will be the first American team to go!!! Please be praying for all needed paper work to be filled out and accepted and that we wouldn't lose anything while traveling. Pray for good health and happy spirits because you know how miserable anything can be if you are sick :) Thank you!

I also added a couple of pictures of Kyle and I :)

I'm Back From Another Round

It is hard to believe that 3 1/2 months have already gone by! I am back in Florida now and with the Nomad teams for 4 more days. After that our 4 Nomads for this semester go home and I head to Washington D.C. I am going with 2 other woman to help train a team that is going on a mission trip this summer. After that....I'm coming home!!!!

Since that last time I wrote I went to the Dominican Republic for a week and then to Colombia for almost 2 weeks. In Colombia we were able to go into schools and talk to the kids about how important they are and we handed out the Book of Hope. I also made some really close friends who by the end of it had become my family. We are already in talks about me coming back to Colombia with my chubby cheeked children and my husband....obviously we plan on being friends for many, many, many years :) I had a 16 year old Colombian translator who amazingly enough scratches his nose the same way that I do!!!! Don't believe me? I have it on tape! And I would love to show you and share with you my Colombian brother.

I learned a lot this trip about loving people you don't like and living sacrificially. Living for other people a lot of the time doesn't go the way that you would like it to....that's the sacrificial part. The same way that David didn't want to sacrifice offerings to God that didn't cost him anything (2 Samuel 24:24) at times what it "costs" us to serve and love people for Jesus is our pride--sometimes people are "right" even when they are wrong; our physical comfort--picking up the slack when others are lacking; and our ability to forgive--even before it is asked of us. But the beautiful part is that Jesus is the example in every situation on how to act and what to say. I have not mastered it by any means, and really with every passing day I see how much further from perfection I am. Then I see how much more I need Jesus and my love and appreciate for Him grows.

Thank you for all of your love, prayers and support. We are in this thing together! I threw some pictures on for your enjoyment...see you in a couple of weeks!



This is Christine, my team leader, "knocking me out" in Colombia....:)





This is me with a bunch of young ladies at a school. My Spanish even after 2 months in language school is pretty lacking so our conversation mostly centered on how to say different colors in English :p





Me and my Spanish translator friend, Oscar...he was great!