Packing!

Hello all,

Thought I would give a heads up!

Today I have been packing and getting ready to leave. It is an interesting balance. I need to get this done so I can spend time with my family before I leave.

They made me a little note envelope to give me 15 days of sunshine in my day.

If you were one of the ones that said you would pray for me on this trip, please remember my family as well. I have never been away from them for this long and having them brought before our LORD as often as possible is a good thing!

So thank you!!

Tomorrow I leave for Minneapolis and VERY early on Wednesday morning, I get on the plane for Miami. Meet up with everybody else and then on to Cali.

Pray for us!

Will write again soon and keep you posted.

Here is a picture of my daughter rolling my clothes for me as I packed. : ]

A Week Out

Hello again!

I now have all my shots done. Glad I met my deductible already!! Those are spendy!

In case you were wondering, that means I've had Hepatitis A and B (and a booster), Tetanus and a Typhoid shot(s). Yes, me! The human pin cushion! Got in tacks you would like me to pick up?

In case you have not had these in your life, let me tell you. As you would expect, the Hep A & B are not bad. Barely notice them. The Tetanus burns as bad as it did when I was a kid (almost). The Typhoid was almost warm feeling when I got it. But it also caused me to be the most sore in my arm in even into my back a bit. So there ya go. Just what you wanted to know today. Go forth and spread the word! : ]

Aside from some small things, like deodorant and other weird things like that, I'm ready. Don't get me wrong! I'm not packed. But I think I've got everything I needed to have to be ready. It is so exciting!

It is strange to be away from Alissa and my girls that long. It has raised my level of awareness in every moment with them. Audrey has it marked on her calendar.

Then I think, what is God going to do? How can HE use this?

And I think, I can't wait.

Cali Update

Hello!

Wanted to give an update on where I'm at in regards to the trip.

The airplane tickets were purchased last month and they got them for about $100 or so less than they thought! Given God the glory!

After the price adjustment, my balance left was $698.60. (Again, praise God for this! God has used you awesome people to get me this close to the goal.) I am so grateful to God for this coming together. I have been praying that it would all come together.

This morning I called Extreme Nazarene and made a payment. I had been given some monies from my congregation and needed to get it in. So! I am happy to let you all know that after that payment, I had only $250.00 left for the trip. And that just blows my mind.

Really. Those of you that know me well, you know that I am not great at accepting gifts. I know what that is and I am working on it, but I am still overwhelmed at gifts and acts of generosity. They are hard to accept. And so, I have had a lot of practice in graciously accepting gifts lately because you have all blessed me, GOD has blessed me through you all. So thank you God! And thank you for listening to God's prompting.

The story doesn't end for today, yet. I have more to tell you!

I got a phone call from a friend this morning. They live on a very tight budget. Very tight. He has a second job to support his family. He was calling to see how I was and ask me a tech question.

We were sharing some details about our lives and I told him how much I am looking forward to this trip. He asked me when we leave and I told him about how I was just about to call make the aforementioned above payment. And let him know how God had blessed me with this trip and I only had $250.00 left. We chatted some more. And then we got off the phone.

About 30 minutes later, I got a call back from my friend. He had been praying and felt led to send me a check for the last $250.00!! I didn't/don't know what to say. God IS so good.

I'm sitting here as I type with tears on my cheeks because I am humbled by God's care and provision. 

My trip is fully funded. Praise the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob! The great I AM!

So VERY humbled by God right now. Thank you, God!

Not too Late

Hello again!

Some of you have mentioned that you wondered how I was doing toward reaching my goal of $2100.00. I wanted to include this information in this post so as of this date, if you thought that you missed your chance to help, you haven't. : ] 

I am about $800.00 away from my goal. It is not too late to give because I had set the August 1st deadline in order to have the money for the airline ticket to Cali, Colombia. Half of the cost of going is the airline ticket! Wow! The rest is for everything else. So that, once we get there, our expenses are relatively low. 

I also wanted to update some information that we received about the trip. 

We will be more specifically assisting with the expansion of a small church in the neighborhood of San Judas. Also, we will be participating in an event with one of the cell groups of the Cali Church, "Casa de Oracion." 

Please remember to keep us in prayer!

Lastly, I thought you would enjoy this video that I made for District Assembly about the Cali trip. 

Cali Update

Hello all!

I just received my passport and so I am now able to leave the country. Woo Hoo!

Thank you for journeying with me on this road! I really appreciate the support. I have heard the stories of people going on mission trips and having very real and very physical manifestations of evil.

It is through prayer and intercession that God brought healing and opportunity in those situations. I thank you for your prayers!!

I know that many of you have also decided to help me out monetarily. I am about halfway to my goal of the $2100.00 needed. So thank you for your help!! Praise God!

We are almost about to buy the airplane tickets and I have to have $1000.00 just for those. I have never been out of the country before (Canada doesn't count) and thus have never needed a passport. That was a spendy thing!! Nice to have though.

I am excited to go and know that provision is being given! It means a lot to me to be able to go and minister, learn and experience all of this amazing, incredible movement that God is doing in Cali.

I hope to bring what God gives me back here for His glory!!

Thank you again!

Share your Faith!

Here is an interesting video:

Way of the Master Questions Week One

Question 1

Imagine that you are sound asleep in bed. You smell smoke. The smoke detector goes off and you quickly think of the fire station next door.  What virtues would you want those firefighters to have? Alert? Special training? Courage? Compassion? What else?

Now which ones of these do you think you possess and which ones do you need to work on?

Question 2

Call two people that you know that go to church (could be our church) and ask them this:

"I'm taking an evangelism course and as part of the homework , I need to ask someone a few questions. 1. Do you share your faith regularly? i.e. Do you go out of your way to verbally share the gospel with strangers?
2. What is the main reason you don't share your faith more often?


Bring these with you to class Sunday!