For those of you who may be new to the group, because of the service at East Lake Community Church this morning... I have about $7,000 more to raise before I can fly to Germany to begin my mission.
If you would like to help me reach that goal, please send a check
(made out to TEAM with my name in the memo line) to:
TEAM P.O. Box 969 Wheaton, IL 60187-0969.
Or you can go to: teamworld.org/give/give-online.html and click on the “To Give Online Click Here” button in the center of the page and then select my name under “Missionaries & Staff.”
I will not typically use this blog for fundraising purposes. However, I know that many of you who will be checking out this blog want to know how you can help. So, I wanted to provide the information to those of you who want it. Thanks!
Sunday, June 19, 2011
Sunday, June 5, 2011
God Uses Everything!
Stereotyped Recipe for a Missionary:
-Solid Christian Home
-Home School lower level education
-Bible College higher level education
-A limited wardrobe from Goodwill (from the 70s!)
-And no real life experience.
While some of the items listed above are certainly part of my life (don't you dare crack on my wardrobe!), many of the ingredients in my story are different and may not have amounted to anything on their own.
I did grow up in a solid Christian home. I was VERY blessed to have two Christian parents that truly pursued God. They were both incredibly involved in the church. Therefore, I too grew up to become a committed follower of Christ who was very involved in the church. Yet, before the age of 15, I would say that my faith was nothing special to speak of. I was a typical church going kid. Church was kind of like a club that I belonged to. Awana was my replacement for the Girl Scouts, I suppose.
God changed my heart when I was 15 years old. I was with my youth group, at the LIFE 98 conference for the Christian and Missionary Alliance denomination in Salt Lake City, Utah in the summer of 1998. One night the speaker was talking about the power of the Holy Spirit in Christians. Something clicked for me and I realized that being a Christian wasn't about being a good person who knew a lot about the Bible. It was about being united with Christ and serving Him through Him! Talk about a hard concept for a teenager to grasp. I chewed on that for years!
However, right away I knew that the only way to truly commit myself fully to Jesus and to serve Him with everything I had was to become a missionary. I just had no idea what that looked like for me.
So, I weighed my options and decided Africa wasn't for me. Instead I began to look at serving in Europe (because those are the only two options in the missions world, DUH!).
France intrigued me, so I signed up for French class in high school. After four years of french, I could say "Bonjour," "Salut," "Je vais du ski nautique," and I could count to 10. That's about it! I did not take well to the french language and I was further discouraged by a missionary who visited our church from France. Everything this man was doing in France was related to Americans who lived there.
I soon learned how private and closed off Europeans were. So, I put my dream of becoming a missionary there away in frustration. This left me without any real direction.
All I knew was that the Christian and Missionary Alliance said that I needed to begin my journey with a Bible College degree and that I should study something besides, or as well as, Inter Cultural Studies.
How I ended up at Columbia International University is a long story in itself, but I will say that I was positive that it was where God wanted me to be and it turned out that they required all students to major in Bible as well as their other focus. So, I began to attend CIU as an Inter Cultural Studies major with an interest in the Communications department. Yet, this part of my story probably seems unfamiliar to many of you, because most of you have only known me as a Youth Ministry major.
One of my classes in my freshman year at CIU was about how God has gifted us. To be entirely honest, the class seemed ridiculous. We took a few of the spiritual gifts quizzes that many of you are familiar with, but we also did a more detailed study with a book and break out groups. My break out group was with the new Youth Ministry teacher, Karen Grant.
God used Karen and her experience to teach me that it was ok to pursue something that I was interested in. It was clear that God had made me for youth ministry. Everything about me seemed to equip me well for that calling. I was just scared of abandoning missions. I found myself praying over and over again, "are you sure God? because I'm totally willing to go." I struggled with guilt when I decided to move into studying Youth Ministry. I knew it would lead to a job in the US, rather than a mission out of the country (which it did).
I thrived in my youth ministry classes and gained an interest for Psychology and Counseling. So, I took a job at East Lake Community Church with Barry Russell and continued my education in the Pastoral Counseling program in the Seminary at CIU. My job with Barry was right up my alley. It was a flexible job at a newer church with endless possibilities. However, I was never able to go full time and I learned to live with very little. Despite the typical struggles of working in a church, I was very happy at East Lake. Working with youth was my dream.
Before the summer of 2008, I went on a study tour with CIU across Europe. We visited several countries and ended our journey in Germany. While we were there we visited the Black Forest Academy. Our class attended their Sunday morning worship service. It was at BFAchurched youth to a job that worked with missionary kids. In the end I said, "I will try to remain open and allow the Holy Spirit to work in my heart. Speak to me Lord."
Well, I certainly felt like He spoke! It wasn't hard to hear Him.
I lost my job when I got back from that trip.
God had a plan though and He immediately took care of me.
I got a full time job right away at All American Imaging.
I had always been interested in photography and graphic design, but i loved ministry too much to have a job in the general work place. Working at AAI was what I needed to do to survive and to pay the bills. I didn't see it as a ministry opportunity. I struggled with the idea that working there was a waste of my time and spiritual gifting. Yet, God knew what He was doing. It was through that job that I learned about how cameras work and I gained a lot of knowledge about Adobe software, computer networking, and design. It hasn't been easy maintaining that job while finishing school and helping out at East Lake, but I have been stretched and I've put a lot more tools in my belt.
Now I have come full circle. I'm about to approach the mission field, but not just as an eager teenager. I am an equipped adult now. Every experience of mine in the last 13 years has been an important ingredient in this recipe. By themselves the ingredients are all good, but together they make for an amazing creation that God alone has made.
I have always been willing, but now I am equipped.
-Solid Christian Home
-Home School lower level education
-Bible College higher level education
-A limited wardrobe from Goodwill (from the 70s!)
-And no real life experience.
While some of the items listed above are certainly part of my life (don't you dare crack on my wardrobe!), many of the ingredients in my story are different and may not have amounted to anything on their own.
I did grow up in a solid Christian home. I was VERY blessed to have two Christian parents that truly pursued God. They were both incredibly involved in the church. Therefore, I too grew up to become a committed follower of Christ who was very involved in the church. Yet, before the age of 15, I would say that my faith was nothing special to speak of. I was a typical church going kid. Church was kind of like a club that I belonged to. Awana was my replacement for the Girl Scouts, I suppose.
God changed my heart when I was 15 years old. I was with my youth group, at the LIFE 98 conference for the Christian and Missionary Alliance denomination in Salt Lake City, Utah in the summer of 1998. One night the speaker was talking about the power of the Holy Spirit in Christians. Something clicked for me and I realized that being a Christian wasn't about being a good person who knew a lot about the Bible. It was about being united with Christ and serving Him through Him! Talk about a hard concept for a teenager to grasp. I chewed on that for years!
However, right away I knew that the only way to truly commit myself fully to Jesus and to serve Him with everything I had was to become a missionary. I just had no idea what that looked like for me.
So, I weighed my options and decided Africa wasn't for me. Instead I began to look at serving in Europe (because those are the only two options in the missions world, DUH!).
France intrigued me, so I signed up for French class in high school. After four years of french, I could say "Bonjour," "Salut," "Je vais du ski nautique," and I could count to 10. That's about it! I did not take well to the french language and I was further discouraged by a missionary who visited our church from France. Everything this man was doing in France was related to Americans who lived there.
I soon learned how private and closed off Europeans were. So, I put my dream of becoming a missionary there away in frustration. This left me without any real direction.
All I knew was that the Christian and Missionary Alliance said that I needed to begin my journey with a Bible College degree and that I should study something besides, or as well as, Inter Cultural Studies.
How I ended up at Columbia International University is a long story in itself, but I will say that I was positive that it was where God wanted me to be and it turned out that they required all students to major in Bible as well as their other focus. So, I began to attend CIU as an Inter Cultural Studies major with an interest in the Communications department. Yet, this part of my story probably seems unfamiliar to many of you, because most of you have only known me as a Youth Ministry major.
One of my classes in my freshman year at CIU was about how God has gifted us. To be entirely honest, the class seemed ridiculous. We took a few of the spiritual gifts quizzes that many of you are familiar with, but we also did a more detailed study with a book and break out groups. My break out group was with the new Youth Ministry teacher, Karen Grant.
God used Karen and her experience to teach me that it was ok to pursue something that I was interested in. It was clear that God had made me for youth ministry. Everything about me seemed to equip me well for that calling. I was just scared of abandoning missions. I found myself praying over and over again, "are you sure God? because I'm totally willing to go." I struggled with guilt when I decided to move into studying Youth Ministry. I knew it would lead to a job in the US, rather than a mission out of the country (which it did).
I thrived in my youth ministry classes and gained an interest for Psychology and Counseling. So, I took a job at East Lake Community Church with Barry Russell and continued my education in the Pastoral Counseling program in the Seminary at CIU. My job with Barry was right up my alley. It was a flexible job at a newer church with endless possibilities. However, I was never able to go full time and I learned to live with very little. Despite the typical struggles of working in a church, I was very happy at East Lake. Working with youth was my dream.
Before the summer of 2008, I went on a study tour with CIU across Europe. We visited several countries and ended our journey in Germany. While we were there we visited the Black Forest Academy. Our class attended their Sunday morning worship service. It was at BFAchurched youth to a job that worked with missionary kids. In the end I said, "I will try to remain open and allow the Holy Spirit to work in my heart. Speak to me Lord."
Well, I certainly felt like He spoke! It wasn't hard to hear Him.
I lost my job when I got back from that trip.
God had a plan though and He immediately took care of me.
I got a full time job right away at All American Imaging.
I had always been interested in photography and graphic design, but i loved ministry too much to have a job in the general work place. Working at AAI was what I needed to do to survive and to pay the bills. I didn't see it as a ministry opportunity. I struggled with the idea that working there was a waste of my time and spiritual gifting. Yet, God knew what He was doing. It was through that job that I learned about how cameras work and I gained a lot of knowledge about Adobe software, computer networking, and design. It hasn't been easy maintaining that job while finishing school and helping out at East Lake, but I have been stretched and I've put a lot more tools in my belt.
Now I have come full circle. I'm about to approach the mission field, but not just as an eager teenager. I am an equipped adult now. Every experience of mine in the last 13 years has been an important ingredient in this recipe. By themselves the ingredients are all good, but together they make for an amazing creation that God alone has made.
I have always been willing, but now I am equipped.
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