The Harvest is still plentiful...

Hey ya'll even though a am back at school now, I wanted to continue to update you on what the Lord is doing here in Valdosta. The harvest is plentiful here as well, and as long as there is a harvest, I want to continually be seeking opportunities to share the love of Christ and the vision of Discipleship with others. Things have been pretty crazy at school. I am embarking on my last year, and will be pretty much a full time student teacher at the end of October! As exciting as this is, it is also very nerve racking. Please pray that I would FIX MY EYES ON CHRIST! I am leading three junior women in a discipleship group this year. Two of these women went on the Summer Beach Project in Daytona. They all learned so much this summer and are eager to grow in their walks with the Lord and help others to do the same. Their names are Kelli, Emily and Mollie, and they are all playing on flag football teams right now and trying to build relationships with girls who live in Patterson dorms. It is so exciting to lead them during this exciting time in their lives, and I am reminded everyday what a privileged it is to be a vessel for Christ. I am begging the Lord for his wisdom, power, and discernment as I seek to present them complete unto the Lord (Colossians 1:28-29) We are doing a semester long study on Leaders in the Old Testament. I am trusting God that through this study and His spirit he might cause us to become women who walk by faith, and stand on grace. Thank you so much for your prayers and encouragement. I am so grateful! I will update you on more soon :)

May I decrease and may Christ increase...

This is one prayer I had all summer long. I have certainly seen the Lord be faithful to answer it in many ways. The weeks we spent in Africa and even the weeks since we got back have been transforming. God has graciously been pruning away at my heart. This is only be His grace. I don't deserve his faithful and sanctifying work in my life. But I am so grateful that he loves me entirely too much too let me stay the same. This summer has been a time of me going deep into God's heart and Him going deep into mine. And like we learned at the word alive conference, sometimes God has to empty us out, so that he can fill us up with more of him. It amazes me how God delights in bringing glory to himself through sinners like me. Its like Isaiah 61 says...He has traded me ashes in for beauty. All so that His name might be praised. Praise the Lord!

God is LOVE

Jesus was a man on a mission, but he was a very loving man on a mission. His mission was love. A lot of times on our way to love someone, we forget to love people. One thing God taught me this summer in South Africa, and is still teaching me is the way he values people. God always has time for us. He is deeply compassionate towards us. He fully meets our every need and is greatly concerned with the deepest desires of our hearts. How often do I fail to love others this way. I spend a lot of my days running around, "getting a lot done" but who did I really love along the way? Am I investing in people or just meeting with people? The culture in South Africa taught me that I need to slow down more and enjoy the people around me. They all in some way reflect so much of who he is. I spend so much of my time worrying about the next thing to come and who is going to be there and how it is going to get done that I forget to enjoy the moment I am in and the people I am with. I am sure some of you can in some way relate. There is so much joy God wants to give us through the people he places around us. May we all fight together to slow down and be joyful always! Love <3 1 John 4:7-12

Preparing for take off

I cannot believe our time in SA is nearly over. It has been such an amazing trip. God is daily blowing me away with his love and faithfulness and relentless pursuit of my own heart. We just returned yesterday from Pilanesberg. We were able to be amoung the mist of God and the glory of his wonderful creation while taking sometime to reflect and evaluate on all that he has done in just the last 7 weeks. I am daily grateful to have had the opportunity to follow Jesus here this summer and I cannot wait to tell you all more about the work He is doing in the hearts of our team, UJB students and myself. Thanks for your prayers. Please pray for safe travels.

Delightful

"God is most Glorified in us, when we are most satisfied in Him." This was the main point that the speaker at our leadership retreat spoke on. We talked about how serving the Lord in an honorable way can be done from duty, desire, or delight. All three are honorable, but only one is the best. We can have all sorts of reasons to read our bibles, pray, go to church, share our faith, go to Christian things, or do good deeds. God wants us to find delight in these things and more than anything he wants us to find delight in Him. It brings him the most Glory when we read our bibles, because we just couldn't help ourselves. Duty and desire are honorable, but what a sweet place it is for us to be when we are delighting in the Lord. After all he did come that we might have life and have it abundantly! His word promises that in his presence are pleasures forever more. The problem is not that we desire lesser things, the problem is that our desire are not great enough. We can desire so little that a lifeless idol might temporarily fulfill that desire. But God wants to give us desires that only he might possibly meet. This is what i have been praying, that God would make my desires so Big, that running to anything else would just seem unthinkable. That my heart would say with the Psalmist. "Whom have i in heaven but you, and earth has nothing a desire but you" oh God. (psalm 73) Why do we settle for lesser joys, when God is continually inviting us to come and find true and full joy in him, like he invites in Isaiah 55. After all Jesus did say that the Kingdom of God is like a treasure hidden in a field. When we finally see just how good it is, we go and sale everything, just that we might have the treasure. We always praise what we prize, and we will never give him the praise he deserves unless we are truly prizing him far above all other things. Fight to Delight in God my friends! he is the only one who can satisfy the thirst in our souls. Thanks for praying!

word alive!

This past week we attended a conference at Melville Union Church with the student leaders. This conference was truly a blessing. I feel like the students were really encouraged to step out of their comfort zones and begin to walk by faith. One of the main themes of the conference was how God chooses to use weak sinners like me and you, to do impossible things for His glory. We all at times can feel crippled by our circumstances or our inadequacies. God has so many things he wants to use his children for, and often the weaker we are the better because it creates room for his power to be made perfect in us. Matt Ballard, a pastor from Atlanta, gave a wonderful talk on discipleship (2 Timothy 2:1-7). He reminded us that the gospel was meant to be passed on. How often do we keep this wonderful gift of God’s grace to ourselves and miss out on all of the goodness and riches he wants us to experience through living our lives for the sake of his kingdom and glory and dying to our selves? The students were all greatly encouraged by the preaching, comforting, and strengthening of God’s word, as were we. Pray that we would all realize how much this thing called life is not about us, and it is all about HIM.

Please keep praying for the leadership camp in Sun Valley this weekend. This will be the last time we get to deeply invest in the students.

From God's word

2 Corinthians 5:14 “For the love of Christ compels us.”

Some of my friends on Summer Beach Project are learning about the meaning of this verse this summer. But lately it has taken on a new meaning for me. As a team we are reading a book by Jerry Bridges called Transforming Grace, and we are studying the book of 1 Thessalonians. One of the chapters in TG is about being compelled by God’s love. I have also just applied this verse to giving my life away to others. Knowing that since God has so deeply loved me; I should go and love others. But this past week I have been learning how Christ’s love is what should compel me to love God. I think so many times as Christians we get is wrong. We turn our walk with the Lord into a list of dos and don’ts and some how convince ourselves that if you do enough right God will love us more but if you do too much wrong God will love us less. This is all wrong. I am not supposed to read my bible in the morning or pray or go to church so that I can receive some extra blessing for the day or week. But Christ’s love for me should be compelling me to love him back out of desire and gratitude. It is not a fear of consequence or expectation of reward that should keep us pursing the heart of God, but a pure and utter love for Him. I am thankful the Lord has been gracious enough to remind me of this truth.

Children's Farm

This Saturday we went to a place where all of the farm children from that town come on Saturday mornings. A couple from Holland owns the land. Every Saturday they pick up all the children, bring them here for a bible lesson and then play games with them. This past weekend we had the privilege of playing with these children, having a cookout with them, and sharing a bible message with them. None of them were able to speak English, but it was neat to see how even that did not stop God from showing all of us His love in a deeper way. Saturdays have been so refreshing. Getting to serve and show God’s love to people in this way always brings our team together with love and joy.

Loving South Africa

Mamelodi:
On Saturday we went to a township to work with an organization called Africa Revolution. This ministry is partnered with a church called, Power House, and together they are working to reach out to the community be bringing the message and the ministry of Christ. We spent the day working on two houses, owned by elderly widows. We had the opportunity of cleaning and painting the houses. It was such a refreshing time to serve in this way. Even getting to work along side the church members and share stories and learn about what God is doing in their lives was beautiful. It was good to be reminded that God is God of the Universe, and His love remains the same no matter where you go.

Culture:
The African culture is much different from American culture and I am learning a lot from it. The Christians I have met here are very grateful to the God for everything he does. As a matter of fact they are very grateful to everyone. It has shown me how often I can just be about me and not others. Even those who have very little to give, are constantly giving. Lifestyle here is very communal. So people are always eating together and sitting around and talking together and enjoy each other. It has shown me that I don’t stop to do that enough. Everyone shares everything which I love, because most do not have a lot. The students we have been getting to know have an eagerness and a hunger to know God more like you would not believe. South Africa is beautiful. The people, the landscape, and the languages are all so beautiful. The Lord is really teaching me to slow down more and take those things in.

And.... we're... outta here!!

Oh wow! I cannot even begin to express the excitement and joy in my heart! First of all God is amazing, He has truly done immeasurably more ALREADY than all that I could have asked or imagine. As far as support...He provided not only for what i needed, my goal, or what i was trusting him for, but even beyond that! We leave in just two days to go to Johannesburg. I honestly don't know what to expect from this summer. I just know that I expect God to show up and do BIG, HUGE, AMAZING things for his Kingdom through and in us....He likes to do that ;)
Thank you so much everyone who has supported and who has been praying. It means more than you'll ever know! I'm ready! Let's GO!

"...Give me the love that leads the way, The faith that nothing can dismay, The hope no disappointments tire, The passion that will burn like fire, Let me not sink to be a clod. Make me Thy fuel, Flame of God." -Amy Carmichael

LOVE AND GRACE

Weekly Prayer Request:

Sunday- I would serve the Lord with zeal and passion, not letting the things of the world hold me back. 1 John 2:15

Monday - My team would be unified in a sincere love for one another. John 13:34-45

Tuesday - My own personal walk with the Lord. Pray that I would be saturated in His word and walk intimately with Him as his child. understanding his perfect love for me. Psalm 1:3, 1 John 3:1

Wednesday- I would think and live with COMPLETENESS in mind. And that God would use this summer to move us and the students in South Africa closer to being made complete in out faith.
1 Thessalonians 3:10

Thursday - My love and compassion for South Africa, the students and the culture. 1 Corinthians 13

Friday - My team would live according to the greatest commandment; loving God with all of our heart, soul, and mind, and loving our neighbor as ourselves. Matthew 22:37-39

Saturday - The physical safety and financial need of our team will be fully met. Philippians 4:19

Keep praying for our team. We still have a need of about $17,000.00. But God is WAY bigger than paper, He will provide!

I cannot believe that our team leaves in just 20 days. This semester has been one of the most exciting semesters of my life. There are so many here that will be so hard to leave for a summer, but so many there that I cannot wait to be with. This weekend we found out the theme for out summer is going to be COMPLETE. My prayer for my vision for God's Kingdom this summer is that I would realize and live like God intended all things in the world to be made complete. The tasks He gives us are to be completed, our faith, the Kingdom itself, and this race we run called life. I cannot wait to go deeper with the students in South Africa and on my team and learn more about this idea of completion. Our theme verses are...

For now we really live, since you are standing firm in the Lord. How can we thank God enough for you in return for all the joy we have in the presence of our God because of you? ¹⁰Night and day we pray most earnestly that we may see you again and complete what is lacking in your faith.

I Thes 3:8-10