So Close....and yet so Far.

Ok Friends - 5 Days and counting....

At this point, I am in need of about $300 in monthly support, and I will be done!
That's it - just $300/month....it can happen right?! Please, please, please pray that it will come in ASAP, so that I can be packing with assurance that I am to leave the country next Wednesday.

Other Prayer Requests:

I have two couples who have pledged support, but have not come through with the actual signing up the deposits yet - both being rather large monthly amounts, that I really need! Pray that they would come through for me, and not back out :S

Also, pray for my team as they are all (minus one) still trying to finish up all their support as well. We all still believe that we are called to go, and are praying for a miracle in these last few days in the U.S.

Pray for our travel arrangements, as of now, our plane tickets are still in limbo and there could be many details/complications there.

Pray for morale! Our team, especially myself, is having a rough go of it this last week, not only trying to finish up this support, but also trying to pack up our entire lives, and say goodbye to friends and loved ones....it's not an easy thing to do!


Thanks for your prayers everyone! Keep at it! 5 days and counting.......

Numbers

Hey all, so a lot of people don't like constantly seeing percentages (as far as how much support I need) and would rather have an actual number that they can pray exactly for.....so here it is:

I have $1,736 in monthly....I need another $235 in monthly support....that's like nothin', just need a few generous people, right?

I have $7,820 in special-needs.....I need $3,341 in special-needs.....I need a lot of generous people, good thing God is in control right?

Overall, I have (after it's all calculated out....) about $28,000 (WOW! God is good!), and I need about $35,000 (yikes!). This puts me at 81%.
( my happy face! ------------------------>)




( <-------- my worried face...) Essentially I have 6 days to raise about $7,000.........so keep praying! If it is in His will, I have no doubt that God will provide, He always does.

My sinful human nature simply wants to give up and say that this is impossible.......I'm so glad that I serve the one true God that can do the impossible! Keep praying.......I'll be giving updates all week, we'll see what happens!

"Weekend" at "Home"

So I say "weekend" because it wasn't really a weekend, it was Weds-Sat, and I say "home" because it's not technically home, although I lived there for 4 years (Seattle) though it is not currently my home, I hope it will be again someday. With that said, and my title explained, I can say I had a great "weekend" in Seattle this past week. I ended up going earlier than I had planned on, so that I could have a meeting with Brian about STINT stuff. I got there around the middle of the day Wednesday. That day and evening I got to hang out with my girls, they even patronized me in traversing around Seattle looking for somewhere with WiFi access (which it turns out we were able to get in the apartment after all, but some divine coincidence I believe)......I love my girls.


Early Thursday morning, Tracy and I headed to SeaTac to pick up Barlow. We hit virtually no traffic, which was awesome, but we did have some minor confusion in the parking garage which resulted in us parking by China Airlines.....oops :) Needless to say we picked him up, without any of the funny sign holdings, or excessive flailing with excitement we had previously discussed, for the sake of his dignity (i'm pretty sure we lost ours some time ago...). We spent the day mostly just catching up, hanging out, playing tetris, and drinking both Jamba Juice AND Starbucks. In the evening Barlow and I had tickets to go see "Young Frankenstein" - the newest Mel Brooks musical that is premiering in Seattle before going to Broadway. It was great fun - to do a quick review of the show - I'd say it was pretty awesome. The sets were very intricately detailed and the dialogue/musical numbers were both witty and charming (while containing rather "sensitive" subject matter at times) and definitely had the crowd laughing for a large portion of the show. The actors were all very talented, and I was very impressed with the whole thing. We even stayed afterwards to see if we could meet the actors (Barlow loves to do this, so I went along with it). We did get to see/meet a couple of the main actors, including Roger Bart who played Dr. Frankenstein himself. All in all, it was a lot of fun. Barlow stayed one more day, and he, Julie, Andy and I got to go to Red Robin together just like old times.....before taking him back to SeaTac.

To top the weekend off, my community group through me a "surprise" goodbye breakfast on Saturday morning (although I happened to find out about it beforehand). I felt very blessed that they cared so much to do that for me. The food was fantastic, and it was a lot of fun getting to hang out with them all one last time. We even did some worship, and they played my favorite song: Passover. They laid hands on me and sent me out in prayer, which I really appreciated (I really need it!) Julie and I ended the weekend with a shopping trip, which was much needed, to get me a few of the last things that I need to take with me to VZ. I finally found of pair of shoes that I am happy with!

Currently I am at 81% of my support.....please keep praying that God will come through with a miracle and provide the rest because there is no way it's going to happen on my power! Thanks for all your support and prayers, I desperately need them.

You are God's Provision for Me next year....

"You are God's Provision for me next year".....at one point during the STINT briefing (where I have been for a week) they had us turn and say this to our teammates....at the time, it really just felt silly. The more I think about it however, I see how incredibly true it is. We spent all week together and I was amazed at how well our personalities, passions, and priorities (!) fit together and were to on track. I'm not trying to say that there won't be conflict, I can guarantee there will be. But, I know that God has truly blessed me with an incredible team of people that I am so excited to spend more time with and do ministry with over the next year. So in case any of you read this: you guys are truly God's provision for me next year. I know we are going to test each others' patience from time to time, but I can't wait to see how God uses us in Venezuela......in a matter of weeks!

A couple pictures from the trip:
We got to enjoy (and I had my very first) trip up a ski lift (chair lift?).....The girls enjoyed the trip by taking pictures (this was about the 30th picture, so I just had to make a face....). During a delicious *ahem* lunch (the cafeteria food at the conference was....interesting) it began raining on us, and we headed inside only to be told that the lift was closing due to rain and we had 15 minutes to get back down the mountain....Needless to say it made for a cold and wet ride back, but it was fun nonetheless and a very memorable first experience on a ski lift.

The place that we stayed (Copper Mountain, Colorado) was absolutely gorgeous. This is another view from the ski lift. The only trouble was the altitude sickness that plagued many of the conference attendees (about 400 people from all over the country heading all over the world). I myself suffered a bit from the altitude messing with my head and sinuses, but overall really enjoyed the setting, in all the beauty of God's creation.

Here's the team: (from left to right...) Amanda Coonts - an Elementary Education major from the University of Idaho (go Vandals!), Sarah Miller - a Spanish major from Whitworth College, who spent a year and half in Spain and speaks fluent Spanish, Me! (just in case you don't know, a politial science and philosophy major from the University of Washington), Eben Allen - a mechanical engineering major from the University of Portland, and Ivan Bucher - a journalism major from the University of Montana, Missoula.





Classic pic with the Venezuelan Flag went a little astray as I literally "hid behind the flag" and the rest of them just smile beautifully from above it....I like it:).

Colorado

So....after leaving Sequim at 3 am, spending 3 hours in the car, 2 hours in the airport, 3 hours on the plane, and 2 hours on the bus...I'm here in Colorado. It's has really been fun getting to know my team a little bit, seeing our differences and similarities, and how God has put us all together for a reason. We'll be here until Sunday. So far the sessions and worship have been really good and encouraging. My team as a whole is still lacking a significant amount of support, but we are trusting the Lord to bring it in, and praying that it will come in sooner rather than later. I'm currently still at 56%...so keep praying! I believe that God will work a miracle, and I'm so excited to see how He does it! More updates to come....later (and hopefully a few pics).....

Training....

Hey All - I am leaving at 3:00 in the morning to fly to Colorado for training. (I should probably be asleep right now) I will be in Colorado all this week for STINT briefing and training.....I'm still at about 56% of my support, so please keep praying! Updates from CO to come....

Happy Birthday to me!

Hey All, so a couple people have asked me what I want for my birthday (which is on the 7th), here's the very simple answer: support!!

I'm somewhere between 40 and 50% support wise (my deadline was today....), however I can continue raising up to the moment we leave, but it's starting to get tougher and tougher as I run out of contacts and referrals to ask.

So, if you feel like giving me a birthday present (no matter how big or how small!), here's the link: https://give.ccci.org/give/0597022
What better a present to give, then sending me to VZ as a missionary right? Every little bit helps! Thanks guys, I love you all!

Side note: I cannot believe I'm going to be 22, that sounds SO OLD to me! There are a lot of things in my life still to take in: I'm almost 22, I'm a college graduate, I'm moving out of the US....! God has been good to me. I look at my life at still cannot believe that He chose to take me, a stupid sinful girl, and call me His own, and use me for His kingdom! He has done amazing things in my life in the past 4 years, and I know that as long as I choose every morning to lay my life in His hands, that He will continue to use and to challenge me for the rest of my life.....