The Epic Blog

I’m so bad at this blogging thing haha. It’s definitely been three weeks since my last blog, and due to the Lord doing amazing things in these three weeks well I don’t really know where to start LOL:) Week two in Illinois was pretty jam packed with figuring things out and getting our bearings in the suburbs of Naperville and Plano. Naperville and Plano really couldn’t be much more polar opposite. Naperville is extremely up and coming with lots of things to do while Plano on the other hand is a farm centered community that doesn’t even have a Mickey D’s haha. It’s great though being able to work in such different areas. Psalm 86:9 was really laid upon my heart that past week. It says, “All the nations you have made shall come and worship before you, O Lord, and shall glorify your name.” While neither Plano nor Naperville are nations, they are cities that the Lord has made filled with people that the Lord created and one day they shall worship and glorify the Lord. We have been using these things called Solarium cards to meet people that are out and about. Pretty much you give the person you are interviewing a stack of about 50 random pictures. Then you ask the person to find 3 pictures that describe their life now, 3 pictures they wish their life was like, followed by one picture they believe describes God, and lastly one picture that describes their spiritual journey so far. They are a great tool for starting conversations as well as just seeing where the person is spiritually. We are a generation that loves pictures, and things seem a lot less intimidating when someone has something to look at when they are answering questions. The Lord allowed the team to make some great contacts through the solarium cards. One girl in particular you can be in prayer for is Jackie. Donovan and I met this girl on the North Central College Campus. She talked about how she had been possessed before but overcame it with her inner will and strength. I was actually worried that Jackie wouldn’t stay connected with us, but she returned a message I left her this past week and wants to hang out. Pray for the Lord to be at work in her heart to realize her own strength is not enough and to give me guidance as we talk. We also did surveys this past week which made it both easier and faster to find people open to growing in the Lord and hearing the gospel. The Lord allowed us to meet a lot of people through them. The team was able to have their first Bible study this week in Naperville. We split up the guys and girls Bible studies. The girls was on Wednesday in the Barnes and Noble Starbucks and well a tornado came through that night. We were going up the escalators to stake out a spot for everyone and then were rushed to storage closets in the store. Haha no worries friends back at home…life is still throwing me funny weird curve balls haha. Due to the storm, we only had one girl come, and she was fellow friend. However, it was an extremely encouraging night, and I know God works all things for His purposes:) The guys actually had quite a few people show up for their Bible study and play ultimate Frisbee with them afterwards. Please pray for the girls Bible study that the Lord would allow us to continue to make contacts that are interested in learning about the Lord and also for both the guys and girls Bible studies to start forming a core group of regular attenders. As we prayed about what to do in Plano, we felt led to put on a block party. The Lord has truly shown His sovereignty in this matter. We have met with the mayor and he was excited about the idea and is willing to support our endeavor. We are in the middle of figuring the permits we will need and how best to put on this event. We also will be attending a city council meeting this coming Monday to propose the idea, and it will be voted in or out July 12th. Please be in prayer for this even and for the city leaders of Plano to see fit to support us in this. I was so encouraged this week because I had the chance to see the church act as the church should act. Myself and two of the guys on our team Aaron and Brian attended a local Baptist Association meeting in hopes to get financial support for a a bar-b-que the team wants to be put on in Naperville on July 9th. During our talk, we had someone interrupt us to tell us he would cover all the hot dog and hamburger buns we need. After the meeting we had several pastors come to give us money we needed and a church told us they would cover all the meat we needed. By the next day we had emails from all over the association and all our needs for the bar-b-que had been met. It was so encouraging to see the church be the church! Well if you made it this far in my blog kudos to you! Sorry it was so long. I could totally make it longer though because the Lord has done such great things in and around us. Please pray for the Lord to continue to renew our strength and direct our paths. Thanks for all your support:)

Week One:)

Hey Everyone:) Well it’s been a week since I’ve been in the Chicago area, and despite the lack of sweet tea and southern drawls I’m still alive LOL:) We spent our first weekend at Streator Baptist Camp having orientation with everyone that is serving in Illinois this summer with the North American Mission Board. It was really encouraging to hear about the other teams that will be across the state serving the Lord in all their different capacities. We headed to our places of service on Monday and had the day off. My team and I are staying in the suburb of Joliet, but we are targeting the suburbs of Naperville and Plano. We actually have 9 people that are called the parachute team. No worries…no parachutes are involved haha! It means that we are going into areas that are in need of church plants and finding people of peace (prominent leaders in the community that are open to the gospel), evangelism opportunities, and what type of church plant and church planter would be most effective for the area. We will not really have supervisors for this project. Instead we will have almost coaches. In other words, we do not have people that are giving us a schedule on a day to day basis. We have people that will check in on our progress weekly and give us encouragement and advice. Because of our lack of supervision we had additional orientation this past week. Our group consists of 6 guys and 3 girls. 4 of the guys and one the girls are from the Chicago land area and attend Northern Illinois University. There is a guy and girl that are both from North Carolina and both attend Liberty University although they had not met before coming here. There is also a guy from California. And then there’s me haha, the Alabamian. The guy from North Carolina, Scott, and the guy from California, Mike, are doing a separate project in the Albany Park area concentrating on internationals. We all did orientation together though so we had 9 team members and a supervisor all living in our mission house together for a couple of days…it felt a bit like the Brady bunch especially at meal time haha:) Now there’s 7 of us and a supervisor in the house and I suppose it feels more like the Walton’s LOL! We have the adventure of going grocery shopping for, cooking for, and transporting that many people. To say the least….there’s not too many dull moments. I’m SO excited to see what the Lord has in store for this summer, and I truly hate I will only be here for 8 more weeks. We were able to visit and see the suburbs of Naperville and Plano this past week and pray over them. We’ll be making a game plan this weekend and then hitting the pavement.
Please pray for our team to have a unity that would reflect the body of Christ and for us to seek the Holy Spirit’s guidance in how to reach these communities for Him. Pray that we would be emboldened to proclaim the gospel in all that we say and do. Thanks SO much for your prayer and support…ya’ll are awesome:) Have a great week!

Start of Chicago!

Hey Everyone! So it has been quite a while since my last blog, but I thought it was about time to start this thing up again haha. Transitioning from Wales was quite the task, but the Lord taught me loads through it. This past semester back in college has been such a whirlwind including weddings, 2 wrecks, friends graduating, and LOTS of transitioning! But it was definitely great to get back in to the swing of things and reunite with family and friends! The Lord opened the opportunity for me to serve in Chicago this summer with the North American Mission Board. So far it is a team of 11 people, and we will be divided into three different church planting groups. My group will be in the Naperville area focusing on college students. I leave this Thursday May 27th and I will leave straight for school July 31st. I really don’t know what this summer will look like, but I am definitely excited to see what the Lord has in store.
Please pray for the Lord to prepare our team spiritually, emotionally, and physically for all the things He has in store for us.

Hello everyone! Well I am in my last full week in Wales and have less than 2 weeks before I hop a plane back to the United States. Next Tuesday, December 15th, we will be getting a train to London to meet back up with everyone serving in Western Europe to have debriefing. We’ll head back to the States December 18th, and I’ll fly from London to Chicago and then to Atlanta where I’ll land around 9 pm eastern time. I must say I am majorly looking forward to driving a car again, and I will be completely fine if I don’t ride a bus for quite some time HAHA. I will also be looking forward to real sweet tea, Americanized Chinese food, and some sunshine LOL:) I’m trying to focus on these things instead of how much I’m going to miss it here. I didn’t ever think I would get used to not having a dryer to dry my clothes, or fretting over which of the fifty ba-zillion types of rubbish bins for all the different types of trash to throw mine away in, or to the constant rain. But sure enough it became 2nd nature to air dry my clothes, I finally know which rubbish bin is which, and while I still wish there was more sun here I no longer get angry when it rains for days on end HAHA:D But seriously I am not looking forward to leaving this amazing place or these even more amazing people.
Carrie and I began our teaching of the Christmas Story in the schools. The kids LOVE our elf outfits. It’s always great to see all the different reactions as we walk through the schools. No worries there will be pictures HAHA. Our first performance was by far the one that went the best so far. It was also one of the schools that I go and read in every Monday so I knew a lot of the kids and staff. After we were the done, the teacher told us she wanted us to come back and teach the Easter lesson (even though we won’t be here) and invited us to the class’s Christmas performance. This teacher seriously terrified me when I first began reading with her class. She has a rather low voice and isn’t the smiley type. So for this reaction to come from her is amazing HAHA. It was funny seeing the different reactions of the different schools. There’s a part in our elf bit where Carrie messes up my elf ear (which of course is a big no no for an elf haha). Well the first school pointed and laughed and said it looked like a pig ear while the second school, which was the equivalent of our private schools, suggested all the ways they could help fix my ear HAHA. Going into the schools has been such a blessing. And sharing the Christmas story with them has been a great way to sort of culminate everything for me.
We are literally having Christmas parties left and right. You know how right before you leave somewhere all of a sudden everyone wants to say good bye and get together. Well that is what is going on this week for us. We have had 3 so far and have 2 more to go HAHA:)
Please pray that in this last week God would give me the physical, emotional, and spiritual strength to get through everything. These 4 months have definitely had their ups and downs, and the Lord has taught me so much. I don’t think I’ll really know how much I’ve learned until I get out of this context, but I’m excited to see what areas God has really stretched and strengthened me in. Looking back on it, I know I was exactly where God wanted me doing exactly what God wanted me to do for this semester. There were times I wasn’t completely sure of that, but I know now for sure that I was. I hope to finish this last full week strong not wishing my time away or focusing too long on the good byes. I am so glad God gave me this opportunity! Okey doke time for the British word of the day- - pudding- - here pudding doesn’t just refer to the jiggly creamy stuff we eat but dessert in general. The first time I went over to someone’s house for dinner they said it was time for pudding, and I was really confused when they brought our cake HAHA:D Have an amazing week everyone!!

Hiya Everyone! Hope this blog finds everyone doing well! I can’t believe it’s already December, or that I only have about 2 weeks left. I have some serious mixed feelings about leaving haha. If you had asked me about 2 weeks ago if I was ready to go home I would have immediately said yes and asked if you could get me the soonest plane ticket. However now every time I think about leaving Wales, I get misty eyed. How can I leave these amazing people God has surrounded me with these great 4 months of my life? We head to London for debriefing with everyone that served with Hands On in Western Europe December 15th and then fly home December 18th. I’m not especially looking forward to debriefing in London seeing that as soon as I leave Wales I’m just going to want to go home. But it will good!
So this past week was Thanksgiving, and we definitely had a memorable week. The Sunday before Thanksgiving a couple in the church we attend had all of us Americans over for a Thanksgiving Feast. The food was amazing, the couple was adorable, and did I say the food was amazing:) Unfortunately, we weren’t able to celebrate Thanksgiving on the actual day because we have teaching all day on Thursdays, but I was able to skype with my family which was great. Saturday all the American girls got together to cook a Thanksgiving feast for all the Brit students. There were 23 people there in all, and all the recipes we were using had only ever been used by our mothers, and on top of all this the spices and such aren’t the same over here. So many things could have gone wrong. But God blessed and we had plenty of food to the point that everyone went home with leftovers, and the food was amazing despite the different spices and being the first time we all had cooked the stuff. That day will probably be one of my sweetest memories of my time here!
This week Carrie and I are going into the schools to teach the Christmas lesson. We will have almost an hour with our equivalent of 2nd graders to teach them the TRUE meaning of Christmas. This is an amazing opportunity to share Jesus with these kids. I’m really excited to see what God is going to do! Please pray for us as we do this though that one it wouldn’t be about us but it would be about God and that He would allow us to clearly present Him to these kids. Also that He would be working right now in these kids’ hearts opening their eyes to the truth found in Him. We’re going to teach the lesson by dressing up as elves named Jingle and Jangle, I know isn’t it great, and we’re on the search for this Ultimate Gift, being baby Jesus, that we’ve heard about with our Guidebook, the Bible. Our performances are on Thursday December 3rd, Friday December 4th, Monday December 7th, Tuesday December 8th, twice on Wednesday December 9th, and Monday December 14th. If you all could especially lift Carrie and I up on those days, that would be wonderful. Our last performance is on the day before we leave for London, so we’ll be pretty busy to say the least.
I am also working on getting a children’s Christmas play together with Esther for the church we attend. We’re performing December 13th which will be my last Sunday here. The basis of the play is that the kids are getting ready for their big Christmas performance. As they’re in their last practice they are singing through the song Lord I Lift Your Name on High and one really annoying kid keeps stopping the song and asking well what does it mean Jesus came from Heaven to Earth to Show the Way or How could a Baby Show the Way? And through the child’s questions the story of Jesus and salvation is revealed. I’m really excited about the play and whatever the outcome the kids will always be cute:)
Please pray that the Lord would sustain me in these last few weeks, and I would find my strength in Him. Thank you so much for those of you that have been praying for me! Your prayers are felt on a daily basis. The Lord has kept the whole entire team from getting injured as well as keeping me from getting sick which I am the type of person that always gets hit with at least one serious cold each semester. But the Lord has kept me well through your prayers so thanks! Ok the British word of the day is guillotine which is not just a place people get their heads chopped off at! It is also what they call their chopping board! Have a great week everyone:)

Sorry it’s been so long since I’ve updated my blog, and I will go ahead and apologize of the length of this blog! Kudos to you if you read it all:)Loads of stuff has happened since my last update, but I will do my best to sum up the interesting parts HAHA:) I was able to visit Bath England which is where some of the old Roman baths are. It was an absolutely beautiful city and full of history. Some of us also went on a trip to Edinburgh Scotland for a couple of days. We had some truly Scottish weather with lots of rain and wind, but we still had a great time seeing the sights. We had one day of sunshine on which we were able to get out of the city and do some hiking. It was tons of fun, and the land was absolutely gorgeous.
The Lord has definitely taught me tons since my last blog as well. There have been days where I have been utterly exhausted, completely overwhelmed, and felt totally incapable of doing what is expected of me. However God has had to get me to those places in order for His glory to shine brighter through me. I have been reading in the book of Judges lately where God calls Gideon to save the Israelites. It really hit me when I was reading chapter 7 in Judges and God tells Gideon that he has too many Israelites fighting. God goes on to tell Gideon that if this many Israelites go into battle they will think they have won the battle on their own. So the Lord dwindles Gideon’s army of 32,000 men down to only 300 men. It would seem impossible for 300 men to defeat their enemies and in fact it would have been if the Lord hadn’t been on their side. The Lord has had to do the same thing with me. He has had to get me to a place of knowing I cannot do things on my own, but only with the Lord by my side can these things get done. It reminds me of the hymn that says “Child of weakness, watch and pray, find in Me, thine all in all”.
I have not had the opportunity to run into Lydia the girl I met as I was trying to escape from the park that one day again. However I know our one encounter was not for nothing, and she is on my daily prayer list that God would sow people in her life that lead her to the Lord. God has also allowed me several different great conversations with others during my time here. Most of them were in unexpected moments, but it seems that’s the way the Lord usually does it HAHA:) One of the unexpected interesting conversations I had was on a Wednesday afternoon as some of my teammates and I were doing our weekly surveys in neighborhoods. This task was not that daunting at first, but after the weather turning horribly cold and wet, people slamming doors in our faces, and overall not good responses, Wednesday afternoons were not exactly my favorite moments of my week. Well I had knocked on a door, and an older lady yelled at me through the window asking what I wanted. I told her about the survey and after no response I was just going to go to the next house. Of course as I knock on the next door, the lady comes out yelling something and I think to myself awesome I’m about to get chewed out by this older woman. So I put on a happy face real fast and once again ask if she would take my survey and surprisingly she said yes. So I ask her the first question which is “What do you enjoy about living in this community” and she responds that she doesn’t remember because 2 years ago she fell in the bath and now has a horrible memory. I was confused but thought maybe she could answer the next question so I asked her the next question and sure enough her answer was she fell in the bath 2 years ago and can’t remember anything. At this point I give up on getting a survey from this lady but think hey I am getting amazing opportunities to talk to people that open their door to me to take a survey that I wouldn’t normally have so I begin a normal conversation with her asking her how her day was going. A lot of the people that open their doors to us are elderly people that are really lonely and just want someone to talk and listen to them. Pretty soon after talking with her I discovered she was a Christian and the funniest part was she was trying to witness to me. I had the opportunity to tell her I was from the States and in fact was already a Christian and was over here doing a missions internship. I asked her if I could pray for her before I left and we had a great time praying together and praising the great God that we serve. This lady who I thought was about to rebuke me for knocking on her door turned out to be a lady that I praised God with!
I have had some hilarious stuff happen since my last blog as well…I know imagine that:) I must say I’m pretty sick of buses. I will be totally fine if I never had to ride on them again. But the aisles on the buses are not very big which is not a totally huge problem, but when the bus starts moving and you have bags in your hands, things can get interesting real fast. Well one day I was getting on the bus and as it started to go I was grabbing for a pole to hold onto only to accidentally hit a fellow on his forehead and to top it all off as I turned around to tell him sorry I completely sideswiped another guy’s face with my backpack!! I didn’t say sorry to that guy; I just scurried to my seat before I could do anyone else any harm. To say that least as I got off that bus everyone gave me plenty of room HAHA:)
The house that I am living in with 4 of my other girl teammates is pretty much in a ghetto area of town. It’s great because we can interact with kids we work with in our programs we do, but well it is still the ghetto haha:) Halloween is a lot different over here. It is seen as a lot more evil and most Christians don’t celebrate it at all in any fashion. Also kids go around egging everything and everyone in sight. Yup our house got egged:) Also they have a day called Guy Fox (Not sure of the spelling of that, but that’s how it sounds) that celebrates a day where the Brits captured a terrorist named Guy Fox that was trying to blow up Parliament. How do they celebrate you may ask? Well of course by shooting fireworks. Literally fireworks were going off everywhere! There are no laws about where fireworks can be shot off here, so imagine what our lovely abode in the ghetto was like on that night. I felt like I was in a war zone. The lovely kids in the neighborhood will also shoot the fireworks off at passer bys. So everyone in our house had to make a run for it from the bus stop to our house. But hey it was quite a memory maker.
Thanksgiving is this week which is sad to be away from family and friends at this time of year, but we will be celebrating it in our own fashion. A couple from the church we attend had us over Sunday after church for a Thanksgiving feast. You could have rolled us all out of there by the time we were done. Then this coming Saturday the Americans are making a Thanksgiving feast for all the British students. It should be interesting seeing as the dishes we are planning on making have only ever been made by our moms HAHA as well as the cooking spices and such are way different over here. Whatever the outcome it will definitely be a memorable Thanksgiving!
I have about 3 weeks left which is absolutely insane! I can’t believe it has gone as fast as it has and that I’ll be going home so soon. Half of me is jumping for joy to go back home to everyone, and the other half of me doesn’t know how I could leave this place or the amazing people I have just spent the last 4 months of my life with. As the end draws near, the pressure is on to get everything done. I am feeling a bit overcommitted and spread a little thin at the moment which for anyone reading this that knows me very well knows I have a habit of doing this. But on top of my normal fairly full week I have added two more projects. One is alongside one of the Brit students named Esther. We have the task of writing a Christmas play for the kid’s groups at the church we attend, practicing it with them, and performing it December 13th. And just in case I hadn’t overdone it yet I am also going to go into about 6 different elementary schools and teach the Christmas lesson alongside another one of my teammates Carrie. We’ll be teaching the lesson to our equivalent of 2nd graders, and we will have about an hour to do so. All of these are amazing opportunities, but definitely only the Lord can help us get it done. Please pray for me in this last month that I won’t be so focused on the excitement of going home that I wish my time away here. Also please pray for all the different tasks I am doing to be done well and lead to the glory of God and furthering of His kingdom. This has been an amazing opportunity to spend this time in Wales. God is definitely starting something special in the hearts of the people here, and it has been exciting to be a part of it. But the opportunity is not over, and I hope the Lord enables me to have the perseverance to finish strong. Okay so since I have updated this thing in forever I totally owe you more than just one British word so here we go. A plaster is a band aid, a rubber is an eraser, wellies are rain boots, someone’s fringe is their bangs, and a jumper is a heavy sweater. Have great week everyone.

Hiya everyone:) Hope your week has gone well! I feel like most of my blogs are telling about my schedules or what I have been up to. So I decided to make this blog about what God has been teaching me and allowing me to see. Numero Uno- We serve a sovereign God. On Tuesday I went to one of the many beautiful parks here in Cardiff. It was an absolutely gorgeous day which was a blessing in itself here haha, but I was sitting on a bench reading a book and just praising the Lord. As I gathered my belongings to head home before it got dark, I realize that the gate door is shut. I thought surely they wouldn’t lock people in this park, but sure enough the door was bolted shut every way possible and there was no getting out that way. Also the park is surrounded by a very tall cement wall that was too high for me to climb over, but I thought to myself surely it has a gap somewhere for me to get out……it did not. By this time my legs are getting quite tired, and I am thinking to myself “God I was just being still before you and praising you and now you allow me to get trapped in this park”. But God had a purpose in this, and He was just about to lead me to this purpose when I walked across a bridge and found a gate that my short self could actually climb over. After I throw my bag onto the other side and am mid climb over this gate, a girl asks if there is another way to get out. I pointed to the way I was going and we walked for quite some time together until we came to our bus stops. The girl’s name was Lydia, and she was new to the Cardiff area because she was just starting university here. We had a great encouraging talk and I invited her to my supervisor Marc’s house on Monday nights where we have a get together for university students. I never said that I was a Christian or that the get together is a Bible study, but she somehow figured out those things in my talking and stated that while she wasn’t particularly religious herself she enjoyed talking about religious subjects. As I jumped on my bus, and she jumped on hers I thanked God for His sovereignty. If he wants to allow me to get locked in parks and climb over gates in order to bring me to the people He has for me to talk to so be it. I really pray that I have the chance to see Lydia again and so much of me wishes I had gotten her number or set up a time for us to go grab coffee together but none of that came to my mind at the time. So we’ll see what God has in store, and whatever that is will be great:) Numero Dos- We serve a God that faithfully provides what we need when we need it. Culture shock was really getting to me about two weeks ago and while I was doing my best to hold it all back it was bound to come out sometime. Well I was walking by myself to the church one day listening to my I pod and enjoying the scenery when all of the sudden it hit me that I had not gotten a hug since the one my mom gave me in the Atlanta airport over a month ago. It only took that one thought for all the culture shock I’d been holding back to flood in over me. But seeing as I was on my way to one of my ministries at the church I just had to put on a big smile and act like nothing was going on. I continued to hold it back that whole week which does no good until that weekend I gave it over to God. The very same day I prayed about and gave it over to the Lord I got a hug from one of the ladies in the church that had us over. She had no clue that that hug was what I needed more than anything at that moment, but God faithfully provides whether in big ways like opportunities to spend a semester in Wales or small ways like a sincere hug. God is teaching me so much here, but those are two snapshots of how He has revealed Himself to me in the last couple of weeks:) The British word of the day is Posh which is a word you would use to describe something quite fancy or really cool it would be posh! Please pray that God would allow to really invest in those around me while I’m here and also please pray for Lydia. I would love to be able to see her again but if I’m not able to I pray that she is able to see the truth found in the Lord during her time here at university. Have an awesome week everyone:)