Hey Everyone! Sorry this is my first blog since leaving the States, but I haven’t had the amount of internet access that I thought I would have. This past week was orientation in London with everyone that was serving with Hands On in Western Europe this semester, and if I had to sum it up in one word it would be INTENSE haha:) Travel to the UK was absolutely wonderful. Thank everyone for your prayers; they were definitely evident in that I made all my flights, had no problems in customs, and got all of my luggage. As soon as we got off the plane Tuesday in London life became hectic. I thought Americans were too consumed by time, but the UK is crazy well at least London. The slow Americans have to stay on the left side of sidewalks and escalators so we don’t get in people’s way HAHA! My supervisors told me to make sure I was in shape to walk a lot, but they left out the detail that I would be walking miles… yes MILES with my luggage. As I am heavily perspiring after riding the tube which is an underground train/subway system and trying to avoid dog poop as I drag my bags down the sidewalk, it suddenly hits me that I am rolling my bags down the walkways of London and everything automatically seems better:) We literally put our bags down in the church we had orientation at this past week and went site seeing. Just in case you missed it that means no shower time HAHA let’s just say we fit in perfectly with the Europeans around us that do not practice showering and deodorizing as often as we do LOL:) We did everything from seeing Big Ben and Buckingham to riding Double Decker Buses and eating fish and chips that day. The rest of the week had a very full schedule for orientation so I will just hit the high points. The highlight of Wednesday’s orientation was splitting up in groups and going prayer walking throughout different parts of London. Wednesday was also my 21st birthday so that night when we all went out to eat the supervisors surprised me by buying me the most amazing sundae and everyone singing me happy birthday:) The highlight of Thursday’s orientation was the World Religion Tour where we went to a Hindu Temple, Sikh Temple, and Muslim Mosque. I had visited some of these before in the states, but it was exciting seeing some of the differences and learning more about these beliefs. It was quite interesting that the Hindu Temple was at one time a Baptist Church until it closed its doors in the 80’s and reopened in the 90’s as a Hindu Temple. It was also interesting that across from the Sikh Temple that was open all the time for prayer and offerings was a Christian Church that had barred walls and a schedule of when one could come. The church in the UK seems to be dying, but the Lord is still at work. After our tour we came back to the church we had orientation at and had some sessions primarily on the gospel and our testimony. One of the activities we did was lighting different size matches and sharing the gospel with someone before the match went out…of course I got the little bitty match so I’m scrambling to get the basis of the gospel out before I burn my finger LOL. The highlight of Friday’s orientation was Friday night actually going to the place I had prayer walked on Wednesday and engaging the people around me coming out of pubs and clubs with the gospel. No worries other group members were in the same area when I did this HAHA! I talked with several different people but had 3 significant conversations. The first was actually with two Muslim men. While they were very sure that Jesus was merely one of many prophets and I was very sure that Jesus was the very Son of God, they encouraged me being out there on a Friday night sharing about the Lord. They surprised me by their encouragement and openness to talking. The second significant conversation was with Sol a guy from Brazil that unfortunately spoke Portuguese very well but not much English. Never in my life have I wanted to be able to speak Portuguese so badly HAHA. We talked for quite some time and he believed in a Creator God and Jesus being his son but he never got the need of a relationship with the Creator God and what Jesus had done for him. However God was definitely doing a work in his heart. The last significant conversation I had was with a guy named Neil. He was passing out flyers for a club, and I traded one of my tracks for a flyer when he noticed my American accent and he stopped to talk. Neil stated that he was a Christian but wasn’t where he should be right now in his walk with the Lord. I told him that I would be praying for him, and he all of the sudden lit up because he stated that he had never had anyone that cared enough to pray for him. He then said that a girl like me didn’t need a flyer like the one he gave me haha so he took it back and kept walking. There are times when the UK seems closed to the gospel but really the fields are plentiful and the workers are few. The Lord is definitely at work in this place. Please pray for my team and I this week as we settle into Cardiff Wales our place of service for this 4 months that we would acclimate well and have a real passion for the people also please join me in prayer for the people that I talked with Friday night that they would come to know the truth and commit their lives to Christ. The British Buzz Word of the Week is BIRO pronounced BY-ROW which means PEN here:) Have a great week friends! Next time it shouldn’t be this long I promise HAHA:)

Well I am about 1 week away from jumping on a plane to head to the UK. A lot of events led up to this moment, and now that it is here it feels so surreal. My freshmen year at Boyce College I found out about a program called Hands On where college age students could intern with the International Mission Board for a semester. As soon as I heard about the opportunity, the Lord laid it upon my heart that this is what He had for me. Then my sophomore year I started the process of writing essays and trying to be approved by the IMB, but I got stuck on the question of where I wanted to serve. One of my absolute best friends Carrie was also going to do Hands On at the same time I was. We wanted to serve alongside one another but only if it was God’s will. So we made a plan to pray about it, look over all the different job opportunities, make a list of the top 10 places we wanted to serve in, and then reconvene to see what each other had put. Well I prayed about it, made my list, and then met up with Carrie. We actually had a lot of the same job opportunities, but she had one job opportunity that caught my eye in Wales. When I was praying about where God wanted me for this opportunity, I did not even click on the job opportunities in Europe because I never thought God would put me there. However God likes to lead us in the direction that we’re not even looking in. The more Carrie and I talked and prayed about it, the more the Lord made it obvious that He wanted both Carrie and I in Wales for this 5 months of our lives. We were both approved by the IMB and will be joining 9 other college students on August 18th in London. We will be in London till around August 27th for orientation with all the other students serving with Hands On in Western Europe this semester, and then our team will ride a train to Cardiff Wales where we will be stationed. It has all been such a whirlwind, and it is crazy that it is actually time to go seeing as I’ve talked about it for so long. However, the Lord is sovereign and has really given me a peace about everything. I am going to try to do a weekly update on here with new prayer requests and of course a European phrase or word of the week haha. Love you guys; ya’ll are absolutely amazing:)