How I got here.

    God is amazing and unpredictable.  If someone 2 years ago would have told me that I would be going into missions as my career I would have called them crazy.  Not that I never would have taught that it would happen but two years ago today I just graduated from High School and was looking forward to college. Having no idea what my freshmen year of college was going to be like.  But like everyone else in my class I just wanted to get out of town.  Go some place bigger and get out of our little town of Marshall, Mi.  I had no idea what God had in store for me in the next two years.
    That summer I took my first missions trip to Peru with my church youth group.  It was a typical short term mission trip.  God was totally there and I defiantly felt it.  He changed my life that trip in so many ways. I got home from Peru and 8 days later headed to college.  The first semester of college was great.  I was trying lots of new things and getting a feel for the new me.  Second semester I was a lot more secure in who I was and that brought up problems with my roommate and I. In short it was a very hard second semester, I was very happy to go back home come May.  Though throughout second semester God was really teaching me to be satisfied with just him.  Around March of my  freshmen year at college I felt God was calling me to go to Africa.  So I looked at the different trips out there talked to my pastor and ended up applying and getting accepted to AIM’s FYM South Africa, Jeffrey’s Bay program.  So I work all summer raising support for the next year.
      September came and I left for Gainesville there I met my team.  A group of 14 amazing people, which I would be reminded of all year.  In Jeffrey’s Bay the Lord taught, loved, strengthened, comforted and counseled me in and thru so many things.  The group of people that God put together to form our team was perfect.  I cant imagine any other person on our team.  We learned and saw what it looks like to be the body of Christ.  Helping each other thru things every day for a better community.  The 14 amazing people I was blessed to live with for 8 1/2 months are 14 people I will never forget.  While in South Africa the Lord confirmed thoughts of full time missions for me.  I felt so at home and it felt so normal to work with kids and show them the love that they don’t get at home.  The Lord has set on my heart to go to the world and show them the love of Christ.  The love that they don’t know unless someone puts all thoughts of them aside except that the Lord loves them.  My teammates would just smile and laugh every time I picked up another kid who had just peed their pants and held them.  I saw those kids as kids who needed to be held and loved for who they were even if they stunk or were dirty.  Christ loves them and I want to show that to the world.
    So this year starting is September thru June I will be in Gainesville, Georgia at the AIM office as an intern.  The Lord has showed me that this is the best this for me this year.  I also was given the opportunity to go to Swaziland and do missions there this year but really feel that the Lord wants me to go to Gainesville to learn, and me formed more before He is ready to send me out into His world.  So I will be letting you all in on what God is doing in my life this year.  What he has done and how he is amazing and unpredictable.  I want this to be a place of praise.  Because the Lord deserves all of our praise.