Merry Christmas, y'all.

My first thought was "Keep Calm Christ has Come, and is Coming Soon."

And just for some Christmas humor....

:)

Merry Christmas everyone. I hope your day was full of love and the hope of Christ.

11.12.13

I've been eager to write this post for a while, I just had to wait for the right time.  Let me start by saying how humbled I am to even be in this position where I am right now and how God has allowed me to serve him in this capacity for the next two years. I keep having to remind myself that God does not call the qualified, he qualifies the called (Moses, anyone??) So, while I often think I am not ready to go yet, I know that God has so much to show me in the next two years and that that is a part of this journey.

I am so grateful for the friends and family that have been with me and supporting me throughout this whole process...which started about in March/April. My prayer warriors. When many times I was doubtful, they were not, and to know that they believed in me even when I didn't means the world--and that was just stateside. Wait until I'm overseas!

Ok, so. Rewind back to April and with a little encouragement from a fellow Journeyman, I officially started the application process for the Journeyman (Jman) program. This is a two year commitment where I'll serve through the International Mission Board. It was a long process, but in November (on 11.12.13) I found out I was accepted for appointment to Buenos Aires. Now in these 7 months between, there was a lot going on, but let me tell you that back in April or May God laid Buenos Aires on my heart. I'm not even kidding, y'all, it's all I could think and pray for when I woke and went to bed.  And when I went to the Jman conference in October there were very few Latin American opportunities I qualified for.....but low and behold, Buenos Aires was there.  Totally divine, I think anyway. I'll be apart of the Mission Buenos Aires megacity team as a guide for partner churches. I don't want to explain myself here because there's a good chance it could change later, but in later posts I'm sure you'll hear all about it :)

So far,  I've had such a great response from people when I tell them I'm leaving, but a lot of people ask... won't I miss my family, like my adorable new niece Reagan??? And the answer is of course, yes!! But, it's only for 2 years. Reagy won't remember me gone anyway ;)  My parents are already planning to come visit even! And let me tell you, my co-workers at Abengoa have been so kind. I hated resigning. Worst feeling in the world because I love the people there, and that place has been a great home to me for the last 2 1/2 years.  I've gotten nothing but well wishes, and people there are giving me advice and telling me of friends they have in Buenos Aires to hook me up with when I need a friendly face.  Talk about making it hard to leave!

And of course people ask me the why. I think being 24 and single without anything to tie me down is the best time in my life for this. I don't want to look back and regret not having gone. One of the reasons I knew it was finally my time to GO as the great commission tells us is because I found myself being jealous of all my friends doing international missions in their lives. Lauren spends a year in Greece. Jealous. Alyssa in Africa. Jealous. I had no reason for not going myself and that's when I decided to get upon the waters and try this thing out for myself, and while I'm not in Argentina yet, I can say for myself, I'm loving it.

If you want one of these cards, please let me know and I'll send you one!

But in closing, I have to say God has taught me so much about how good he is through this process, and the power of prayer. Yes, his will will be done one way or another, but God also wants good things for us. And when we pray fervently for something, and it's in his will, he is so good to us with the outcome that it doesn't even matter if it's what we wanted or not! I've decided to set no expectations up for 2014. Because I know if I do, God's just going to blow them out of the water, so rather than go in and limit what I think my God can do, I'm going to let my God show me how big he is in 2014. I know he did it in 2013.

Tunesday Tuesday.

I just love this song so much that I usually listen to it on repeat for about three times, play another song, and then go back to it. I think Bethel Music's whole CD Tides is supposed to be pretty good, but I only bought this one song because it was just so catchy. Hope you liked it!

Family.

On Thanksgiving, my family had the privilege of working with Jessica Lauren Photography to do some family pictures. And they turned out. So. Good. I mean, I knew they would, but we were also just so blessed with the weather. We had to plan this out a month in advance, and living in Missouri, you never know what you're going to get late November. As I write this, it is almost 60* out and they are calling for 2-4" of snow tomorrow. Welcome to Missouri.

Anyway, back to the post.  Knowing that I'm going to be gone for 2 years and our last family picture was from 2010 and without little miss Reagan, we were well overdue for a picture! These people are my everything and I'm so thankful for the parents God gave me and family I was raised in. I'm so excited to introduce you to all of them!

Here is my mom and dad with my nephew Chandler and two nieces: Delaney and Reagan!

Absolutely love this picture of myself with Chandler & Delaney. It captures their personalities completely.

A sweet picture of my brother's family.

I love this shot of David and his wife Darla.

Here is my sister Leah, Justin & Reagan smiling for the camera!

The whole gang!

So there is it, the summary of my Thanksgiving: family. I was also very fortunate to have a special work friend join us. All in all, this was the best 'last' Thanksgiving as I keep calling it :) I hope everyone else had a great Thanksgiving out there!

Diving Deep

I read this little bit in a book last night and it was too good not to share:

What, then, would the effect be if we were to dive even more deeply into Jesus's teaching and life and work? What if we were to be so immersed in his promises and summonses, his counsels and encouragements, that they dominated our inner life, capturing our imagination, and simply bubbled out spontaneously when we faced some challenge? How would we live if we instinctively, almost unconsciously, knew Jesus's mind and heart regarding things that confronted us? When you received criticism, you would never be crushed, because Jesus's love and acceptance of you is so deeply "in there." When you gave criticism, you would be gentle and patient, because your whole inner world would be saturated by a sense of Jesus's loving patience and gentleness with you.

>>>>Taken from Timothy Keller's "The Meaning of Marriage."

Brand new.

"Oceans (Where Feet May Fail)"

You call me out upon the waters
The great unknown where feet may fail
And there I find You in the mystery
In oceans deep
My faith will stand

And I will call upon Your name
And keep my eyes above the waves
When oceans rise
My soul will rest in Your embrace
For I am Yours and You are mine

Your grace abounds in deepest waters
Your sovereign hand
Will be my guide
Where feet may fail and fear surrounds me
You've never failed and You won't start now

So I will call upon Your name
And keep my eyes above the waves
When oceans rise
My soul will rest in Your embrace
For I am Yours and You are mine

Spirit lead me where my trust is without borders
Let me walk upon the waters
Wherever You would call me
Take me deeper than my feet could ever wander
And my faith will be made stronger
In the presence of my Savior
[x6]

I will call upon Your Name
Keep my eyes above the waves
My soul will rest in Your embrace
I am Yours and You are mine 

If you've never heard this song, click here to listen. And for the record, I'll be referring to lyrics often. :)