21 days, 10 hours 30 minutes...

..until I leave for Africa. Not that I'm counting or anything..

Can you tell Ghana's on the mind? Yep. Saying that I'm excited is an understatement. I absolutely cannot wait to be walking through mud hut villages, sitting with precious African smiles around me, holding a sweet little child and sharing a Love these people have never heard of.

I'll be leaving on July 1st with a team of mostly youth. We'll be flying to Atlanta and then straight to Ghana. (Flying directly into Africa will be amazing..usually we have to go all the way up to London or Frankfurt first.) While there, we'll spend a couple of days in the capital city and surrounding villages, then head up to the northern region, a much more rural and poverty stircken (and HOT) portion of Ghana. There, we'll be doing a lot of open evangelism, presentations in the schools, relief work, and orphan care. I'm so pumped to see how God will use our team.

Please begin praying with us for this trip. Pray for preparation, safety, health, the people we will minister to and for the chief's of the villages to be open to our team. Prayer is critical on any mission trip and truly has a huge impact. To visit our team's blog and see more about the area we will go to and the work we'll be doing, go to www.ghanamission10.blogspot.com .

The Way Of The Game

Driving back and forth. Being with awesome teammates. Sweating. Running. Shooting. Guarding. Bruising. = my weekend, also known as a basketball tournament.

I started thinking today about how basketball really does have so many similarities to everyday life. Yesterday we had games at 10am and then at 12pm. I remember thinking before the second game how I wasn't really in the mood to play anymore. I was icing my knee from the game before, I was tired from lack of sleep and I didn't really feel like working. But then I started thinking to myself...What good is it going to do for me to play with this mindset? I'm going to play the game no matter what. The coaches and teammates count on each of their players to be there and do their part- that's what being on a team is about. Playing with the mindset of "'I'd rather do something else', 'I'll let my team do the work', or 'I'm bruised, tired and don't feel like putting in the effort'" wasn't going to do me or my team any good at all, and I knew I needed to change my thinking.

I think this applies to so many of the things we do in life. There are times when we're sore, tired, grumpy, and just don't want to do what we need to accomplish. It'd be easy to sit back and pout or have a bad attitude about it, but either way we're still going to have to do that certain thing. That's the way of the game, and it's unavoidable. Having a poor, hateful, or angry mindset going into a task is never going to help us succeed- pessimist attitudes are only going to bring us and those around us down. Sometimes our outlook on things can transform results and have a greater effect then we know of. Stepping up to the plate and doing what our team needs us to do is part of life. We can do this with sighs, huffs, and puffs, or we can choose to take the higher road and play our part as a blessing, not as an annoyance or a stumbling block. Our Coach and teammates need us.

"A joyful heart makes a cheerful face, but when the heart is sad, the spirit is broken."
Proverbs 15:13

In All Circumstances

"Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus."
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

I remember how easy this verse seemed singing it as a song in vacation Bible school in 3rd grade. Why not be joyful? Why not give thanks in all circumstances? Life was easy and my hardest obstacle was tackling my new bar routine in gymnastics. But now, things aren't so easy and care-free. It'd be much simpler to translate the verse into "be joyful when there's something to be joyful about, pray when things don't go you're way, and give thanks whenever they do." But, we would fail to remember that last, and possibly most important section.."For this is GOD'S WILL for you in Christ Jesus." Not just His idea of what could be best, not His scheme to ruin our lives, not His plan to give us anything we could ever want...His "good, pleasing, and perfect will" (Roman's 12:2). God has a plan greater than any of us could ever imagine, and when we let go and realize it's all up to Him, our worries become so much simpler. We can't always control what's going on around us, but we can (and are told to) choose to be joyful, pray, and give thanks in all of our circumstances.

A year in recap and a summer to come..

Wow..it has definitely been awhile since I've been on here. So much has happened in the last year since I've posted...definitely too much to tell at once. Since my last post God has sent me to Mexico twice, China once, I've finished my sophmore and junior year of high school (I'm an official senior now..heck yesss!), I've gone through a million ups and downs and have learned a ton in the process. In short, the last year has been crazy, emotional, life-changing, horrible at times and amazing at others. And now, I'm writing this sitting on the verge of another summer that's just starting. I don't know exactly what it'll hold..I know it will include 3 weeks to Ghana (July 1-22), working in vbs at church, and a lot of good times with friends and family. I think if I could marry summer, I might just do it. I love summer. For real, I have been addicted to "Summer Nights" by Rascal Flatts since the week before school let out. And now, summer's here at last and I'm beyond happy. Now that I'm free of school and have more spare time, I plan to write on here these next few weeks before Ghana and hopefully (if we have an internet connection) post updates throughout my trip, so check back if ya want. :)

Adios

Well, in just a few short hours I will be loading a bus heading out on a mission trip to Mexico with about 16 other students. Simply stated- I am beyond pumped. It sounds like this is going to be an amazing trip, and I think God is going to work in some pretty big ways. We'll be driving all day tomorrow, staying in a border town in South Texas, then crossing over the border and arriving in our city in Mexico mid-day Saturday. We'll be partnering with a huge Mexican youth group, doing all sorts of things from street evangelism, construction labor/painting, and possibly going to an orphanage. On Wednesday we're taking a play day to go swimming/cliff jumping, doing ziplines, and possibly going to the market. We leave Mexico mid-day next Thursday and will arrive back home Friday afternoon.

Please keep our group in your prayers. Some things to pray for would be...

*That God would prepare the hearts and minds of the people we will be ministering to
*For safety traveling to, from, and while we are in Mexico (As you've probably heard there has been a lot of recent violence along the border. The city we will be working in is a good ways away from there, however we still have to pass through the border on the way there and back.)
*For the health of everyone in our group
*That we would be able to build strong relationships with each other as a team and with the people in Mexico
*That God would give us the right words to say, much needed energy, open minds, and that He would draw us closer to Him through this trip

Thank you so much for your support. Prayers really do make an impact, and are much appreciated! Hope that everyone has an awesome spring break. Talk to you in a week! :]

Ramblings..

So I leave for Mexico in less then 3 weeks... I am so excited. I haven't actually been on a mission trip to Mexico yet, just a vacation. We're leaving on Friday, March 13.. Eerie date but we'll live. ;) Sounds like we're going to be doing some pretty sweet stuff, though I don't know all of the details yet. We'll be partnering with a youth ministry down there, so it should be good.

Tonight I'm doing an Ethiopia presentation to about 75 people at our Church, mostly 3rd-6th grade girls. I've done plenty of presentations before, but I'm a little more nervous about this one. I think it's because I've only been to Ethiopia once- if it were about China or Ghana I think I would feel like I have more to say or more experience. I do live with an Ethiopian though, so I guess that counts as something.

Well tomorrow begins a brand new week... I missed every class this past week due to an annoying fever, so I'm kind of looking forward to heading back this week. Kind of.

Happy Sunday!

Blek

I'm currently laying on the couch, recovering from a stomach bug. Ew. Last night was terrible! Apparently it's going around pretty bad. About twenty people from a get-together we went to on Sunday all have the same thing! G-r-o-s-s. My Mom and Kyle both have it, too. Somehow these things always seem to happen when my Dad is away. When we were younger Kyle and I always seemed to spike a 106 degree fever when he was gone on business, or Kyle would break a finger or bust his head open while Dad's gone. Now 3 out of the 4 of us at home are all sick, and he's in Ethiopia. How does this work?? Beats me. But it sounds like he's having an amazing trip. Please keep him in your prayers. So far they've visited several orphanages and HIV positive clinic type places, and on Friday they are actually going to be having a meeting with the president of Ethiopia! Pretty amazing.

Thanks for your prayers.. Hope you don't catch whatever bug I had! Not fun.