God never ceases to amaze me
with His guidance and the wonderful way he provides. I have only 3 ½ more
months until I step onto that life changing plane, yet already things are
coming into place and this trip is starting to become more and more real. I
remember the night I filled out the application online and after I was done (as
cliché as it is J) my mouse just floated over the Submit button. At 2 in the morning it
was dead quiet except for the bazillion questions flying around in my head. Do
I press the button? Is this crazy? Am I crazy if I don’t go? What about work? What about those children??
How am I going to be able to do this? How can I not do this? And then that so
familiar voice came to me. Stephanie, my child, you just follow and leave the
how to me. Ok God, I said, and clicked the submit button. But I’m not going to
lie, there have been moments of “WHAT AM I DOING!” being screamed in my head.
However I do know that the Lord will provide and that He has these amazing
plans for me. A couple of weeks ago I made these little, super simple,
bookmarks for the ladies in my bible study. On it being a verse that has really
been on my mind lately.
Matthew 17:20
“Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a
mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it
will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”
Faith as small as a mustard
seed…Jesus doesn’t say “You have to know the bible word for word and be
completely and utterly perfect.” He says you have to have faith as small as a
mustard seed. It’s amazing what happens when you have faith in the Almighty.
I come to you again asking
for your prayers and offering up some grateful praises to the Lord.
- The biggest praise would be the overwhelming
amount of support that has come in from friends and family. The Lord has
truly blessed me by surrounding me with wonderful people who support me
and the work I am doing for the Lord.
- My garage sale was held 3 weeks ago. It was a
great weekend. It was everything I could have hoped for and more! I would
really like to have another one in September some time because we still
have a lot of things left over. The bake sale was a huge success! Thank
you to Sarah and Mom for making some awesome baked goods! And thank you to
Rachel for donating some things for me to sell in my garage sale! Please
pray that I have another successful garage sale. That we would have nice
weather and a lot of people stopping by to buy stuff!
- I official have all my shots for Africa! Yay! And I didn’t act like a huge baby when
they stabbed me with 6 different needles. Medically speaking, I am ready
to go. I have my prescription for malaria pills and my yellow vaccination
booklet.
- My passport came! Yay!
- Just a
general pray that I would continue to relay on the Lord and that I would
have great faith in the plans that He has for me. That I would be open and
willing to learn what He has to teach me even now before I leave. That I
can show God’s love to those around me. That I wouldn’t feel like I have
to go to Africa to show God’s love to people but that I can do it today or
tomorrow. At the store or at work. To my brother of to the stranger I just
passed on the street.
As
I said the Lord never ceases to amaze me and I hope to never get to a point
where He does cease to amaze me. I want to be in awe of Him for the rest of my
life, because he is my Abba, Creator, Redeemer, Teacher, Light, Comforter, Counselor,
and Guide.