103 Days...September Updates!

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.