MTI Concludes...

Tonight I was officially commissioned by the Wesleyan Church and Global Partners upon completion of Missionary Training Institute! It was both a powerful and empowering service. My whole experience at MTI has been incredible. I am SO thankful for the relationships God allowed me to build with fellow missionaries who are obeying the call to go. They are all amazing and special people, yet they are all human. :) I shared at our debriefing session this afternoon that I was glad no one brought their "missionary thrones" along. Their humble spirits and real love for Jesus and the world encouraged me more than I can express. The training sessions were really helpful and quite intense at times. I am so thankful to be part of the Global Partners Tribe!

NZ Prayer Warriors GOAL MET!

This is a shout out to the prayer team! This week I have reached my goal of 200+ prayer partners on the team after signing up another 2o people! Thank you so much to all of you who have enabled this goal to be reached. Your prayer partnership means more than you will ever realize!

HOWEVER, this does NOT mean I am not still looking for prayers partners!!!! The door is always open--I want as many people who are committed to praying for God's work among young people and young leaders in New Zealand as possible! Sign up today if you haven't already! Just click on the url below, and then click "faith" below my picture to sign up. It should only take a minute or two at the most!

http://www.wesleyan.org/gp/mdirectory2/WM04-0365

Thank You So Much for the Prayers and Encouragement

Thank you so much for your prayers this week as we have kicked off Missionary Training Institute on Sunday! It has been an intensely powerful time so far. I can't wait to see how God continues to shape and prepare us over the next two weeks! There are twenty-five missionaries going through the training together--it has been so inspirational to get to know them. I know I don't typically send out two updates so close together, but I wanted to thank you for the prayers and encouragement over the past twenty-four hours. You have no idea what a difference they have made. Today we spent 8 or so hours focusing on linguistics and mission--a bit tedious as you might imagine! However, this afternoon we watched a video about a mission work in Mongolia. During that video, the Holy Spirit moved me in a way I can't explain... I was weeping over a documentary with a new heart for the world and the lost. Also, today I received word from a new church that will be making a financial partnership commitment and confirmation that I will be both a youth and missions speaker at a camp in California later this summer. I am so excited about what God is doing!

Please continue to lift up NZ in light of yet another earthquake which has hit Christchurch. This is devastating... Please lift the people of Christchurch up to the Lord.

Thank you for being part of the team! God is so good.

Another Quake...

Please keep praying. Another earthquake hit Christchurch this week. This is devastating.

Am I in College Again?

I'm sitting in a dorm lobby of Indiana Wesleyan University working on a laptop. Haven't I done this before??? :) Today I started three weeks of Missionary Training Institute. My fellow missionaries (including some good friends from seminary and from Missionary Orientation) and I will be in training sessions from 8 to 5, Monday through Friday. It will be pretty intense from what I hear! Please pray for me that 1) I will absorb all I need to from this training, 2) God will give me victory over feelings of inferiority and false condemnation, and 3) that support raising will continue to keep moving along while I am here. I will be speaking in a church every weekend during this time, so I won't really have much opportunity for sabbath rest. Please pray for renewed strength and vision!

This weekend was definitely eventful already. I was able to stay the night yesterday with one of my former students/present best friends and her family. It was great to reconnect with them. This morning I spoke about New Zealand at the Wesleyan church in Delphi, Indiana. It was a great experience! I even met long-lost relatives there! Of course, I sat in on the youth Sunday School class and made some great friends. Pastor Dan's message was EXACTLY what I needed to hear about the power we have through the Holy Spirit. This afternoon, I checked into my room for M.T.I. Tonight we all shared a meal together and went over our schedule for the next three weeks. I'd better get to bed, actually, so I will be fresh and ready to start tomorrow! Thank you so much for taking the time to read this and for lifting me up to the Lord. I am humbled by my complete dependency on both the Lord and your prayers.

25%

I officially reached 25% of my Faith Promise Goal!!! Please pray the numbers will keep increasing exponentially!!! :)

Reunion, Chinchilla, the Devil's Preferred Diet, and Ice Cream

School is out for the summer! I subbed for an English high school teacher the last day--it was a little crazy! The students weren't bad, but the last day of school is just its own wild entity! Everyone is already checked out and ready to celebrate. I will miss the students for the summer (along with the paychecks), but I am excited to devote more time to "New Zealand stuff." The past week I've been spending time on getting out more mailers to churches and individuals, making phone calls, and reading missiological books. This coming weekend I'll be speaking at a church in Evansville. I will be in a church every weekend this month as well as spending three weeks at Missionary Training Institute. Yay for a full month! Please keep the prayers coming for God to put together the support team He has called and for me to become as equipped as possible for the work.

Ok, now for the themes in my blog title. :)

1) Reunion: A couple whom I am dear friends with and are part of my support team came to visit this past weekend. We were able to spend some quality time together, talking about the Lord and His Word as well as laughing... a lot. It was medicine for my soul. You two know who you are--thanks for being incredible friends in Christ. You mean a LOT to me.

2) Chinchilla: One of my super friends here at home has a pet chinchilla! How cool is that? The chinchilla needed a temporary residence, so he's been staying with me for a few days. Did you know a) chinchillas can bark, b) they are nocturnal, and c) they enjoy making their running wheel spin and squeak all night? :) In all seriousness, it's been a joy to have a pet for a while. The youth group LOVED it Tuesday night.

3) The Devil's Preferred Diet: So, at youth group this week, we had a small group because several people were out of town after Memorial Day. I decided to take a break from Romans for the week, so we were talking about spiritual warfare. We read from I Peter chapter 5 about the devil prowling around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Well, thanks to the popularity of Narnia (which don't get me wrong, I love), the youth were a bit confused. They were like, "We thought Jesus was a lion, but the devil is a lion?" We went on to struggle with the analogy for quite some time. I felt like I was hitting my head up against a wall trying to explain that it meant Satan was an Enemy who wants to destroy us while Jesus is the majestic King. I even went so far as to compare Jesus to Mufasa and the devil to Scar from The Lion King. Finally, one of the girls said, "So, the moral of the story is... the devil wants to eat us?" There was quite the outburst of laughter at this point. The night somewhat recovered its seriousness eventually, and we were able to pray together before I just took them all out for 4) ice cream. Maybe we will need to talk about spiritual warfare again another time. :)