.lovely day.

Sometimes it can be hard coming back to my hometown after adventures around the world. This time has been different. Today was only my third day but it has been lovely being back! God has blessed me with some beautiful people in my life here and I've been so blessed to see them again. Besides my beautiful family, I got to catch up with some dear girlfriends today as well.

I got to have bubble tea with these lovelies today! We also made mexican food and went shopping. I missed these girls so much this summer!

My drink of choice today...yum!

Wouldn't be the same without Mango Stars!!

My Momma and Daddy also blessed me with these lovely shoes as a welcome home gift!

L.O.V.E

I miss my new friends in Africa and the UK but I'm blessed to have wonderful people in my life here too. I'm also excited to see what God has in store for this new season! I'll keep you posted.

P.S. Pictures from Africa are on their way too!

Love looks like...

  I'm still traveling at the moment, God has blessed me with 10 days in the UK with friends. But I wanted to continue sharing some of the lessons I learned in Mozambiqe.
  This summer was, above all, about learning to love. I began to learn what love looks like in a very practical sense. Everytime I stepped out the gate of the student compound, I was confronted with thousands of opportnities to figure out waht love looks like. One Sunday, God gave me a very clear picture of love in church.
  Church in Mozambiqe consists of hours of worship and this particular Sunday I was really enjoying it. Suddenly my focus was interupted by little hands grabing me for a hug. I opened my eyes to see two little girls from the village that surrounds the base. The church is full of these little ones on Sunday morning and they can be quite distracting sometimes. But this was different. In an instant Jesus showed me that these ragged little girls wanting my attention were the least of these He talked about in Matthew 25. In reality, Jesus was standing in front of me asking for love and attention. So I returned those hugs with vigor as if Jesus was receiving them.
  Sometimes we need to take time for uninterupted and focsed time before our heavenly father. But that Sunday, He was showing me how to love Him and worship Him by loving the smallest and poorest ones. This is worship to love. Love looks like hugs in church on Sunday morning.

What does LOVE look like?

"Little children, let us not love with word or with tounge, but in deed and truth." 1 John 3:18
  Love is more than emotions or warm fuzzy feelings. It's not just something to talk about or something to say. Love is an action and a choice. Love looks like something.
  All summer I have been learning about what love looks like as I live and learn in Mozambique. My time here is coming to an end and as I reflect this lesson of what love looks like stands out as one of the biggest things I've been learning. Here is a reflection from the first month of my adventure.
  On my second weekend in Africa, I got to visit a village in the bush and experience "real" Africa. Our team rode for several hours in the back of a truck with lots of dust and some local brothers to a lovely little village where we camped for a weekend. In the village we shared food, dancing, the good  news about Jesus. We prayed for sick people and played with lots of kids too. The best part was visiting homes and just sitting with people in the dirt. Love looks like bringing hope, joy, and encouragement to the ends of the earth. Love looks like sitting in the dirt and being with your new friends. love doesn't mind not showering for three days or waiting until 10pm to eat dinner.
  This was only the beginning of learning about what love looks likes. Hopefully I will be able to share more soon.

A picture of My summer

My first post in Mozambique is coming after nearly two months here. Good Internet is hard to come by as is free time for posting! I have been focusing in keeping contact with family and friends when I do have acess to the web but now I have some time so I will share a snap shot of my summer in Pemba Mozambique. I just returned to base from an amazing 24 hours in a local village. It was arranged for a friend and I to spend the night with a sweet Mozambiquen Momma from the jewelry design school. We were both so excited to experience the real Mozambique and to make more friends. Our schedule can be quite full sometimes and it is sometimes hard to find time to just be with the people. This trip provided the perfect opportunity for that to happen. We spent the whole time with our new friend and her family just living life in Mozambique. In classes all summer we have been learning from many people how to (and how not to) love people and share hope in a cross-cultural setting. This weekend we got to put some of that to practice. My friend and I had an amazing time going into a village with no agenda other than learning and loving. Our new friend let us sit with her as she cooked and she even let us help. We played with lots of little kids, singing and talking like babies with our tiny vocabulary. I love spending time with the women in this country, they are all about being together and have taught me that what you do isn't as important as how you do it or who you do it with. Relationships are priority here and I want to carry that with me wherever I go the rest of my life. Jesus did ministry that way. When He was on His way to raise the little girl from the dead, He stopped to talk with the women healed of the blood issue (Matthew 9). He was constantly stopping to heal someone or just to feel their pain. When His friend Lazarus died He didn't just rush to the tomb to raise him to life, He stopped to see how Mary & Martha were doing (John 11). My friend and I didn't start a crazy revival this weekend or plant a church, all we did was cook, eat, clean, play games, paint nails, and try to speak the local language. We don't have a list of accomplishments but we have new friends and that is far more precious in the kingdom of heaven. This was just one small picture of my life here, there are so many more lessons and experiences that will have to be shared later. This seasons is like sitting under a waterfall; so many good things are being poured on me! I look forward to sharing more stories and photos when I return to the states. Love from Mozambique!!

...here I go!

  The time has almost arrived for me to embark on the next step in my journey. In 31 hours I will be headed for Chicago to catch a flight to London, then Johannesburg and finally on Wednesday afternoon I will arrive in my home for the summer: Pemba, Mozambique. 

  The past couple weeks have been busy ones (hence my lack of updates) and the past couple days have been even busier. There have been so many people to see before I go and so many things to buy. Today the packing really got underway but right now my suitcase is weighing in at exactly 50Ibs and I keep thinking of more things that need to go in it. Somehow it's all going to get in there and on the plane with me! 

  In the middle of being busy and groaning about my packing frustrations, I am getting more excited for this new adventure. I know I'm going to learn so much about God's heart and serving Him. I am so thankful for all the prayers, encouragement and support I know are going with me. 

  I will do my best to update my blog and send e-mails during my 3 months in Mozambique but our internet will be inconsistent so I don't know how frequent they will be. If nothing else I will be writing about my adventures when I return at the end of August. 

Have a blessed summer! 

...oh my soul...

  I have been thinking about the human soul and it's desires lately. The soul can be a frustrating part of my person. My spirit has been given completely to Jesus.  But my soul, that is, my mind, my will, and my emotions and with those my desires, are all still in a process of sanctification, being made like Jesus. This is the part of me that longs to do good things and yet is still constantly thinking of "Me! Myself! I! What I want, what I need! ME ME ME!"
                             Yuck.

  Sometimes my soul makes me miserable. I make mistakes because I do what I want instead of what is right or  what is best for others. I have unfulfilled desires that I ache and long for. There are days when I want to make it go away. I want to always do the right thing, say the right thing and never long for things I don't have. 

But... 

...if I didn't have a soul, if I couldn't think, if I couldn't desire, if I couldn't choose, if I couldn't feel, I would be a robot or an animal, a being with no eternal significance and no RELATIONSHIPS. The human soul is a beautiful gift from our creator that we need to have fellowship with Him and others. Because we have a soul, we can LOVE.

.beautiful.

  So how do I live with this beautiful, messy, yearning, sometimes selfish, part of me? 

.Jesus.

  This week as I was struggling with my soul over a particular thought and desire, my gracious Jesus gave me this verse: 

"...He has satisfied the thirsty soul, and the hungry soul He has filled with what is GOOD." {Ps. 107:9}

Jesus will satisfy my soul with what is good...Himself. 

I also found this quote in a book I'm reading in preparation for Mozambique: 

"Though the world is so large, it is utterly unable to satisfy this tired heart. Man's ever-growing soul and its capacities can only be satisfied in the infinite God." ~Sadhu Sundar Singh

Only God in His greatness and glory can satisfy this soul. So I just keep waking up everyday and asking Jesus to satisfy the aches, the longings, and the desire. I depend on Him in desperation every day. 

Bless the Lord oh my soul!!

in 3 weeks...

In 3 weeks I will be on my way to a new adventure!

In 3 weeks I will be on the other side of the equator.

In 3 weeks I will miss my family and friends.

In 3 weeks the fundraising, packing, and preparing will be done.

In 3 weeks everything is going to change!

    I cannot believe how fast it is coming! This week I began training the new assistant that will replace me at work and realized that I will only be employed for another 2 weeks. My faithful Heavenly Father has provided for all my big expenses and is taking care of the little ones too so my fundraising is almost complete! While I haven't begun my packing, I have begun shopping and collecting the items I need. The biggest purchases on the shopping list this week are a water purifier and medical insurance. 

   
    In the midst of all these details, I can feel Jesus preparing my heart. A couple weeks ago I shared about what the Lord has been doing in my heart towards His little ones {See: No Longer A Slumdog}. When my passport came back with my visa for Mozambique, the adventure began to feel more real and I had such joy and anticipation bubbling up in me. With the arrival of the month of my departure, May, I began to feel a little apprehensive though. I started thinking about all I had to do in just 28 days and all that was going to change. My life in Africa is going to look very different. But Jesus was faithful to remind me that He will not change when my geographical location does. He will still love me, He will still lead me, He will be faithful to me ALWAYS. Those truths give me what I need each day to keep pressing forward.