In Awe.

Words cannot even describe the week I have had this week. It was absolutely amazing. I have never been so close to the Lord in my entire life. I felt God move in ways that I didn't even know were possible. We always think of spiritual highs coming after we sing songs and listen to fantastic preachers and going to church camps like this. But we did not have a preacher. We were the preachers. Every night 2 people from the group would talk for about 5 minutes about the things that God showed them this week. Hearing from my fellow teammates about what God has been teaching them and doing in their lives was so much more rewarding than I ever thought it would be. We did not have a worship leader or anything like that either. We spent 24 hours a day worshipping and just in awe of the power and majesty of our Savior. It was beyond anything that I have ever felt before in my whole life. This experience has opened my eyes to the world around me. I will never take anything for granted anymore. I am so blessed to have the things I have. The people there have taught me how to truly and sincerely put others before myself and that is a lesson I will never forget. A part of me loves being home and seeing my family and my friends but there is a bigger part of me yearning to see the people that I left behind. I met some people this week in El Salvador that I was absolutely devastated to leave. I feel torn between two completely opposite families and lifestyles. Yes, it was hard work and it was hot outside and humid, but I loved every single second of it! I do not know if I am being called to be a missionary in a foreign field or anything like that but I know for a fact that I will continue to pursue being a missionary for Christ wherever I am. If I am not going to be a missionary than I will definitely be attending more and more mission trips in the future. All the people that I have met and the strong relationships we have will forever be in my heart. I cannot thank Living Water, Second Baptist, Compassion International, the team and the village enough. Living Water and Second Baptist for giving me the opportunity to see Christ work in a completely different way. Compassion International for giving us the blessing to see our compassion child, Karina, which was just incredible. The guys on the team for their hard work and determination to get the well to work. The girls on the team to challenge my faith. And the village for opening up their homes and community to let us come and serve them. And a special thank you again for all the people that helped financially and through prayers. I could not have done it without your help. Thank you so much!

In El Salvador we did not have internet access but I wrote journals everyday that I am going to share with yall. I am leaving for a church camp tomorrow morning though so I will be writing those out and posting them on here in a week. Thank you again for all the love and support! Dios Bendiga- God Bless!

Good News!

Today has been an extremely exciting day for. Today was my last day of high school!! On Saturday, I will be walking across the stage. And soon after that, I will be recieving my diploma!! This is such a crazy feeling. Time has flown by and I cannot believe that I am really done with this chapter of my life. I am looking forward to my next chapter though. For those that don't know I will be attending the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor and I cannot be more excited! I have other good news too! I have all the money needed for El Salvador! It is less than a week away... can you believe it? I know I can't! Thank you SO much to all the people that supported me in this journey. I would like to thank the people that contributed. Mark and Sonya Terry, Steve and Julie Chriswell, Jon and Elizabeth Lindberg, Leesa and Stan Love, Joe and Corinn Price, and Mary Lawrence- thank you so much for all the amounts of money that you contributed for my trip. You will never know how much it meant to me. And thank you for the continual prayers!! I will be keeping you all posted!!

Counting Down!

The countdown has officially started... 26 more days until I leave for El Salvador. I cannot wait! I have absolute faith that God is going to use my team to bring people closer to our Lord and Savior and that gets me extremely excited. I want to thank each and every one of you. Thank you for the continual prayers and support I am getting. I want to expecially say a thank you to the Terry's, the Lindberg's and the Chriswell's for their financial support. I greatly appreciate it. Thank you to everyone who prayed for Youth Weekend also. I am very pleased to say that it was amazing. I am so proud of myself and the other youth involved in this amazing weekend. I remember telling Jonathon (the youth pastor) that I could not stand up and preach to a group of people at all, but I felt God telling me to take this opportunity and I obeyed and it truly paid off. It was probably the most challenging thing I have ever done but I have also never been closer to my Lord. What an amazing experience, getting to share the wonderful Word of God to whoever will listen. I am completely confident that God will use this experience to encourage me to share my faith without hesitance when God tells me to.

Prayer Requests:
Pray that God continues to prepare my heart for El Salvador.
Also, senioritis has definately taken a toll on me lately so please pray that I can continue my work until graduation.

God is Amazing.

This week I have learned to fully trust in God with everything. Not just some things, everything. Thank you to everyone who has continued to pray for me. And thank to those that felt led to contribute financially. I am more excited than ever about what God is going to do through me in El Salvador. I got to look through pictures of the towns people and the place my team will be staying. Instead of just imagining what it will be like, I got to see what it is going to be like. I know it is going to be different with a different group of people going but just getting to see those pictures and see the labor and love in all the eyes of God's people made me want to get up and go now! I cannot wait to take my own pictures and have a story behind each picture I take and share them to each and every one of you.



Prayer Requests:

I am going to add on to last weeks because I still need prayer for God to spiritually prepare me for my journey in El Salvador. This week I need you to seriously pray for me while I prepare for Youth Weekend. Youth Weekend is a weekend at Second Baptist Church where the youth lead everything from welcoming at the door to preaching a sermon. I was asked to prepare a 5-7 minute sermon. Youth Weekend is May 2 & 3, and I am already nervous! That is a lot of pressure to get up on a stage in front of a lot of people! So please just pray that God will calm my nerve and let me say exactly what He needs me to because I have nothing to say. Thank you for all your support! God Bless.

El Salvador!

I'm excited about partnering with you in my mission trip to El Salvador. Thank you for all the prayers and support. I will update this blog on a weekly basis, keeping you in touch of prayer requests as I prepare for the trip. I will also update you on how my fundraising is going. After my trip, I will post pictures on this site so you can see how your prayers and financial support helped were used to further His Kingdom.

Prayer Requests:
Monday, April 13- As I'm torn in many directions with my school work and social events, pray that I continue to make time for my quiet times so that I can be spiritually ready for this amazing trip.