I am so sad to be writing this blog. Due to an emergency in Brad's family I will be leaving Mexico 10 days early. I am sad to be leaving early, but after spending some time in prayer I truly believe that this is what God wants me to be doing right now.

My team is in support of me leaving, which is a blessing from God. Our ministries are coming to an end, and tomorrow I will have a chance to say a final 'good bye' before leaving. I pray that none of my supporters may in any way be disappointed by my leaving early.

This is an opportunity for me to support and serve Brad's family. I would appreciate all and any prayer during this time. Specifically pray that his family's eyes be open to the love that God has for them and to seek Him as their comforter.

I will be in touch soon.

            We are entering our last weeks of ministering! I need your help. Please keep us in your prayers and please, please pray for the families we have been ministering to. I can't imagine how I am going to say 'Good bye'. You see it is pretty close to impossible to keep in touch with these families once we leave. They have no address to receive mail by. Many have no phone. Even if I come back here, if they move (which is not unusual) there will be no way to track them down.

            I am very sad to be leaving them and I am definitely having to trust God with all of this. I am praying that He will continue to grow in their lives and become real to them beyond all imagination. I am also praying that He will give us the words to share with them in these final visits. I fear that many of them know about Him, but do not know Him. We have been attempting to demonstrate His love and there is nothing else we can do, but pray that their eyes may be opened.

            First, there is Crystal and Carla. I have shared about these two little angles in the past. They are 6 and 7 years old and very precious. They love playing dress up and having tickle fights. Their father is in and out of the picture. When he is around he is abusive. Their mother works two jobs to provide for them and their brothers, so all of the children are left unsupervised for most of the day. This past year they have learned how to hug, how to play, how to be normal little girls. They have also been very hurt by the situation that they are in. I am specifically praying that they see God in us and that He loves them more than they can comprehend. I pray that more Christians will rise up around them providing for the needs of the family and that God's provision is ultimately recognized. I pray that they will remain safe and that God's love rain down on them, flooding their hearts past all of the pain of this world.

            Next is my Mexican Mama, Graciela. This is a family that is not exactly smiled upon by the church here. The legalities of what is right and wrong has gotten in the way of loving one another. Graciela has grown up around the church and has much of the knowledge that comes with that, but I fear that the understanding of the love God has for her has not yet become a reality. She is sad that we are leaving and keeps saying, "You are leaving and never coming back." Though I desperately want to visit her, I can not promise that it will happen.  For Graciela and her family I pray that God give us the words and courage to share with her the love of God and that her eyes may be open to the One that will never leave her side. I pray that others will come along side her and encourage her walk with the Lord.

            The final family that I will share about today is grand. The mothers name is Vanessa. There are four adorable children. Every time we visit the father is at work, yet this family is barely making it through. They have shown much kindness towards us despite the language barriers. I pray that they continue to seek God as their provider. That they realize that the prayer requests that have been answered this year have been God's provision. I also pray that their relationships and reliance on the Lord continue to grow and that they may rise up to be lights in a neighborhood full of darkness.

Thanks you for reading all of this. Please join me in prayer for these families and all the people that we have been ministering to during our time here.

            This morning, during my time with God, He said "O you of little faith" to me. A little harsh, but very true and very much what I needed to hear. I have been doing a fair amount of worrying lately. Worrying about the families I will soon be saying good by to, worrying about going home, finding a job, and whether or not I will be able to pay my rent.

            While reading over Matthew 6:25-34 God did not only remind me that I need to be trusting in Him and in His provision, but showed me how little my faith is. A thought hit me, "Do I want God to say 'O you of little faith' or do I want Him do smile down upon me, proud of who I am in Him.' Of course I want Him to smile.

            My worrying and my reliance on myself takes all the glory away from Him and all that He can do, has done, and will continue to do through my entire life. How many times has He promised to provide, how many times has He proven Himself to me, how many times more does He have to do this before I trust Him?

The Lord is faithful and good! He has been teaching me many lessons. But right now I want to share a story with you.

            Last week my parents came to visit. I was able to spend some much needed time off with them and they were able to see what I do here. I am grateful that we had that opportunity. It was an answer to prayer.

            Their first night my parents were in Mexico we went to church. My parents do not know Spanish and so they were relying on me to translate. During the worship I was not able or really wanting to translate the songs for them. However, at one point a song came on that I knew in English. I told my mom what song it was and she and I began singing along in English. Other than a few of my team mates the rest of the church was singing in Spanish.

            As we worshiped all the words began mixing together (one could not separate the English from the Spanish). I though back to why we worship: to praise God. I prayed that it be a pleasing sound to the Lord. I am sure that it was because it is truly a beautiful thing that two different cultures, with two different languages can come together and be unified in praising the one and only God.

            I am not in Mexico to be separated from my own culture or to be seen as different from the Latino culture, but to be unified in Christ. It is my prayer and my passion that this happen around the world. The best way that I know for that to happen is to pray and to GO!

            "Therefore GO and make disciples of ALL nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

            Matthew 28: 19-20

 There is a song by Shane and Shane that I was first introduced to at training camp. It is the cry of my heart. It chorus says:

            You said, "Ask and I'll give the nations to you"

            Oh Lord, that's the cry of my heart

            Distant shores and the islands will see

            You light as it rises on us.

            "Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their forefathers to give them. Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. Do not let the Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go."

Joshua 1:6-9

            I have been meaning to write this blog for four days now. I even sat down to do it twice before now. Needless to say, we have been very busy. This week we have a group of 260 joining us from Georgia, all high school-ers. We began by helping prepare the area for everyone to sleep, getting groceries, and cleaning the camp grounds.

            That was the easy part. There were positions of leadership that needed to be fulfilled. I am now in one of those positions. I am a 'site leader' which means that I have a fair amount of responsibility in something that I have never done before, for a lot of people.

            All year long I have been trying to run from being in a position of leadership and it has continued to chase after me and catch me. Our project leader spoke on how we each have a piece, a part to the puzzle. He challenged us to take hold of that piece, to embrace who we are in God, whom He wants us to be.

            These verses from Joshua have been my guide these past few days. There are many commands and many promises within three verses. I especially like "for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go." He is with me, He has asked me to do this, and I want to serve my Lord.

I am so thankful to be back in Mexico. Although there have been a lot of changes, the ministry is still here. This week the hospital has fallen very close to my heart. I love all of the people that we meet there and I am sometimes saddened that I may never see them again. Often times their situations seem almost hopeless. (This is the part that makes me excited…) During their times of hopelessness we are able to be their hope. We walk in to the hospital knowing that Christ is with us. He loves us, and he loves them. Our job as Christians is to share that love with them.

Let me share a few stories with you. On Wednesday we went to the hospital, Jenny, Lauren, and I. This time we also had a visitor with us, Jenny's mom Mellissa. After visiting a couple wings we found where God wanted us to be. Timidly we entered a room that had three full beds and each patient had a visitor. This room was full to the max. The wonderful part was that they all wanted to talk to us. After overcoming the awkwardness that is the hospital we were able to have great conversations. Two of the patients were incoherent, but their visitors were crying out for any glimpse of hope. We were able to spend time reassuring their faith in God and giving them someone to talk to. At the end of the day the third patient, Bertha, told us about that she believed we were like angles. She knew that God was with us and working through us to bring hope and peace to their room. One of the visitors was a girl my age. On out way out she gave me her phone number and told me to call anytime. I pray that I have the time and courage to do this!

On Friday when we returned to the hospital our friends from Wednesday were either not there or were sleeping so we proceeded to the pediatric wing. After talking with a couple of families and praying with them I came upon Oscar. This is a nine year old boy. I never spoke to him because he was sleeping, but he had an array of worried visitors each taking their turn to visit. (Only one visitor is allowed at a time.) Firs I met an aunt of his. From her I received the most information about the situation. On Thursday Oscar fell while playing on a bus. He hit his head and had bleeding from his ear. They have to wait until Tuesday to get the appropriate tests done. After his aunt came his mom. She seemed worried, but okay. After her was another aunt who was much younger than the first two sister I had previously met. She was very torn up about the situation. She began crying a lot and right when I was about to attempt praying in Spanish with her, her father came in the room. The two of them had to leave, but she has been on my heart ever since. I do not even know her name. I was only able to offer a few phrases of encouragement. I pray that she seek God as her comforter during this time and I rest assured in the knowledge that God cares for her much more than I. I have put the situation is His hands.

I thank God for this opportunity; the chance to be His angels!

This has been a busy and fruitful week! There was a group of around 60 teenagers, leaders, and translators that joined us for a week of missions. The group built two houses, visited the hospital, jail, Youth Detention Center, and did street ministry. We were able to join them in these ministries. Let me tell you, I learned so much!

            Looking back it was a joy to work with this team, although it didn't always feel like it. I learned important lessons about leadership, about short term missions, and especially about the power of prayer. It is amazing; the relationships that were built in one week, the number of people that heard of God's love, and the affect that the week had on the youth.

            Leading this showed me a side of missions I have never seen. I have always been on the doing end, rather than the setting up end of missions. It also made me think back to my first Mexico mission trip in high school and how that changed the direction of  my life. It was that trip that made me fall in love with Latinos and began the desire in me to be able to communicate the gospel to Latinos and everyone else in the world.

            Like I mentioned earlier, I learned the power of prayer. You see, I always knew that God answers prayers but for some reason I hesitate to take the small things to Him. This week I realized that that is foolish. God wants to know about the small and big things, but more importantly He just wants to hear from us. Now I am focusing on going to God with everything, big or small.

            How can I describe it? Amazing, right, fun, fulfilling, challenging… perhaps God's will? This is how being back in Mexico feels to me. I know that this is where God wants me. I am so happy to be back! I am loving being with my original team again. They are such a blessing to me and they still continue to teach me about God, even after all this time.

            I have also had the opportunity to return to my colonia and to the hospital. There are many changes and I have yet to see quit a few people, but God is at work here. The amazing part about it is that He is using me. The fact that I am able to admit that He is using ME is a minor miracle in itself. I would have never said that in September and here I am knowing and believing that it is not only that He can but that He will!

            There have been many changes since I was last in Mexico. Not only am I different, but the team is different, we live in a different place, and there has been some changes in leadership. Although it has not been easy to make the changes I can see that God is going to use this in a fabulous way. (Don't ask me what that is, I'm not God, I just know I can trust Him.)

            One last thought before I end this blog: Acts 8:26 says, "Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, 'Go south to the road - the desert road- that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.' So he started out…" God told Philip to go. All He said was to go south, he didn't even give Philip a destination. Philip's response was going. He didn't stop and ask where he was going or why he was going. He was not concerned with specifics. God said 'Go' and Philip did what he was told. His actions led to the fulfillment of a pretty amazing story. (Check it out.)

            I want to be like Philip, obeying without needing to know the details. Trusting every step of the way that there is a reason and that God will meet every need. He loves me, why would He do any less?

As I am writing this, I am sitting in an airport in Santo Domingo awaiting my flight back to the U.S. From there I will be headed to Mexico.

I cannot even explain the emotions inside of me. You see, I love my team in Mexico, I love the ministries. I have been waiting and dreaming about returning there to finish the year that God has called me to. But after spending seven weeks in the Dominican Republic, I feel as though I am also a part of the DR team. The people and ministries there are also heavy on my heart.

            God has been mind blowingly awesome! I have three families: one in Mexico, one in the Dominican Republic and one in Nebraska. How many people get an opportunity to build such amazing relationships? I truly feel blessed.

            I am a little sad about leaving one to be with another, but I know that God's got it all covered. As I look back on my experience in the DR all I see are wonderful memories and a period of great growth for me. I am very thankful for the opportunity that I had to spend time there. I believe that God used it to help me grow, but that He also used me to help others there. He truly know what it best, all we have to do is obey.