And so it begins...

I can't believe I am less than 3 weeks away from leaving.

I have been waiting all year for this. so crazy.

This blog entry might be kinda long, but I want to start my first ever blog entry by explaining how I got here, hopefully without boring you guys to bad :)

So here I go:

Ever since I have become a Christian, the heart of missions has been instilled in me. I was involved in a lot of local missions (whether in Woodstock, New Orleans, Tennessee, etc). And that was when God first started to break my heart for what breaks his heart. I remember sitting in the backroom of the Coop at Snowbird (the summer camp I always attended) and watching a video of international missions, and my heart just aching while tears filled my eyes with a glimpse of what the Lord was doing in the lives of people all over the world.

In 2009 I had the provilege of finally doing something I had been dreaming of. I got the chance to go to Tegucigapa, Honduras with a team of 12 from Hillside. Talk about changing your life. For me it was the first time i was able to fully experience what God meant by 1 Corinthians 16:24 "Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous deeds among all."

I know that for some people it is hard to understand why it is so important we bring the quote-on-quote "gospel" to all nations. To be honest, that's because we live in America. Most the time, we don't see the need for God. We have families, jobs, food on the table, a house to come home to at night, you get my point. And YES there is a major need for missions here in America too (that's peoples main point when they hear I want to do oversea missions). But God was being serious when he said in Matthew 28 "to the ends of the earth".

These people depend on God for everything. He is their hope. He gives them strength to get through the night. And he fills their hearts with unfailing love. As believers we are all held responsible to take an act in "going", whether that is by actually going, or by financially giving, or even being the "hands and feet" of Christ where you are now.

After Honduras, I became so passionate about what God was doing overseas. Proverbs 24:12 says "Once our eyes were opened, we can't pretend we don't know what to do. God, who weighs our hearts and keeps our souls, knows that we know, and holds us responsible to act." I couldn't ignore what I saw. The need for God in a country that is broken and lost. These orphans had so much JOY even when they had nothing, no parents, little education, and tiny bunk beds that they shared with other orhpanage kids. But to them, they had everything. Because of Christ.

I couldn't bear to ignore the truth anymore.

The TRUTH is that there are 147,000,000 orphans in our world today. 147,000,000.

The TRUTH is that every day, 16,000 children die from hunger related causes. That is 5,840,000 a year.

The TRUTH is that about 1 in every 3 people living today do not have access to clean water.

The TRUTH is that 10,600,000 children under the age of 5 die each year. 54% of those deaths are PREVENTABLE, TREATABLE illnesses.


That being said, I got home and searched and prayed for different mission opportunties I could embark on. I finally decided on a Real Life trip with an organization called Adventures In Missions which is a 2-month long mission trip for college aged students. We will be doing anything and everything from caring for orphans and street kids, teaching, evangelizing door-to-door, building churches, building homes, druge rehabilitation, and more.

I am so thankful for my supporters, whether it be financially or prayerfully, I couldn't have gotten this far without yall!

Thank you for joining me on this journey!