Winter Break

So, today officially starts Bishop University's winter break. It's kinda like spring break, but its still winter here obviously. :) Students finished off their midterms last week and began to disappear then. This week is honestly a week for my team and I to rest up and relax. More importantly, we need to rest and then get into a mind set of giving God all we have for the next 2 months. I can't believe we are half way to being done.
God is doing some really awesome things, and i cannot wait to see what he will do with the final months left in the trip. He has been teaching me so so much. Today, He was teaching my on patience.
For prayer requests, please pray for direction for me. I am waiting on acceptance to nursing schools, and today i got declined from one. I'm praying God would show me where he would have me go to school or if not what he would have me do instead.

Matthew 24:14

I recently have been thinking about what it would look like in our lives if we actually followed Matthew 24:14. "The Good News about God's kingdom will be preached in all the world, to every nation. Then the end will come."
As i was thinking on this, the verse Acts 1:8 obviously came to mind. We are to made disciples of all nations.
That being said, I've been thinking about how we really don't get outside our comfort zones to reach the unreached. There are 6,426 unreached people groups in the world. And at the rate we are going, honestly, it's just gonna take way to long for Christ to come back and I don't want to wait that long. We live our lives like we will live forever and yet the truth is we aren't even guaranteed our next breath. Life is short and eternity is at stake!
I've been dwelling on the idea of what if each church each was accountable to reach at least one of these unreached groups. There are thousands of churches in just the United States alone. Let's be proactive! Lets do something, lets share the name of Christ (after all, who are we to keep it to ourselves anyway).Christ didn't die for us so that we could just sit on our couches in our comfort zones.
Isaiah 6:8 "Then I heard the Lord's voice, saying, 'Whom can I send? Who will go for us?' So I said, 'Here I am. Send me!'

Valentines Day

This Valentines Day was by far my favorite ever!! I had planned out a "Girls Night In". It was a girls night only, and we had a million cupcakes/brownies/cookies. We watched a chick flick and painted our nails. What made it even more amazing was two of our guy friends surprised us by leaving an anonymous vase of flowers with a note that said, "Hey Girls, Happy Valentines Day. There's a rose for everyone of you and plenty of strawberries and chocolate."

All the girls were giggling and grinning from ear to ear. It was such a sweet gesture. We really enjoyed our night and it was nice to be appreciated by our brothers in Christ.

Blessings

I was blessed with the opportunity to help with a Special Olympics Power lifting competition today. I've never really had the opportunity to really work with special needs people like that, but after today I can honestly say i have been missing out. They are some of the most loving people and have a heart of gold! Just watching them brought a grin to my face. I think about how some people blame God for making disabled people, as if they are a bother to society, but after being around them, i think God blessed us with these people. God blesses us in ways we cannot even begin to understand. He made these amazing people who are full of love and adoration, and i wonder if we are really loving them like Christ does. How often do we actually take the time to get to know a special needs person? I think sometimes we avoid them, not because of dislike but because we don't know how to respond to them. But do we really even take the time to learn how? I know I'm guilty of this. In the end though, the person who was really missing out was me.

Today has been an overall encouraging day to me. It started out a bit emotionally draining when i woke up to a nightmare to say the least. These come only every once in a while in my life but when they do come, they usually "hit home" so to speak. Although, they are frustrating or "frightening" the greatest comfort to me is knowing God is protecting me and will not let this take hold of me.
After this morning, my day has been pretty amazing. I got to adventure Canada with Ashlee as we took a bus to the mall. Had some girl time and went shopping, but mostly just got to spend time with her. God has blessed me beyond belief with such an amazing roommate.
Today, I also began to prepare for a sermon I will speak on Thursday night at down under (which is the college bible study). I am preparing to talk about the 4th chapter in the book radical which speaks on missions and getting out of our comfort zones and going and being bold about our faith in Christ. This is a subject I am very passionate about, and I am beyond thrilled to be able to share with others about this passion. I am praying that God will give me the words to speak, and that hearts would be opened to obedience in God's calling in our lives to go and share the gospel. This last week, I had the honor of sharing my testimony with down under, and also the church that i attend while I'm here.
For those who are continually praying for me, thank you. It is a spiritual battle here, and your prayers are being heard. Please keep praying for my team. Pray that God would use us in mighty ways.

It has started to become very snowy here! I walked to the university that we have been evangelizing at, and the snow was just heavily falling and it piling up quickly. It made for an interesting morning. My last week has been somewhat interesting. On Friday, i sat down with an Atheist and talked to him for a couple hours. Eventually he texted in backup, and another atheist joined in on the conversation. I left with them not really being any closer to accepting Christ, but I think what they took away from it was seeing what a genuine Christian looks like, and hopefully they were able to see what a Christian is not. Not saying I'm a perfect Christian, because i know better :) It was just a different experience for them because they wanted me to get upset and yell and I refused. Somehow, I think that is out of the normal for them. I'm praying God will continue to use me and other Christians that are here to share with them. I am also building relationships with other people I have met here, and that has been a slow but positive process.
Please pray for my team and that we will continue to be presented with opportunities to share the gospel with others. Also, pray that when these opportunities present themselves, that we would be obedient in responding.