Helllooo! It's been a while since I've updated and I'm very sorry, but the past month has been awesomely crazy and chaotic. I'm really excited to share everything with you though! I'll just give you an overview of everything and then go back and talk about my favorite parts! Let's see...
- We had 2 bridal showers for my new sister-in-law! (I love saying sister-in-law!)
- My fabulous mother turned 50!
- I finished my spring semester with a 4.0! wasn't expecting that, but God's awesome.
- Started my Speech maymester and finished it 9 days later.
- During this time we had Christy's bachelorette party, bridal pictures, wedding preparations, and then the rehearsal dinner.
- My brother graduated college!!
- MY BROTHER GOT MARRIED TO ONE OF MY BEST FRIENDS.
- We got to celebrate my mom on mothers day!
- And then, of course, all the small things that you know you were busy doing, but can't remember what they are.
- Then, the most important, God spoke to me big time and showed me another part of His will for my life! It's so exciting and I can't wait for everything!
This is my beautiful sister-in-law, Christy, and my awesome big brother, Blake. Over the past 5 years, I've been able to see their love grow and grow. I'm so lucky that Christy fits in perfectly with our family. She's one of my best-friends and now she's my sister! Blake's as lucky to have her as she is to have him. I can't wait to see where God takes them! I love y'all!
Now I'll tell you about what God told me. I've known I was going to be a nurse for a long time. Once I started to really think about what I wanted to be, it's always been a nurse. Then I realized I really wanted to do mission work. Then it hit me, medical missions! Then a little over two and a half years ago, I heard Christine Caine speak at my church and Human Trafficking grasped my heart. All I could do was wait for God's next step. I kept trying to take matters into my hands cause I guess I wanted to go along with my time schedule and not God's. Every time I looked into a mission trip, it would never work out. I finally realized I wasn't ready for it and obviously God was telling me that this was the time to prepare for what was to come. I needed to learn more about human-trafficking if I was to work against it. I needed to hear and read real-life stories from rescued victims if I was going to be able to work with them without just breaking down and crying for them.
Then, it was while I was reading Kisses From Katie by Katie Davis, that God spoke to me. I was reading the introduction (yep, I hadn't even made it to chapter one) when I just started crying because I could feel God talking to me. He was finally telling me that he had something real in store for me; I didn't have to just wish an opportunity would come along. It was time for action! I grabbed my laptop, started looking at all the organizations that I knew went on Human Trafficking mission trips, and didn't feel God calling me to any of them. Then I felt called to go to the A21 Campaign website and I was just looking around when I saw A21 Internships. I clicked on it, and just started crying more. (Crying is a regular theme in my life.) There are 3month, 6month, 9month, and a year internships in Greece in a A21 Safehouse where you work with the girls who have been rescued. That was exactly what God called me to do!
I started researching it, picking out everything I could about it, and I was honestly ready to just pack up and leave. I hastily planned that I could finish my basics then go do the internship before I came back for nursing school. I finally knew what God wanted me to do! My heart was already in Greece with these girls. I was trying to take this into my own hands, yet again, and plan it myself. Then I felt God say, "Think with your brain for a second, not your heart." And as soon as I started trying, I saw where it said you have to be 21 to be an intern. Then all these realizations I had already known (but temporarily forgot in my excitement) and have been telling myself from day 1 came back; You can help these girls better after you're a nurse, You have a scholarship to go to college, why would you throw that away?
God knows me so well to make sure I know these things, so I don't try to jump ahead in His plans. Now, after talking about it with my parents (and crying through that too) and thinking about it logically and praying about it and making sure this is what God wants for me; I'm positive it is. I feel that not only do I WANT to do this, i'm CALLED to do this. Just like I'm called to be a nurse. So after I graduate from nursing school, I'm more than likely going to take a 3 month internship with the A21 campaign in Thessaloniki, Greece. However, I don't graduate from nursing school for two and a half years. I'm trying to think of this as a positive thing because now I have a focus and an actual time frame and I still don't think I'm ready. Actually, I know I'm not ready, but it's ok, because God's always ready.
Then, it was while I was reading Kisses From Katie by Katie Davis, that God spoke to me. I was reading the introduction (yep, I hadn't even made it to chapter one) when I just started crying because I could feel God talking to me. He was finally telling me that he had something real in store for me; I didn't have to just wish an opportunity would come along. It was time for action! I grabbed my laptop, started looking at all the organizations that I knew went on Human Trafficking mission trips, and didn't feel God calling me to any of them. Then I felt called to go to the A21 Campaign website and I was just looking around when I saw A21 Internships. I clicked on it, and just started crying more. (Crying is a regular theme in my life.) There are 3month, 6month, 9month, and a year internships in Greece in a A21 Safehouse where you work with the girls who have been rescued. That was exactly what God called me to do!
I started researching it, picking out everything I could about it, and I was honestly ready to just pack up and leave. I hastily planned that I could finish my basics then go do the internship before I came back for nursing school. I finally knew what God wanted me to do! My heart was already in Greece with these girls. I was trying to take this into my own hands, yet again, and plan it myself. Then I felt God say, "Think with your brain for a second, not your heart." And as soon as I started trying, I saw where it said you have to be 21 to be an intern. Then all these realizations I had already known (but temporarily forgot in my excitement) and have been telling myself from day 1 came back; You can help these girls better after you're a nurse, You have a scholarship to go to college, why would you throw that away?
God knows me so well to make sure I know these things, so I don't try to jump ahead in His plans. Now, after talking about it with my parents (and crying through that too) and thinking about it logically and praying about it and making sure this is what God wants for me; I'm positive it is. I feel that not only do I WANT to do this, i'm CALLED to do this. Just like I'm called to be a nurse. So after I graduate from nursing school, I'm more than likely going to take a 3 month internship with the A21 campaign in Thessaloniki, Greece. However, I don't graduate from nursing school for two and a half years. I'm trying to think of this as a positive thing because now I have a focus and an actual time frame and I still don't think I'm ready. Actually, I know I'm not ready, but it's ok, because God's always ready.
Looking back, I'm so grateful God never gives us more than we can handle. Especially in revealing His plans for our lives. If God told me all of this at once, I would've hid under a rock and probably would've cried for the rest of my life. But He knows exactly when to reveal things to you, and what to have already put in your mind and in your life to keep you on His track. I know this is going to be a long and challenging two and a half years until I can meet these girls I already love but it'll be worth it when I get to see each of them experience God's love and true freedom through Jesus.