The Story

If anyone is curious about my journey and how it got started this post is to fill you in. 

Okay, well I've always had a heart for missions. I went to Peru the summers of 2007-2009 on 2 week mission trips with my church, and then for 3 months the summer of 2010 as an intern. Peru ignited my passion for missions. The summer of 2011 I went to Uganda and Ethiopia on a trip with Visiting Orphans (http://www.visitingorphans.org) and we spent a week and a half in each country. That trip was life changing. I had a new love...AFRICA! Each country was equal in beauty. My time in Ethiopia was the hardest week of my life. We worked in Korah, originally a leper community that was thrown away by society, the only place they found refuge was a trash dump where they lived and ate from. We got special permission to go see the trash dump one day while there...I've never seen anything so horrific in my entire life. I've never been the same after that. I knew I wanted to dedicate myself to the mission field, if it was in God's will that is. 

After my trip to Africa I knew I'd go back. A year past.. I was in school and working part time. In October 2012 I moved back home to do my internship for school. Once a year at my church in Prattville, they have "Orphan Sunday" where they stress the importance of adoption and stuff liked that. In the middle of my pastors sermon I wasn't sure if it was God, now I know it was, or just a random thought from my ADD brain. "You needed to go on a long term mission." I've always wanted to go on a long term mission trip, but never knew how to get it started. Well, that random thought was all I could think about that day. The next day my mom and sister got back from a mini vacation in New York for my sisters 16th birthday, I immediately talked to my mom about my thoughts on a long term mission. She said God would open a door if it was in His will and to keep praying about it. So I did. 

I started getting nervous...my internship for school was almost over and there was word around the office I was interning at that they wanted to hire me. Most kids my age would be like...score! Not me. If I took the job it would be a commitment. Why would God give me a calling and not open an opportunity? I DID NOT want to wait to go on a mission!!! Well I called a friend in Huntsville and told her my calling, she told me her church sponsored a woman in Kenya and if I came to visit we could talk to her church to see if we could get in contact with the woman in Kenya...who knows, maybe she could used some help there. I hadn't been to Huntsville in about a year so I agreed. This was the weekend before the office I was interning with was going to offer me a job... 

"Okay, God...this is it, either you open an opportunity this weekend for a long term mission or I'm taking the job." I wasn't sure if that was a good way to pray, but I really wanted an answer.

I arrived in Huntsville Friday night. When I got there my friend ran into the room and screamed "SHE'S HERE!! SHE'S HERE!" I was like...what? Teresa June Webb, the founder of Desert Rose Ministries in Nukuru, Kenya and the woman her church was sponsoring was not only in the States for 2 months visiting churches and raising money..but she was in Huntsville THAT VERY WEEKEND. I was FREAKING out! I ended up having dinner with Teresa Sunday night and we instantly clicked! She had been praying for an intern for a while, and really needs the help. She's been there 4 years and her ministry has grown bigger than just her, and she's all on her own there. I was beside myself excited! She had reservations about me at first because other people had promised to come and didn't...well she didn't know me! We worked everything out, she met my mom and associate pastor from my church and now I'm going to be there for 6months as her first intern! Everything just happened in perfect timing. God is so good!

I felt undeserving of such a great opportunity. I didn't deserve an answered prayer, and I still don't understand why God chose me...but I'm SO grateful. 

And the journey has begun...19 DAYS!!