Via Dolorosa

When I was 20 I got a tattoo. It's on my wrist, and I wear it proudly. Now before you proceed to judge me I'd like to tell you a little bit about it and the reason behind it.

My tattoo is a cross and a heart. It's a pretty simple tattoo. I designed it myself. I gave it a lot of thought and consideration before I went to get it done. Everything about this tattoo was very intentional: the design, placement, color, and size. The purpose is quite simple as well: a permanent reminder of "the cross," and what that means to me as a follower of Christ.

After I got the tattoo, I typed up a statement to remind me and share with others what my tattoo means. This is what it said:

"It symbolizes my love for Jesus AND His love for me. It’s a reminder of the ultimate sacrifice He made for me. It’s to remind me to live my life for Him. To do things and be the person that He wants me to and not to do things that He wouldn’t want. It’s to show myself and the world that I'm in love. That I'm not afraid or ashamed of my faith. It’s to remember that without Him I am worthless and that through Him all things are possible. It reminds me I am a sinner but I am forgiven and because of His love and the cross I am going Heaven. It’s a permanent WWJD bracelet to remind me and tell the world that He is with me everyday of my life. I will have the tattoo until I die and then I won’t need it anymore. I wont need a symbol or a friendly reminder because I will be in Heaven face to face with Him, my best friend." (Dec. 2005)

It's easy to remember the cross at Easter. I mean that's what Easter is all about, right? I might go out on a limb here and say that throughout lent it's not too hard to remember the cross either. But Easter only comes once a year and like any other day it leaves just as quickly as it comes. As Christians we should constantly remember and give thanks for the ultimate sacrifice. What do you do to remember the cross on a daily basis? 

Via Dolorosa, by Leeland is my favorite Easter song. It perfectly depicts what Jesus did for us. 

Habitat for Missionaries

There is an exciting opportunity on the horizon which will help me and my support raising endeavors. I have been selected as a missionary candidate to work with an organization called Habitat for Missionaries. Habitat for Missionaries partners with local churches to rehab, and sell houses. When the house is complete (and sells) the missionary, in this case me, receives 100% of the profit. This project could potentially put me over the top and complete my support raising!! :-D

It is definitely a big project, but I am so thankful that God has provided this opportunity. Tomorrow I will be doing a walk through of the house and will have a better idea of what exactly needs to be done. We are hoping to flip the house in 52 days and put it on the market early June. 

This project is a great way to be involved with my mission and use your skills to serve the Lord hands on. If anyone is interested in volunteering your time and skills to work on this house, if you or anyone you know is interested in starter home, or if you have any other questions, please email me. Or for those of you who attend EHWC, there will be a chance for you to sign up after each service.  I will also be posting updates here on my blog throughout the project. 

My final request is that you pray along side of me as we ask Jesus to take leadership of this project. I truly believe that if it's bathed in prayer it will be a success. For detailed prayer suggestions please join my prayer team to receive my monthly prayer newsletter (enter your email in the box to the left of this post.)

Disconnecting to Connect

Social Media might as well be my middle name. I get excited when I learn about new programs online. I love the internet. I love facebook. I love twitter. I think they're all great tools for communication, sharing information, and in short make life a lot easier. I think they're all very beneficial and define our society today. They are part of my "deep culture" (an AmeriCorps term, meaning they make me who I am) - I have "grown-up" with these resources and I can't imagine life without them.

However, like all things if used too much they can become addicting, or harmful in nature. There is a fine line between the "good" and the "bad" of each of these resources. Sometimes, probably more often than not, I cross the line. I spend too much time on facebook. I get caught up in the internet and hours of un-productivity (I think I just made that word up) pass by. What do I gain from all the time I spend online? Not too much. 

So, what if I substitute the time I spend on the internet, facebook, and twitter with something that could make a difference? What if I spend the same amount of time I waste putzing around on the internet, connecting with God? What if use that time for prayer or reading my bible? Or perhaps building relationships with people in the world, not online, reading more, learning my Albanian or practicing my backgammon skills (some of the things on my to-do before Albania list.)

Last year when I came home from our mission trip to Cambodia I felt the need to disconnect from the internet - cold turkey. On the trip I was made aware that it held too high a priority in my life and needed to stop. It was an addiction. So I took a 21 day vacation from it all. My goal: draw closer to God.

As I've had a year to reflect on those 3 short weeks, I can look back and see that it was one of the times in my life I have felt the closest to God. In hindsight, I can see that we got a lot accomplished during those three weeks (some pretty significant things, might I add). Like kicking any addiction (I'd assume) it wasn't easy, I craved the internet and so desperately wanted to log on to facebook many times. But when I returned the internet and facebook didn't seem so important anymore, and initially, my interest of being online was minimal compared to what it was before the vacation.

It's amazing how clearly I was able to hear God speaking when I removed a distraction of the world. Though the internet is a great tool it often clutters my life and distracts me from what's important.

My mission this year: 40 days with limited internet and email, and no facebook or twitter. The goal: to continue grow in my relationship with God.

Sometimes you need to disconnect to connect. To refuel the relationship, and to reset priorities. As I grow with Christ and in my spiritual disciplines, I am able to cross back over the line, kick the addiction, and use social media for good.

Shunem House

Shunem House is the best place in the world! In my opinion it's even better than Disney World, can you imagine that? Mostly because of Jim and Jeanette Vermilya and their wonderful hospitality, delicious food, and humorous stories.

Shunem House is a home for missionaries who are back in the states and don't have a home. It's a place where missionaries can come to relax, and be loved on for a while.

Here is a promo video that I had a small role in creating while Katie spent countless hours finalizing. Check it out and you'll see why it is such a wonderful place to be!

Did you know? My mom appears in this video more than I do, and I'm a missionary.

Kuptoj

I reached a new milestone today: I had my first unprompted thought in Albanian. The thought may have been only one word, but still... it was in response to a conversation in English, and it came to me before the English word!

...and yes, I did feel the need to document something this exciting on the blog! ;-)

We are Global Partners

"Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of 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


I am a Global Partner. 
What is your passion? You can share Jesus with the world and become a Global Partner too, even if you're not Wesleyan!

All trained...

I just returned home after spending the week in Indiana at a week-long missionary training. It was the second of two trainings required for me to complete before I can depart for Albania. I was one (and the oldest) of 5 people at the training. There with me was my Albanian partner, Katie, Lauren who is heading to Zambia and Sam and Sean who are going to Australia.  We spent the week learning about different topics such as: cross-cultural ministry, personal security and hostage survival, spiritual warfare, and many other "-ology" sessions. The days were long but the information was valuable.

We were privileged to stay at Shunem House - a home for missionaries. Let's just say we definitely weren't roughing it. Jim and Jeanette (the hosts) took good care of us. Each morning we awoke to breakfasts similar to what my mom makes only on Christmas morning. Katie and I were able to spend some extra time there to create promo-video for Shunem Ministries. It was a great time to relax and get to know each other better.

I will now recap the week with pictures.

Limos are the cheapest mode of transportation. So... we took a limo from the airport

one of the 19 rooms at Shunem

Katie, Me, Lauren, Sam and Sean

Lauren took advantage of break time!

Playing Settlers of Catan on our lunch break

The Shunammite woman serenades us with her accordion at breakfast

We made it to the wall of fame!

A friendly game of Catch Phrase (the girls won!)

Shooting the promo-video

 

our editing suite!

Sad to leave these wonderful people...

*special thanks to Katie and Sam from whom I stole these pictures ;-)

Happy Birthday Jesus!

Isn’t it kind of silly that we get presents on Christmas? I mean don’t get me wrong Christmas morning, sitting by the tree, opening presents is one of my favorite times of the year. But year after year we celebrate Jesus’ birthday by giving and getting ourselves presents. Huh?

Let’s put in the context of our birthday… Each year people celebrate, have parties and exchange gifts on our special day but we’re never included in any of the festivities, invited to the party or given any gifts. I would be crushed! … and if it repeated every year?? Yikes!

BUT thankfully we don’t have to worry about that – our birthday is our birthday.  YAY! Each year as we get older the celebration looks different, but it’s still our special day. This Christmas wouldn’t it be cool if we actually celebrated with Jesus on His birthday? Included Him in the day, give Him a present, and make Him the special guest of honor?

Get this: The best gift we can give Him, and the only thing He wants, is free! We don’t have to spend hours trying to figure out the prefect gift, spend tons of money on it or even deal with the crowds at the mall. The only thing He wants for His birthday is you. He wants to know you and have a relationship with you, His favorite child.

How? one might ask. Good question! Simply start by inviting Jesus into your life. Tell Him you want to have a relationship with Him. Talk to Him: ask Him questions, tell Him your problems and fears, tell Him everything good that’s going on, just like you would with any friend of yours. There is no right or wrong way, no special time, or day, or time of the day. This makes giving the gift even easier because all you have to do is be yourself!  Check out the bible, do research, ask questions, seek truth, go to church, the list could go on and on…

...And as your relationship grows you will see the irony in all of this is by you giving yourself as a gift to Jesus, you are actually the one receiving the gift. 

Christmas Songs

Top 5: My Favorite (under-rated) Christmas Songs

(please note: it's the song, not necessarily the video that is my favorite)

5. Carol of The Bells - Trans-Siberian Orchestra

 

4. A Baby Changes Everything - Faith Hill

3. Breath of Heaven (Mary's Song) - Amy Grant

2. Joseph's Lullaby - Mercy Me

1. Mary Did You Know?

Praying Away Spiritual Warfare

"For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places." - Ephesians 6:12 (NLT)

Have you ever been attacked by Satan? A team of us traveled to Cambodia last February to learn more about human trafficking and what we could do in the U.S. to take a stand against it. Prior to us leaving, and then throughout the trip Satan was doing everything in his power to bring out team down - physically, emotionally and spiritually. He was very upset that we stepped into his territory to try to further the Kindgom of God!

Thankfully as Christians, we had nothing to worry about because in the end, we know that Jesus has triumphed over evil. We took confidence in knowing that with the help of the Armies of Heaven and all our faithful prayer warriors, we could overcome the obstacles that Satan was throwing at us that week.

Throughout the trip we were constantly relying on our prayer partners back home. It was through their intercession and the grace of God we all made it home safely - and we were only gone for a week!

While in Albania for two years, there is no doubt that I will need a team of faithful prayer partners who will constantly lift me, the team and my ministry in prayer. There is no possible way I can do this alone. Like in Cambodia, I will be immersed in Satan's territory and this will not make him happy.

Will you join me in prayer? Can you commit to pray for me at least once a week (note: at least) starting now? Sign up for my monthly e-prayer update in the box to the left for ideas of what to pray for.

Giving and Getting

 "Our hearts ache, but we always have joy. We are poor, but we give spiritual riches to others. We own nothing, and yet we have everything." - 2 Corinthians 6:10

This summer I was blessed to spend a week in Haiti on a mission trip with a team of wonderful people from my church. Sometimes I feel the mindset with mission trips are that we (Americans) are going to a country to help them, and to to give them stuff. And we did. We had 20 suitcases filled with all sorts of donations: clothes, formula, medical and teaching supplies, games, arts and crafts and a small monetary donation. You can't argue the fact that we didn't give while we were there.

One night towards the end of the week we were privileged to have a Haitian woman sing "Give Thanks" in Creole to us. It was a beautiful, incredibly humbling experience, and part of the trip the team will remember forever. Since the earthquake the whole country has been through so much loss and suffering, pain and heartache- I can't even imagine what it must be like. Most of the country doesn't have the basic necessities that we as Americans take for granted everyday like a roof over their head, food to eat, and a clean supply of water. Yet they know the secret to life, and because of this, they as a country are far "richer" than America. They don't use medicine to cope with their depression, they don't sit and wallow in self pity or complain about what they don't have, they take everything to the Lord and constantly singing praises to Him for what they do have. Being in Haiti was such a great reminder not only of how much of my life I take for granted, but also how we as Christians should be living on a daily basis.

When you get on the plane to come back home with empty suitcases and part of your heart still there, you realize that you've still received way more than you gave. As Thanksgiving is a day of proclaiming what you are thankful for I thought it would be an appropriate day to share the song "Give Thanks" with you.

What am I thankful for? The list is too long and could go on for days. So instead of listing each individual thanks, today (and everyday) I am giving thanks to God because He's given me His Son. As Haiti knows all of the earthly possessions I am thankful for could be gone in an instant, but nothing can ever take away my gift of eternal life. Thanks be to God!