New Year, New Life

Well dear friends and followers...it has been a while since I have written. In fact, I have not written since I was in Africa last year. However being the fabulous new year that it is, I would like to update you all on what the Lord is doing in my life. 

First of all we started the New Year off right by taking a road trip with Maegan Megatron, Brenner, Ali, and Callie to the Passion 2010 conference in Atlanta.  http://www.268generation.com/passion2010 

 It was amazing. I got to see old friends from Africa along the way, and heard great speakers like Beth Moore, John Piper, Louie Giglio, Francis Chan....to name a few...and got to worship with Hillsong, Chris Tomlin, David Crowder etc. The Lord did some great work on all of our hearts while we were there. I also got to see my bestest African friend Kitty! Who will be joining me in India in less than a month-but I am jumping the gun on that news....so you will have to wait a paragraph or two. 

After we returned from Passion I had an interview with world relief  www.wr.org about a case manager position thanks to my good friend Sam. The next day I got the call that I got the job! This is my first week, and I love it already. I could be eating my words later, but I feel truly blessed by His grace to have this opportunity. It is missions and social work all in one, and a truly humbling and merciful experience. I have been meeting my refugee clients these past few days, and they are the most precious people you have ever met. So grateful, so thankful for what they have. I am humbled by the Lord in their presence, and taken back by His grace. I am moved to teary eyes by their stories, and overcome by their hope and attitude after remembering all they have conquered.

Recently I have been reading The Life of Amy Carmichael, A Chance to Die by Elisabeth Elliot. Amy was a missionary in India in the 1800's for 55 years without furlough. In the book, Amy speaks of Phillipians 2:7 that reads "He made Himself of no reputation and took upon Him the form of a servant," then states, "Pray that we may get down to the bottom of that verse..." This statement has been tugging on my heart a lot recently, so I thought I would share it in hopes that we could all think about that verse this week. Think about how our great God took on human flesh, in the form of a servant because of His immense love for us. And then think about how rarely we serve others, or even think about the poor and hurting in this big WORLD. My new job has recently opened my eyes and heart to this. I love learning about social work in school, but I will never forget my good friend Kathleen telling me that social work would not exist if the Church was doing what the Bible calls it to do. I recommend reading The Hole in our Gospel by Rich Stearns for more info on this matter. Think about it.

Finally, if any of you don't know my mother, myself, and my good friend who served in Africa with me Kathleen will be traveling to India on Feb 11-21 to set up medical/dental camps in the rural villages around Hydrabad. Kathleen and I will be doing children's ministry since we obviously do not practice medicine or dentistry, but I must say I would like to pull a tooth of two! Haha. Your prayers for this journey and they people we will meet there are in GREAT NEED and GREATLY APPRECIATED!!

I think that is all for now, more updates to come I promise!