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!

Sharing the gospel all around...

I had a great day today! After months of trying, I finally got to blatantly share the gospel. So today, my teammate Kitty and I went to a study seminar at the University that our friends were teaching. We had made some acquaintances with a few girls there, but not real connections. Well after the teaching was done, people were hanging around and I look and one of our friends was sharing the gospel with a young man, and then another friend was sharing with a girl....it was just crazy! So then Kathleen "kitty" and I start talking to the girls that we knew who were sitting behind us. To make a long story short, we started asking what they believe, and about reincarnation (they are Hindu), and what will happen when they die, and they really didn't have an answer for a lot of stuff that they believed in. So we started talking about what we believed in and laying out the gospel, and they started realizing that a lot of what they believe didn't make much sense (like karma and reincarnation). Now we are having lunch with them next week, so hopefully we will be able to talk more then...so please pray for that! Ultimately, it just felt great to finally share the good news with someone after so long. It was an amazing day! God is good!

Sweat, Blood, Tears, and jumping off a 65ft WATERFALL!

We went hiking (the most painful and wonderful hike of my life) at the Cascades on Saturday. It was gorgeous, and we all jumped off a 65ft waterfall!

I miss my Texas...but love Africa!

American Celebrity

Okay so I know I haven't updated in a while but I just wanted to share with everyone this amazingly funny story that happened to me and my friend Kathleen this weekend. So we went to the beach on Saturday and while we were swimming in the ocean, there was this Indian couple swimming and the husband was trying to teach his wife how to swim. So we decided to get out of the water, and a few minutes later they get out of the water...and then the wife sits down a few feet away from us and the husband takes her picture, so we try to get out of the way of the picture....but then he hands the camera to his wife and comes and SITS on my towel next to me...and wants his picture taken with us! Then they tried talking to us, (while still sitting on my towel) and asked us if we were going to India and stuff like that, but their accent was so thick I could hardly understand them. Anyways, long story short it was fun to be an american celebrity for a few minutes...and very, very amusing. Also we got Henna for the first time -fun!

While it has been a hard road, I think I am finally starting to fall in love with this island and the people on it. It is heartbreaking to be here sometimes because almost daily we see idol worship and can even hear the call to prayer LOUD and clear from our apartment several times a day. Last week we went to a Hindu festival honoring the lord ganesh, we watched hundreds of people worship a god that looks like an elephant, chant around fire, dance, and finally send the god into the sea. He didn't make it far though, and landed face down in the sand. Even though there are strongholds and setbacks, at the same time some wonderful things are happening in my life and the lives of those around us. Last weekend we spoke to a scout group (as pictured above) and really enjoyed spending time with them. I finally cooked an edible meal of stirfry YAY and thankfully our visas were extended so we can stay! I am missing you all and thinking about each of you!
Loving and learning, Andrea

waterfalls and 7colored earth!