The Journey Begins...

Training Camp. Ha. Synonymous with "Exhaustion Camp"
This will be a short post, because I have precious little time, and sleep is needing to take precedent over anything else right now, like blogging. :)
Training camp is awesome. We get up every day and learn and grow, moving at 90 miles a minute to cover everything we need to know, forming relationships that go deep quickly, and (for me personally) having more God-contact than in the past 2 months combined. This is amazing, but really tiring. I love it. :D

The girls on my team (Romania) are:
Rachel Hoile
Bailey Osborn
Debi Miller

I have never been more excited about spending time with a group of people before. These girls are awesome. And when I say awesome, I mean ridiculously fantastic. It's going to be an amazing summer!!!!! We are learning lots of skills and playing games to teach us about trust, communication and teamwork. It's a great experience. I can't wait to see how this summer transforms us!

As of right now, all I know is that my team leaves on Monday at 11 a.m. for the airport. This will probably be my last blog before we get to Romania! I just wanted to say hello and let you know what's going on, and that I'm working towards this amazing trip!

I'll leave you with a thought that's been on my heart because of a scripture reading from this morning. Mark 9:35:
Sitting down, Jesus called the twelve and said "If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all.

The servant of all. The servant of ALL? ...wow. There are SO many implications in just those four words. I want to spend the rest of my summer finding out every possible meaning, every way to apply that phrase in my life. I want it inscribed onto my heart. The servant of all.

wish I had more time, but like I said... sleep. :) let me know your thoughts! Keep us in your prayers!
Goodnight!!!

It's Almost Time!!

Hello friends!

In a very short ten days I will be arriving in El Paso to begin training camp for my summer mission trip to Romania! Each of you played a significant part in making this happen, and I can not thank you enough. God has used you as a tool to fulfill part of his plan for my life, and I am so excited to go and serve Him! I will be updating this blog at least once a week (hopefully- haha) during my trip. I look forward to sharing my experiences and God's accomplishments with you throughout. Thank you for making this a possibility for me! My motivation for this summer is 1 Corinthians 13:1-3:

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor, and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

I believe that our purpose on this earth is to show the love of God to others, and I believe that goal should be the sole motivation of every single thing we do in life. Nothing that I do matters, if done without the love of God. My prayer is to be God's love to those I meet, and I ask that it be your prayer as well.

Thank you so much!

Kristen