Departure Rescheduled

On Wednesday morning, the day before my scheduled departure, I woke up feeling very dizzy and nauseous. My parents, sister & brother-in-law, and nephews had planned to spend the day with me and I was hoping to have a wonderful time just being with them one last time before saying goodbye. Well, I ended up spending the whole day in bed, throwing up off and on. Yuck. I was so sad that I couldn't play with my little nephews one last time or spend a few hours laughing and visiting with my family. :(

As I went to bed that night I was praying, "Lord Jesus, you know my physical limits and right now I am beyond being able to fly. Please restore my health and strength so I can fly out tomorrow morning, but if I am still this sick I will trust it is not your will for me to be on that plane."

At 3:00am I woke up, optimistic that I was recovered and able to drive off for the airport by 4am. However, within a few minutes I was back in bed throwing up again and thinking, "There's no way I can make it to the airplane carrying my carry-ons in this shape, much less make it through 24 hours of travel without being a total wreck." So we cancelled my flights. My fellow passengers have no idea what a blessing they just received! :)

After having lots of time to sleep, rest, and recover, I am now feeling much better. I am rescheduled to fly out Sunday morning and arrive in Ethiopia Monday night around 8:25pm. Although I will miss the first day of the language course, I trust this timing is the Lord's will and I am so very thankful to have some extra time to spend with my family before flying out (hopefully feeling strong and healthy!).

My next post should be an update from Ethiopia!!!

Leaving for Ethiopia!!!

God has done nothing short of an amazing work to bring me to this point! I am now fully funded and flying out to Ethiopia on Thursday!! Hallelujah!!! Thank you so very much to all of you friends and supporters who are praying for me or supporting me financially!! You are a blessing and I praise God for you!!

I leave Portland at 8:00am and arrive in Addis Ababa at 8:15ish Friday night via Washington D.C., Frankfurt, and Khartoum (Sudan). Ethiopia is 11 hours ahead of Oregon, so it'll be quite a change in time. An interesting tid-bit I learned from the Smiths is that Ethiopia follows a completely different calendar from the West. Therefore, I will also be stepping back in time in a sense, as it is currently the year 2001 in Ethiopia! What a strange change!! But only the first of many new changes to come!

The thought of saying goodbye to all of my friends and family this weekend and next week is a very sad one. Yet I rejoice at beginning the good work the Lord has ordained for me to do in Ethiopia!!! What an honor to be called to serve overseas. I pray each word and action will bring Him glory.

I am so anxious to see Shane, Allyson, Hannah, Mia, and Moses!!! I just learned that Allyson has malaria and Hannah is very sick. Please pray for this family! It is a blessing that I can get there right away to help take care of them all!! Please pray that I will arrive healthy and energized so I can give Shane a rest from caring for them.

You all are priceless to my ministry. Thank you for all of your prayers!!!

A Merry Christmas with My Family!

Christmas in Oregon was unusual this year - we had snow! It first snowed in mid-December, and once a storm began the Saturday before Christmas, the snow just keep building up until we had a gorgeous winter wonderland! We ended up with about 16" of snow! I just had to get outside and make a snow angel, build a snowman, and throw some snowballs!

My fun in the snow!

My older sister, three nephews, and I drove down to my folk's place the day before the storm rolled in, and my sister was unable to return home for several days. So we all hunkered down in the cozy, warm house and enjoyed spending the week together, excitedly looking forward to Christmas day when my brother-in-law would be off of work and my younger sister would arrive from Seattle on the train. Well, Praise the Lord she got in!! The trains were down for a few days, but started again the day before Christmas!

My Family on Christmas Day

My sister and nephews with their elegant snowman -complete with bushy eyebrows and hair!

Spending Christmas with my family this year was an absolute joy! I thank the Lord that he allowed me to be here with all of them for the holidays!!

What a Season!

The Smith family arrived safely in Ethiopia just before Thanksgiving!!! It really is quite beneficial to have them there ahead of me - I get to hear all about what it will be like before I go!

Life In Ethiopia:

• I will have electricity for 2 hours a day - 7:00-9:00pm
• It is illegal to use Skype in Ethiopia (no seeing family or friends on the computer as I talk with them) :-(
• Holidays are celebrated with special meals - like warthog for Thanksgiving! WOW!!

So, while they are getting all settled in, I am working on my RDM (Resource Development Ministry) here until I go. Things are going well, especially for this being a busy time of year and crazy time in our economy! But GOD IS ALWAYS FAITHFUL!! Because he made it clear he has called me to this ministry, I know for sure I can trust him to provide all of the resources I'll need to do the job! I'll be filling my month as much as I can with speaking engagements at churches and with small groups, and watching expectantly for what God is going to do!!

In the meantime, it is a huge BLESSING to spend the holidays with my family!!! We had a wonderful Thanksgiving together with an amazing, mouth-watering, delicious feast prepared by my culinary-student sister! While she chopped, basted, mixed, and did incredibly fancy work in the kitchen, I acted as her sous-chef. What tasty fun!

SIMco in Charlotte, NC

I spent a wonderful 2 1/2 weeks at my mission headquarters going through orientation and training. SIM (Serving In Mission) has a simple yet powerful motto: By Prayer. Each weekday our group gathered for a morning prayer and worship time to lift up different countries and missionaries to our heavenly Father. I came away from this training with a very valuable reminder - to constantly pray!

When facing the unknown - pray!
When in need - pray!
When in trouble - pray!
When celebrating - pray!
When thankful - pray!

No matter what life throws at us or what situation we find ourselves in, our first move should always be to run to our loving Savior!!!

Another highlight for me was getting to know the amazing group of people going through SIMco training with me who are from all over the states headed to all over the world! Hearing their stories about how God drew them to himself and brought them to this place of preparing to head into missions was amazing! God is so creative and diverse!! I love how everyone's story is so unique yet share the same themes of God's faithfulness, guidance, and loving care!

Here are some of my adorable new friends!

Casey, Rahem, Sarah, Me

Our daily sessions were packed with Bible, missions, and evangelism training. We learned in detail about the differing worldviews of the West versus the East, received excellent training on ministering to Muslims, and gleaned practical tips on living with limited resources. I can't wait to put it all into practice in Ethiopia!!!

So now all the training is completed and I'm one step closer to going overseas. I'm back home in Oregon now working on my RDM (Resource Development Ministry) and looking forward with great anticipation to the day I will arrive in Ethiopia!! Currently, I'm aiming for the end of December... we'll see what timing God has in mind!

Heading to Charlotte, North Carolina

God is SO GOOD!!! As always, of course. It's been amazing how He has directed my steps and led me to where I am now, preparing to go to Langano, Ethiopia. I can't wait to get there and see what He's up to and how He's going to work in and through me!! I'll write the whole story another time about how I got to this point, but for now I'm focusing on trying to get ready to go to training in Charlotte, NC on Thursday, and prepare to head overseas perhaps mid-November. SIM (Serving in Mission) is my mission agency; their headquarters are in Charlotte. I'll be there for 2 1/2 weeks. Please remember me in your prayers - I'm fighting sickness right now.

Meet my missionary family!

I am so excited to join Shane and Allyson Smith in the call to missions overseas! Through a friend, I learned that this family from Texas was looking for a teacher to home-school their three children while they are actively working on the mission field in Africa. Shane's area of expertise is in administration, and Allyson is a nurse practitioner. After communicating with them over e-mail, phone, and mail, it became clear that the Lord was directing my life to join with the Smiths in mission service.

My new students are Hannah (age 11), Mia (age 8), and Moses (age 4). It has been a joy to meet them this September here in Colorado at MTI (Mission Training International). They are each a treasure - it's been so fun to bond with their whole family!