I am exactly where I am supposed to be.  This week has been incredible! Can I just start by saying that I have the BEST team!?  (I also am LOVING all these accents! Kentucky, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Michigan and Texas!) Training camp was awesome! God has been working on us this week, as individuals, and as a team. Aside from learning about the cultures we are going to, and the ministry side of it, we have been challenged to work on ourselves as well. There is a lot of work to still do. And it is an ongoing process. We talked a lot about giving up in order to receive what...

The blood of Jesus Christ is enough. Take a look at the plague of the firstborns in Exodus Chapter 11. The firstborn son in every family across Egypt was going to be killed. As an alternative, the Lord requested the families to slaughter a lamb and to place the blood of the lamb on the top and sides of their doorframe and… “when I see the blood, I will pass over you.” WHAT A PROMISE!   Along with all of the packs each passporter brought to training camp that weighed 50 pounds exactly, came a lot of burdens and struggles of the past and present. Imagine a perfect, cloudless,...

Training camp so far has taught us so much. It is really preparing us to go out and do the best mission we can. So far I have learned that we are basically going to do evangelism. That first scared the crap out of me. Like am I good enough to go spread God’s love and word? I really struggled with that thought. With my group we prayed together and talked a bunch. We are all good enough because we have God to equip us on the field. What really got to me here is the true worship. You will never know what worship is until you do it with a room full of 200 God fearing people. It doesn’t...

Spirit gives birth to Spirit   Jesus came in human form. He came to earth from being our God to being a servant, worth nothing. His power to change peoples lives is through God’s love. Our weapon is His love to defeat the battle we are about to encounter. This is what God has taught me this year, preparing me for His work. His love is our strongest weapon. To love people that don’t deserve it. Loving people that are hard to love. But Jesus sums it up as loving the unloveable. When God speaks, life happens. His spirit empowers us and and moves us to become the person that...

I had no idea what to expect from training camp for The Passport. Visions of boring name-games and lame team-building exercises came to mind. I came with low expectations and a “let’s-just-get-to-Africa” mentality. Although I am still an anxious mindset to get to Africa, I have been completely blown away by the personal and spiritual growth I have experienced in three days here. God has been opening my heart and my mind from the moment I got here and I can’t wait to see how He continues to stretch and mold me in Africa. Here are a couple of things I have learned during...

You should know that I love the extreme. If I see a river I want to swim in it. If I see a fast car I want to race it. I love living in the moment and jumping headlong into things. But I was in no way ready to fully realize how extreme God wants to be with me before this trip started. Despite being a Chiristian for all my life, I had never fully surrendered to Him. I had never just opened myself and told God that He was free to come in and do whatever the heck He wanted in me. Whatever He wanted to do with me. And I finally said that at camp this week. For the first time in my life I stepped...