Living the faith is a struggle.  The Lord is my strength, and he never fails to pull me up.  These first few days of this adventure have been stirring my soul. I wouldn’t say that I am at peace, for through turmoil the Father is growing me, and I know his peace will come in time.  Knowing the power that lives within me because of Christ is a little scary.  I desire to see Him use me to do great things, but Im honestly a little afraid. He calls me to seek Him and trust Him, and well…I am going to try, but there is a great work still developing within me....

“But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever. Amen!” – 2 Peter 3:18 “Growth.” The word that has always struck me with power. But it hasn’t been until recently that I have realized that it is a word that can only be defined in Christ. My life has recently been filled with Jesse attempting to let her heart grow in beautiful directions. Despite this beautiful intention, I slowly realized that I was not moving in a direction toward the Lord. If anything, I was moving in the wrong...

Wow! I can’t even begin to describe the many things God has already done. So much of the Lord has been represented and glorified at camp and my time here has truly been a blessing for so many reasons. I have become more confident in my walk with Christ because of the wonderful leaders and spiritual guidance I was so graciously offered. My heart is eager to receive what the Lord is going to pour out and my ears burn with excitement to hear what he has to say. So much of what I have been given here will resignate in my soul forever. I am beyond grateful for this experience for preparing...

  I love the gospel of Mark.  Yes, the gospel of John is probably my actual favorite of the four, but I love Mark.  I especially love Jesus’ first words in the entire book: “The time has come. . .  The kingdom of God is near.  Repent and believe the good news!”  (Mark 1:15)  I love those words, “the kingdom of God is near.”  I love that we are going to proclaim those words all over the plains and mountains and valleys of Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania.  I absolutely love that.  But right now, I love it even...

Training Camp…man, oh man. Where do I even begin. These last four days have been one of the most incredible, passionate, life-changing times of my life. It was also by far the hardest. I never knew that I wasn’t listening to what God had to really MIND BLOWING. We have hiked up mountains with logs to experience the weight of all the things we are leaving behind. We camped under a tarp in the FREEZING cold with only three items to experience limitations in life. We have worshiped till we can no longer speak, and we have pushed ourselves to the point of exhaustion. But, through...

“Intellectually we all know that we will die, but we do not know it in the sense that the knowledge becomes a part of us. We do not really know it in the sense of living as though it were true. On the contrary, we live as though our lives would go on forever.” ~Frederic Buechner I was thumbing through my journal today looking over the past week of training camp and I found this quote on an index card that used to hang over my desk at college, I must have stuffed it in there while I was packing up my dorm but I’m glad I did. It constantly reminds me that this life is so...