It's all about HIM!

Friends and Family,

I want to start by thanking every single one of you who has supported me through prayer, guidance, and just for being a shoulder to “cry on” so to speak. I honestly am blown away and completely filled with joy to see the things God is doing in the lives of those close to me, and I’m super excited for what is to come for all of you! 

With a semi-broken heart, I am letting all of you know that I am no longer going to Costa Rica. Some of you know in great detail what is going on, and some of you are reading this scratching your head wondering what the heck happened.  I think I am in the second group- wondering what the heck happened. I have a million questions and not many answers. What I can tell you is God has blessed me greatly with the ability to discern and know what looks suspicious and what does not.  The only explanation I can offer right now is God’s timing does not want me to leave the country just yet.

I am not discouraged from going anywhere, in fact the opposite. I had a horrible experience, but I am not deterred from following what God wants me to do. Already there a couple options for me coming up in the winter. I will give more details as God leads me to what He wants for me.

Honestly, this is hard for me right now. First of all, I was looking forward to working with these kids. Kids have always been near and dear to my heart, and knowing I won’t see their faces is a tough pill to swallow. I know it’s not God’s will for me to be there, and that certainly softens the blow, but I still have a bit of an ache in my heart for them. Second of all, I feel very hurt and very lied to and mislead by an organization I trusted. I do ask for prayer in that, I don’t want to be bitter or angry. A good way to pray against bitterness, a good friend taught me, is to pray in the opposite spirit. In this example, pray for me to see the hope, pray for wisdom and guidance for those who caused the hurt, and pray for me to understand and clearly see God’s active hand moving in my life.

This is NOT the end, only the start of something beautiful God is doing in my life. I can’t even tell you the change I’ve seen in myself from just even a year ago. A year ago, I never would have even considered leaving my comfort zone, my safety net, of my hometown. I can say that my new comfort zone, my safety net, is Jesus. And being able to say that, and believe it in my heart, has changed my life in so many ways. 

Thank you for praying for me, thank you for loving me, and thank you for pointing me to God in everything thus far. This trip may have failed, but HE certainly has not. I will keep you all updated on things as they come up! 

 "Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose trust is the LORD.⁸ He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit." Jeremiah 17:7-8

In Christ, Jess

Prayer

All I can ask for right now is prayer. A lot of things are starting to fall apart regarding my departure, my finances, and a lack of contact with the team leader. Some situations came up that I can not go into detail about- just pray.

I do want to say thank you so much to those who have been praying for me, who have been encouraging me, and who have heard all of my ridiculous fears. Thank you to those who have been obedient to the Lord's calling, whether it meant supporting me financially or prayerfully, or both. I want to encourage everyone to be obedient to God and what He is asking of you, no matter where you are in your life. His plan is better- I'm learning this more and more every day!

Not much....

Hey hey! Not much of an update yet. Just a major prayer request- I have to get my plane ticket by next monday- and basically I'll be paying for it out of my own pocket. It's ok- I know God is good and He'll provide. I guess I just need prayer that I'll be able to surrender my finances to Him! Also, prayer that the remaining money comes in somehow. Thank you so much to those of you who have been praying for me! Also thanks to those who have supported me either through my letters or by buying bracelets! Every little bit helps! Don't forget to spread the word to your friends :)

Oh- and some exciting news- I am registered for First Aid/CPR/AED classes next week! And the good news is I will be certified in all of these things and it only cost $70! Praise God! I will be able to use this certification in Costa Rica as well as my own babysitting ministry here at home!

Thanks for still being interested in reading this as well. I realize I'm not the best writer in the world! BUT God is a million and one times more interesting than me!

Love and Blessings to you all,

Jess :)

So unworthy, Yet still He loves me!

What a crazy few weeks it has been! May is nearly over and I've been busier than ever! I graduated from the University of Montana on May 14th, and life sure hasn't slowed down a bit ever since! In the next month, I am moving, my best friend from high school is getting married, and I will be going out of the country for the first time in my life (unless you count Canada- which if you do than you are more sheltered than me!)!

I don't have much to say right now, things are just busy, busy, busy! BUT I would like to let everyone know prayer/support letter's are slowly (but surely) getting to people. If I haven't gotten you one- I haven't forgot, I'm just so unorganized it's not even funny!

Next- I would like to share with you an opportunity to support me. My ten year old sister Peyton is helping me make "salvation bracelets" which I will be selling. You can check out my facebook page for pictures, or I can send you one via email if you let me know. Salvation bracelets are bracelets that are made to tell the most basic form of the gospel. We were born, created in God's image, seperated by sin, made clean through Jesus' blood, etc. The bracelets will come with an index card which will explain each bead, and will give a bible verse that correlates to the bead (there are several bible verses that could work for each bead, but I just gave a few more well-known ones). The bracelets will be $3 each, or you can get two for $5. If you want to get two, but only want to keep one, you can donate your second one to one of the kids I will be working with in Costa Rica! My goal is to be able to take some bracelets down for them! Also, the bracelets will serve as a reminder to you to pray for me and my mission in Costa Rica while I am gone! See- everyone wins :).

One thing I've learned so far in all this is how much God can change my desires. Arguably, one of the most mis-understood verses in the Bible is Psalm 37:4 "Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your hear". I LOVE the Disney movie Aladdin! My favorite character is by far the genie. Because he just gives you whatever you want! Psalm 37:4 makes it seem as if God is a genie. You ask for a bike, He gives you a bike. You ask for a million dollars, BOOM, you're rich. I hope all of you reading this know this is NOT in fact the meaning of Pslam 37:4. These last two weeks, I've learned that delighting yourself in the Lord means your own selfish desires start to become less important, and you start to desire the things God desires for you. You want YOUR plan less and less, and HIS perfect plan more and more. I won't expound much on this subject, as my goal is not to lecture, but to tell you God is moving in my life in this way. My desires, my hopes, my dreams, are slowly being surrendered into God's hands. It's definately not a cake walk to do this, but I'm finding more and more peace and just pure joy in my life. God really does know better than us (thankfully!)!

Blessings,
Jess

Perserverance

Hello Everyone! Hope this week is treating you well so far (even though it's monday).  Things are starting to slowly, but surely, come together for Costa Rica. I should be getting my letters back so I can start getting them sent out, and this week I am working on a project (which I will give you details about later) that will help with raising support as well.

This last week has been quite challenging to say the least. I felt so overwhelmed with finals, papers, and everything else life seems to bring. On top of it all, I have not yet raised any money for this trip (I have until June 23rd to raise $2195), and a portion of the money was due today for a plane ticket. I knew there was no way I could accomplish this (keyword: I). Once the realization hit me, I found myself on my knees (almost literally) and giving God the situation. An hour later, I got a phone call from one of my contacts for Costa Rica. The dead line to purchase my plane ticket was moved to the first week of June! Talk about an act of God! There is NO WAY anything else could have made this happen! What a relief!

Now I am definately feeling the weight of being gone for three weeks this summer. I am graduating from college this saturday, but I still have an internship I need to complete. I am struggling to find a place that will take me on. Everyone seems to have excuses left and right as to why they can not take interns ( I guess our economy can't be that bad- they are denying someone to work for free). And in terms of finding a job, noboyd seems to keen on hiring someone who will be gone three weeks in a row this summer. Needless to say, I feel stressed! BUT the good news is- God already saw this coming!

God sees what we can not. This has been pressing upon my mind lately. I found it odd the timing of my call to go to Costa Rica. Why did God want me to go THIS summer. Why not next summer? I could have had a chance to build up some credibility at a job, and then getting time off would be easy. The answer is simple: First and foremost- GOD is a provider. Anything I have belongs to Him anyways, and any income I've made, is only because of Him. It's really been a conviction for me this week!

Despite everything, my relationship with God gets stronger and stronger, because I cling to Him tighter and tighter. I am confident in my Lord and Savior, and know this too shall pass (as cheesy as that sounds). A verse I was comforted by this week is from Hebrews 12:1-2: "Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God." ESV.

FOR THE JOY THAT WAS SET BEFORE HIM! WOW! We know Jesus is our Joy! And we know what we have to look forward to. Life on this Earth is NOT it for us! Take comfort in that this week- and know that even in our weakest moments, God is still Glorified!

Jess

It all lead me here to this

I have done a few practice rounds now, but I'm still not very familiar with this, so again, bear with me as I figure out what "blogging" is!

For those who haven't heard, or are reading this blog scratching your head, I will fill you in. A couple weeks ago I was accepted to go on a missions trip to Costa Rica. In Costa Rica, I will be working in an orphanage, possibly a medical clinic, to help meet the needs while I'm there. In order for you to understand what this trip means to me, I need to back up to a year ago and explain from there. So sit back, relax, and enjoy the read:

In March of 2010, I was meeting with a girl I was mentoring. I can't even remember what we were talking about, but I mentioned to this girl I would never in a million years go on a missions trip, not even a short term one. My mindset was, "why leave the country when the guy in the car next to me at a stop light doesn't know Jesus?". That is definately a good mindset to be in, BUT I was more using it as an excuse to be irresponsible and disobedient. Not long after I swore off of mission trips, I was bored and procrastinating homework, and randomly decided to look up short term mission trips online. The one to Costa Rica came up and I was very interested in it, oddly enough. I was so interested I filled out one of those "i'm interested" things they have on websites so the director could contact me. He did contact me, and sent me the application.

I won't go into too much detail,  but long story short, I never ended up filling out that application. I could take the cop-out and say God wasn't calling me, but I'll just be honest and say He was calling, I just wasn't willing to respond and react. I was putting MY wants and MY needs ahead of His perfect plan for me, and trust me when I say our relationship paid the price.

In November of 2010, I was on a trip in Seattle/Vancouver with a lot of college students from my church SHEC (South Hills Evangelical Church). After talking to a good friend, Josh Sanders, God revealved through Josh that I was letting fear direct my paths. I was letting selfishness direct my paths. Josh, who had been to Africa and several other mission trips, said something that stuck with me. I asked him what he thought would happen if he died in Africa, or anywhere else he'd gone. His response, "If God wanted me to die in Africa, then I was going to die in Africa. There was no way around it.".

Josh made a very good point that sometimes gets missed. God is SOVEREIGN over EVERYTHING! We see this theme constantly through out scripture. We see it in 1 Samuel 2: 6-7 (The Lord kills and brings to life;he brings down to Sheol and raises up.7 The Lord makes poor and makes rich;he brings low and he exalts.). We see it again in Psalm 139:16 (Your eyes saw my unformed substance;in your book were written, every one of them,the days that were formed for me,when as yet there was none of them). We see it a lot in the Bible. Pretty much, there is no reason for me to fear Costa Rica. 1 John 4:18 states "There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love."

Since I have been made perfect in God's unending love, He has cast out my fears and on June 26th, 2011 I embark on my first ever mission trip overseas to San Jose, Costa Rica! I am so excited for what God is doing with this, and can't wait to share with everyone, even if they get sick of hearing about it ;). Do I still have fears and unanswered questions? Of course! But do I know and trust my perfect Savior, and know that He knows the answers? Absolutely! 

Support letters will hopefully be going out soon, and one or two more fundraisers are in the works currently! Thanks for taking the time to read this, pray for me, and support God's mission, and me :).

In His Service,
Jess :)

Getting Started!

Thanks for taking the time to check this out! I’m really bad at this stuff so please be patient with me as I learn about blogging (that’s what it’s called right?????).  This is the first blog I’ve ever really made so hopefully I get the hang of this!

Basically, two weeks ago I was accepted to go on a short term missions trip to San Jose, Costa Rica. I will be working in an orphanage for three weeks and I couldn't be more excited (except I get more excited everyday so that's kind of a lie)! I leave June 26th and return on or around July 18th. Right now it's really stressful trying to get everything taken care of, considering the team I'm traveling with is all the way in Buffalo, NY. I am also trying to finish my senior semester of college in two weeks! BUT- the good news is none of this requires MY strength! Everything going on is all God's doing, and believe me, that's the way it needs to be. He's taking care of everything right now and working in my life, and in this ministry i'm preparing for as well!

In the meantime, I’m sending out support letters within the next couple weeks and then starting another project to raise funds (more details to come)! I’m really excited for what is to come, and I thank God so much for everything He has done in my life! I’ll write up a short testimony soon for you all to read, which will explain my mission in Costa Rica this summer. Again, thank you so much for your support. I appreciate so much!

“Look among the nations, and see; wonder and be astounded. For I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe if told”- Habakkuk 1:5 (ESV)