Hello from Cincinnati, Ohio

Hello family! Im at the school now getting things together for the Cincinnati project. Well, I can't say that everything is running smoothly. We have had more bumps in the road than I can name. It is very different here in Ohio. The school, neighborhood, and mainly the coordinators. One is better than the last project but others are not so much. I know that may sound a little strange for me to say something like that. And to be honest, I probably shouldn't compare the projects, but things are not running so smoothly. Infact, I am, in many ways serving as the Team Leader, Office Manager and the Project Coordinator. And to be honest, that is not alright with me. I am making many decisions that the PC should be making, thus I am getting very stressed about it. I am not saying that things are not getting done well, because my team is doing a great job, but things are a little more difficult.
I am not so sure that I should be being this honest with all of you, but I really need some prayers sent up to heaven for me and the team. Plus, how are you suppose to know what to pray about if I don't let you know. We are all getting stressed about the situation and have been praying alot about it. But, I am sure that a few more prayers would be appreciated.
As for the Cincinnati life, well, let's just say that it is very different from the Missouri life or even the Texas life. Brother Bunch, I had some Skyline chili yesterday...and YUCK! Well I guess I shouldn't say yuck, but it is definitely different. I dont know if everyone knows about this, but they put chocolate in the chili here. It is more sweet than anything else. Let's just say, I wouldn't choose to go there.
Well, that is really all that I have to update you on. Please continue to pray for Jordan, Matt and Vickie as we all work together. They are all doing a great job and I dont want to put my stress on them. But I guess, I need to remember, not my strength but God's.
Love you all!

Tomorrow starts a new adventure

The Texas Team is now in Cincinnati, Ohio. And no, Brother Bunch, I have not eaten chili yet, BUT tomorrow, we are going to go eat some with one of our coordinators. Im excited! It just better be as good as you said it is. haha!
Well so far we have had a good time. We left Texas on Saturday morning. We stopped in Texarkana, TX, Memphis, and Nashville and ended up here in Cin. In Memphis we stopped at the Peabody hotel and saw a little duck march....which was real cute. Then in Nashville we ate at the Hard Rock Cafe and went to Oprey Mills mall. Then since we have been here, we went the the Creattion Museum yesterday (which was amazing, might I add. Everyone needs to go through that. Definitely worth it). And today we went to the Cincinnati Zoo. I enjoyed the zoo but it is not as good as the St Louis Zoo. Twas expensive (3 dollars for a bottle of watter) and nto as well organized. But we did spend all day there. And can I just tell you, my feet still hurt. I think that part of the reason is because I didnt really wear the best pair of shoes but still.....painful!!
Tomorrow we are moving in the a school called, Rockwell Academy. This school is located close to the bad part of Cin, so please pray for our safety. We drove past there today, it looked ok during the day,but Im gonna be scared at night. So please, dont forget to pray for me and the team and the participants as they travel this weekend.
This next project is what World Changers callas an express project. The students will be coming in on Monday and leaving Saturday morning. It is called an express because it is shorter than the nrmal project.

Prayer requests: Please pray for Matt's and Jordan's parents. They are all traveling for their homes to come and visit us this weekend. Also, pray for the project. We have already run into some trouble and we havent even moved intot he lodging yet. But I have confidence that God has gone before me and the team and has something grand in store for us all.

Well that is pretty much all I have to share with yall for now. And like Ive said before, dont make yourself a stranger to me. I wanna hear from yall.
Love yas!

One last night then off to Ohio

Well, we are just about finished here in Dallas. Just one last dinner, one last workship and then we get to pack pack pack tonight and get on the road again. This project has gone pretty smoothly. Like I said before, just a few cuts and scraps and not much else. The student love it when Vickie and I make our rounds at night time, (well you know, for the girls). We read bedtime stories to the girls before they go to bed. They adore it. Last week we made up songs for the girls and they thoguht it was funny too.

Tomorrow morning we are headed to Texarkana for the night...that is after we stop at my national staff's house in Whiley, Texas for lunch. Im pretty excited to get a home cooked meal. So, the next five days I will be traveling to Ohio. Some days we are driving more than others but it should be a pretty easy drive the whole way.

This week, we have recorded 6 salvations so far and almost $2000 in offering. That is a huge amoutn for the about of students that we have. Im pretty excited to hear those number and be able to report them back to NAMB>

Shawn Edwards, my PC told me yesterday that we were one of the best Summer Staff teams he has ever had. And to me, that is a big deal. Shawn has been doing this for over 10 years and has worked with many teams. So, I am glad to get such a great report from him. He and the rest of the coordinators have been such a huge encouragement to me and the rest of the team. We really will miss them.

Well, it is almost dinner time so I better get going. Love yall!

p.s. By the way, I do accept cards. ;)

Thank goodness I get some free time!

Well all of the kiddos are headed off to spend some time in Dallas. And what are we staffers doing? Need you even guess.......SLEEPING!..then dinner, of course. haha!
This week has gone really well thus far. I mean, other than a few minor things. Hammer in a toe, 4 stiches, was just about as exciting as it has gotten thus far. Oh and a broken window in a room where there are Do Not Enter signs. And to think that the majority of people in that room were adults makes alot of sense, huh? But other than that, everything has run real smoothly. I feel much less stressed than I did last week during the launch project. We have 2 recorded salvations thus far this week. And the offering was collected lastnight. There was a total of 1660.25 dollars collected and we are still working on getting more. I think we might do something more extra special if we reach 2500 dollars. We shall see.
I hate to make this so short but Ive gotta get these kiddos out of here. They were suppose to be gone 30 minutes ago.
Love you all!

God is so good!

God has been reminding me over and over again that I cant do things with my own strength. There have been so many mishaps that have happened these past couple of weeks. Not just at the project, but with me spiritually lately. I have found it so hard to find a balance between work for God and God time. At worship lastnight the speaker, Randy Beggs shared his testimony. So often I try to have pity on myself for the times in my life when I have had troubles, but after hearing his testimony, God revealed to me how I was called out of the darkness and no matter what I do He still loves me. I mean, afterall, that is what grace is all about, right? God is so good to constantly bring conviction to my life and how I fail. I use to believe that conviction is a dreadful thing. But now that I am older, not just physically but also spiritually, I now know that conviction is a blessing. This may be a strange thing to ask for prayer about, but I want to ask you all to pray that God brings conviction to my heart and through that brings me closer to Him.

As for the project, everything is going well. It is so interesting to see the whole vibe that one group of students bring to the whole project. There is one group that make the whole project so different. Please pray for the crews as they go and work this week. Pray for safety on the sites as well as evangelism oppurtunities. I know as a young person I was very terrified about evangelism but there was always that one person that encouraged me. Pray for there to be that one person on every crew to be the encourager to the students.

I want you all to know how amazing the people that I have been working with this past week have been such a blessing. Not only have the projects gone smoothly but the relationships that I am building with the coordinators are great. It is such a cool thing to see that there are amazing godly people outside of the box that I get caught up in in Springfield. I wish that you all could meet all of these people. But maybe someday. Who knows. If not here then definitely in heaven. :)

Well, I need to get to work and then Im gonna go visit some job sites. Love you all!

p.s. If you want to hear a funny story about what happened to me last week, ask Daniel. Just ask him to tell you the story about the alarm. He will know what you are talking about.

Launch craziness

Well, this Launch project, although it has had many mishappenings, has run very smoothly.
On Monday after we unloaded the trailer we went to lunch with our project coordiniator, Shawn Edwards. He asked us at lunch what we were nervous about and I told him that I was nervous that my comp would crash. And guess what. When I was setting up the office and started working on my office manager things, I turned on my comp....and my comp didnt work. Doesnt God has a sense of humor? haha! So, I was devistated. However, somehow, Matt got onto the computer and got my files off so I could work on his personal computer. But let me tell you something, NAMB sent me a new computer but it didnt get here til 3 hours before registration on Wednesday. So had Matt not fixed my problem, I would have been a mess. But I guess when God causes chaos in our lives, He always provides a way out of the chaos at the same time.
Then yesterday was suppose to be the crews first of two days that they would be working at World Changers. When we went to bed on Wed night, it was raining but the storms were suppose to pass over night. However, when I woke in the morning, the rain was coming down and coming down hard. And this rain continued for many hours. Infact, we had to have a mini worship on the fly and we sent them off. But when we did, the weather got worse. After everyone coming back, I bought 40 pizzas...which was amazing. We ordered them from CiCi's at 11:00am and they had them ready at 12:15. Praise the Lord. Then we had anothe worship after lunch. After all of this chaos, we sent them back out.
Although there was so much chaos and confusion, we did get a report that we had one person surrounding a work site accept Christ as there Savior. Praise God!

So yes, if you are wondering, I am exhausted. Wed night I got less than 3 hours of sleep and lastnight I got about 5 hours of sleep. Please pray for me cause the resting situation isnt going to get any better for more than a week.

I hope and pray that everything is going well at home. Miss you all! Love you too!

Im in Texas

I just want to say that Texas is AMAZING.....amazingly HOT!! But I love it....thus far. Yesterday the team and I went to Six Flags Over Texas and spent the day there. It was about 90 degrees or so but lots of fun. Although the weather was hot, it wasnt too humid. We spent the whole day there and God did a miracle. He kept me from getting sunburnt. All of you know how incredibley pail I am. But with the use of mch sunscreen, I didnt get burnt. Praise the Lord. Yesterday was a great bonding time for the four of us. About 10 roller coasters later and a huge headache, we went and had dinner with our Project Coordinator for both the Dallas projects, Shawn Edwards at this amazing Mexican restaruant. I would tell you the name of it, but I dont know how to spell it. hahaha!

Today we went to douwntown Fort Worth. We were going to watch the longhorn herding but because traffic was so bad, we missed it by 10 minutes. So we walked around downtown and the other three bought cowboy hats, and belt buckles. Im not going to lie, I thought about getting things to, but since I wont wear those things when I come back to Missouri, I figured it was a bad choice. For dinner we went to a steakhouse called, Trail Dust. It was so yummy. And they had a live country band and a dance floor. Dont worry, I didnt dance, but I watch lots of lovely old people get their grooves on. :)

All the times that I begin to question what God was thinking, He proves to me again and again that He always knows what He is doing. There are times when I question whether or not I am capable of doing what He is calling me to do. And you want to know something? I am not capable of doing anything. But God is!
I am really trying to be a faithful servant and make it all about Him, but it is hard. So often I get distracted by my selfishness and my own wellbeing that I forget the reason why I am away from the people that I love the most. Please pray for my heart and that I am the servant that God desires to use. Pray that I will make this about God and the participants. God is going to do great things, I dont doubt that, but pray that I will believe that whole-heartedly.

Almost there

Well today is the day when we get to Texas. We are about an hour outside of Texas but still have abotu 4 hours til we get to Dallas. Today has been quite the day. This morning, we got up, had our team devotion, (which was really encouraging to me) and then hit the road.

I have been doing some praying about the need for the team to share our testimonies with one another. I knew that it was something that was necessary for all of us as a team. At first I wanted to have everyone share during training, but realized that there is an importance for all of us to know one another on a more personal level before sharing what God has truly done in our lives. So, lastnight I shared my testimony with the team. Then today, both Vickie and Jordan shared theirs. It is so cool to me to see how God has taken all of us from various backgrounds and many different experiences and given us all the same kinds of passions. God is so cool! But I defintiely feel as if the sharing of testimonies has brought us closer as a team.

Of course, we have had some laughs...one being lastnight when we went to dinner at Olive Garden, the waiter thought we were on a double date. (I dont think Daniel would have been too happy about that) We all laughed for quite some time about that.

So we have driven through Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and are headed through Louisianna right now. We stopped at a Log Cabin, something or other, restaraunt for lunch......talk about yummines! It was goooooood!

For the next four days we will be staying just outside of Dallas in a place called Mesquite, Texas. We are gonna take advantage of the time there. Tomorrow, if the weather permits, we are going to go to Six Flags and do various other things.....and REST!

Please continue to pray for the health of the team and for the other teams as we all travel across the US. I am so thankful that God has kept everyone safe thus far. We did see a huge accident in Monroe, Louisianna. I believe it was a 7 car pile-up. Thank God for our safe travels.

Love you all! And I am praying for yall at GBC. Miss yas!

On the road!!! HORRAY!!

Well, we are on the road!! Training is officially over! Praise the Lord! Thank you for all of your prayers and thoughts.

Yesterday we finished our mock setup. My national staff, David Scott stopped by yesterday afternnon for our evaluation. And to be honest, I felt as if I was going to pee my pants. I was so nervous. Last year, I never had a mock setup because I left right away for Puerto Rico. But this summer, since I am a team leader and had never had a mock setup, I was definitely feeling the pressure. But when David came, I receive nothing but praises. That made me feel good. Infact, he commented on my leadership skills. God reaffirmed my calling to me through David yesterday. The whole time David was there, I could hear God telling me that I did a good job. Sometimes I worry too much for my good but I feel as if all of my worries we worth something yesterday.

Today we are headed to Jackson, Mississippi. We are stopping mid-way through Alabama to have lunch with one of our coordinator for our project in Lubbock.

Please pray for safe travels and lots of sleep.
Love you all! Miss your smiling faces and hugs!

Training is almost over

Well, this week has been pretty tough. We had long days filled with hours upon hours of sitting at a desk in a small room surrounded by many people, driving school (for those of you that dont know, I am driving a Ford Expedition and pulling a trailer all summer long...alot different my little bug, Betty), packing inventory for every project at the wonderul World Changers warehouse, packing all the medical and office supplies, and various other activities. So yes, I am TIRED! Currently, my team and I are in Douglasville, GA (which is just outside of Atlanta), preparing for our national staff, David Scott to come and evaluate our work. Yesterday afternnon, after our commissioning service and lunch, my team headed here to have our mock setup. And man-o-man, did we work hard. We worked from about 4 til 2AM. We had to unload the trailer; coolers, sound system, office supplies, inventory, etc... It was lots of work, but my team did great!
Please pray for us as we prepare to be evaluated at anytime today and as we start our traveling to Texas tomorrow. We will be driving to Jackson, Mississippi tomorrow and then will be on the road Thursday as well.
Thanks to all of you who have been asking about me and for all the many prayers thay yall have sent up for me. My whole team appreciates them.

oh...by the way, my team is great. We have really enjoyed one another's company and I know that Lord is in this, for sure!

Special thanks to the Gartens for coming and visiting me in GA. I loved seeing you all and your hugs!! :)

I miss you all....love you much!