I'm bad at this.

The last time I tried to fund raise, I was trying to go on a trip with a travelling sports camp. We were going to go from church to church using sports to tell kids about Jesus. I needed to raise $1500. We were going to spend a few weeks in the US, then a few weeks abroad, then a few more weeks in the US. When they did a sports camp at my church, it was so fun. I was really looking forward to it.

I sent out letters to all my relatives and neighbors and everyone I knew telling them about this exciting opportunity. In the end, I raised $100...from my parents, which I told them to keep since no one else was going to support me. I called the company and told them I didn't raise any money. Thankfully, they still let me do the sports camps locally, but I wasn't allowed to go abroad.

This is my experience with fund raising. My current fund raising adventures are going a little better, but not a lot. I have lots of prayer support, but not a lot of financial support. So, for all those prayer supporters out there, please keep praying. :) I need it!

Church

Today we sang a song that mentioned lepers, and my heart ached to be back in Romania, and my heart ached for the people living and serving in India. I love Carpinteria. I love walking along the beach on my way to church. I love my church, the intimate times of worship, and deep theologically sound messages. I love my friends, who are the same type of nerdiness that I am, but I left my heart in Romania. I wish I was a better fund raiser so that I could hurry up and get back to serving Jesus.

Menifee Internets

We have to ration our internet here in Menifee. We're only allowed a certain amount of data per month. However, that's not my excuse for not updating. I'm just being lazy.

Fund raising update: 12% funded. Yay. Thanks, parents for being 8 of that 12 percent.

I wrote a support letter that gives more information on why I'm doing this, what I'll be doing, and how you can help if you want to read it. It's a Google document so send me your email address in a private message and I'll share it with you.

PS, supporting me counts as a charitable donation and is tax deductible.

It's Time

Hello internets, it's time to start updating again. :)

My time in India was wonderful, and I have many pictures and stories to tell. I will be in California in June, and I want to meet with all of you. However, I'm going to be very busy putting together a financial and prayer support team. "Why?" I hear you ask. Well, because I feel that God is calling me to be a full time missionary in Romania for a season. I would love it if all of you wanted to be a part of my team. "Not that I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit that abounds to your account." Phil 4:17

God blesses the givers (1 Kings 17:1-16) and I want all of you to be blessed, so let me know if you want to meet with me and hear about why I want to stay in Romania, and how you can support me financially and with prayers. :)

No pressure, of course. 2 Cor 9:7, "So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver." But I want to give you a chance to know about this so that you're not like the Phillipians that cared about Paul, but didn't have an opportunity to support him. (Phil 4:10, "Though you surely did care, but you lacked opportunity.")

My treat

So, when I get back, I want to share with you some of my experiences. I'd like to start with the food. Who wants to go out to an Indian restaurant with me and eat a traditional* Indian meal like the ones I've been eating? Who's in?

*I mean eating without utensils, or washing your hands with any kind of antibacterial soap beforehand.

The Plan

I have been hand writing in a journal every day that I've been in India. I have some great stories that I'd love to tell, but I'm too too busy. Once I'm less busy, aka when I'm not in India anymore, I'll post them all on here. Until then, I'll post brief updates so that you know that I'm still alive and well. :) I also have around 500 pictures that I want to post online. :-p

The first week was spent travelling. The second week was spent working with kids from a local village. One of them was this cute little girl that was mute. At the end of the week, I prayed that she would be healed. That day she made some efforts to communicate, but didn't form any actual words. I truly believe that God will heal her and use her to save that entire village, probably more.

The third week is this week. We spent it at a conference that was a ten minute walk from the Indian Ocean. It made me so home sick to visit the beach. God was moving in that place and bringing people together and uniting people from different areas of the world.

One of the things that really spoke to me was a story about the Titanic. When it was sinking, it sent out an SOS signal. The nearest ship was the Californian. My ears perked up. I'm a Californian! :) The Californian clearly heard the SOS, and they were the ones that had warned the Titanic about the icebergs in the first place. So they knew the seriousness of the situation. They should have been the most eager to respond, but they didn't want to risk their ship to go in and rescue the drowning victims. They were afraid.

I too have heard a call, a call to stay in Romania. I too am afraid, afraid of how hard it's going to be to raise the support needed.

Think of how many more lives would have been saved if the Californian hadn't turn away that night. I musnt turn away. I'm going to stay in Romania for a while after I come back from India.

Brb

Well, we leave tonight at 1am local time. That's 3pm for you Californians. We'll take a van over to Budapest, then a plane to Moscow, then one last plane to our final destination. I'm all packed, and under the weight limit. Everything is pretty much ready to go. My Visa came today, as well as another Visa we were waiting for.

Please pray for Paul as he drives back from Bucharest. Imagine driving from Mexico to San Francisco and back, three times in 8 days. That's what he's done. When he gets back, he'll have an hour to pack and kiss his wife goodbye, and then he'll leave. He's going to spend the first three weeks with the first team, then the second three weeks with the second team. Those first three weeks will be the longest he's been apart from Stacey. So please pray for that as well.

I'm so excited to go to India. I love our team. We have the perfect mix of people. Some super outgoing, some super detail oriented, etc. I'm going to miss the Thailand team while they're gone, but I'm super excited to hear about all the things God will do in Thailand.

I don't know how often I'll be able to post while I'm on outreach so this might be my last post for a while. Please keep us in your prayers. We will be doing a lot of traveling.

A couple weeks ago each person on our team prayed and found a verse that they thought represented our outreach journey. Then we put all the verses together and each of us tried to come up with a single sentence or phrase that we could take with us, and repeat whenever things got tough. Here's mine:

Trust in God, walk with God, and He will secure for Himself the victory.