Bulgaria Bound

Just like the rest of the world, I find myself staring into the face of a whole new year. 

I am excited and expectant as I look forward and dream about the things that God is doing and preparing me for.  2017 is going to be such a big, big year. 

Graduating from high school, embarking on an  RV trip with family, going on an extended missions trip and possibly beginning missionary training... 2017 is going to be one for the books.  

And, as I look at the next steps of this new year, I am very excited to announce that God is sending me across the ocean again - to Bulgaria!  

To go to Bulgaria on a missions trip with my very best, on-fire-for-God friends is truly a dream come true.  I am so excited to see how God will move as my team and I spend 10 days in the country.  We are going with the Awtreys, a missionary couple who are actually from Bulgaria.  While there we will be very busy, visiting with local believers, helping some with maintenance work, and, best of all, getting to know teens our own age at an ESL class at a school there.  I have seen God work in amazing way in the context of relationships, and I'm so excited to see how God will use this friendship between me and a Bulgarian teen to work for His glory.  It is truly an exciting opportunity!

I know deep in my heart that God is going to move in a huge way in the lives of my team members.  I know that the trip will rock our worlds, and though we will probably leave with hearts broken for the hurt we will see, I know that God will use it to transform us in undeniable ways.  

The three trips God has sent me on have rocked my world and changed it in significant and life-altering ways.  On my trip to the Dominican Republic as a 10 year old, I received the call to missions. On the trip to Nicaragua as a 15 year old, my world was turned upside down. When God turned it right-side-up again, I was Trinity's newest student with a heart longing to pursue God with everything in me.  That year was my greatest year of growing in the Lord, and Trinity played a wonderful role in that.   This past year, South Africa has truly rocked my world.  I still struggle to find the words to describe just how deeply it has touched me, but I can say that I am desperately longing to go back.  

And now, Bulgaria.  God is truly going to move, and I am really praying that He'll give me a clearer direction for the next steps of my life.  There are about 4.5 months until go time, and I cannot wait!