Fresh Start: 21 Day Blog Challenge

Catching you up:
My heart and mind are so on Africa right now. God's been stirring me up to make a bigger push toward this calling. I've been struggling with time management though in pursuing these stirrings. You see, even though I've been teaching for 10 years, this is probably my hardest year yet. This is my first year in the primary first grade. Let me tell you that first grade is drastically different from the third and fourth grade classes I've taught for the last decade. Teaching already is a time monopolizer, but with so many changes and a huge learning curve, it has been even more demanding. With that noted, little time is left to relax or pursue other passions like Africa. Currently I am praying that God would open up avenues of time and increase my time management so that I can devote much more of my time to my Africa dream pursuit. I'm also asking Him what I should be learning from this balancing struggle that He has given me...

Don't be confused though, my Africa preparation isn't on hold- I just wish I could devote MORE time to it, God is still pushing me, growing me, stretching me, changing me, and financially providing! WOO HOO- keep praying for all of that to continue, please!

One great things that God has placed before me recently is to step down from some church responsibilities to create space in my time to take a 15-week college level course on Missions created by the U.S. Center for World Missions and being held at a different church called Christian Family Chapel. This course, called Perspectives, is reshaping how I see missions and God's heart for missions. Above all else, God desires that His glory and name would be spread to ALL the nations and that is what missions is all about- making God famous, taking my little candle of God's glory that I carry with me and spreading it to one more and one more and one more...
This class has an intense amount of in-depth articles by theologians and each week we have a different speaker somehow involved with missions! One of the coolest things about this opportunity is to be around other missionaries and missions-minded individuals! It just fires me up to talk to them and just be around them EVERY week!! It is also cool to witness at Christian Family Chapel, how I feel, God intended the church to fully support their missionaries- financially, spiritually, and publicly.

Currently:
I've recently decided to revisit some of my old journals, particularly the ones from my trips to Swaziland. My hope is to reconnect with my love for Swaziland, but also to see the journey from a different perspective- looking back! How often do you do that? Stop and look back at where God has taken you? I love doing it, it changes your perspective. You begin to feel stronger, you build confidence in Him by seeing- "Ohhhhh, (high-pitched light bulb "oh") God you really were there and you really do have a big picture at work here..." and it excites you for the future!!! What is God going to do now, what's next????

The fresh start:
I am challenging myself to blog for 21 days straight and share with anyone who wants to hear tidbits from those journals and about my current experiences as a fundraising-soon-to-be-full-time-missionary. I guess I picked 21 days because that is a nice round "church number"- you know, with the 21 day fast... but this is actually like a fast because I promise you- between work and a college-level class- I will have to make sacrifices to connect with God and you through this blog every day. I might fall short, but I'm promising to do my best.

So, I hope you will join me and follow me as I look back, examine now, and dream for the future!

Africa or bust!! <3