Birthday Blessings???

It is my birthday tomorrow!

Birthday's are a great time to celebrate life! Tomorrow I want to celebrate the amazing call God has placed on my life! It still boggles me that He would choose me to be a missionary in Africa! God's people are so important to Him. He has a big message of freedom, love, and hope to share with His people in Swaziland and He has invited me to help spread it!

So many are already joining in faith with me on this adventure "out of the box!" Your support IS what it is going to take to get there!

All I want for my birthday is to pass 50% and even reach 60%! Can you help me do that? In honor of my birthday, in honor of this call on my life, in honor of all the orphaned children in Swaziland, will you make a new donation to push me even closer?

Please consider a birthday present for me :) which is making a one time gift on Children's Cup's site and designating it to me, Beth Young. I am also in need of many more monthly supporters! Both of these options WILL get me on African soil!

How amazing would it be to move to Africa by August? That means I need all my funding NOW! Can you help me do it?

Good-bye 31 years old and 50%... Hello, 32 and African soil!

My heart beats with thankfulness for all my supporters!!!

Slow Rollin' But Rollin Non the Less

So, I've passed out or mailed about 75 letters or so. It makes you feel so vulernable when you ask people for money. I find myself constantly wondering what their reaction will be. Right now the reaction is no reaction or questions about where the funding will go exactly. There is a rushing- or controlling- side of me that just wants to know how God is really gonna make this happen because I just don't see. I'm stuck in a human world asking for a supernatural blessing.

I'm constantly reminding myself of two verses- my mantra for this endevor:

Isaiah 41:20 I will set junipers in the wasteland, the fir and the cypress together, so that people may see and know, may consider and understand, that the hand of the Lord has done this, that the Holy One of Isreal has created it.

See, me getting to Africa will require the supernatural hand of God to move in my life and in the hearts of those that hear my story and the story of these African children. I am confident that I can do NOTHING that will push this dream ahead or bear fruit in its pursuit. I am already praising God for what HE WILL DO. I believe that when this happens all will have to give credit to God, because they will see how 'crazy' and abnormal = supernatural the events that lead to me stepping foot on African soil are. He is planting beautiful things where the world says they don't belong. Watering the garden and allowing the seeds He plants to grow is my role; a role that is taking more patience than I wonder I have...

Isaiah 14:24 Surely, as I have planned, so it WILL be; and as I have purposed, so it WILL happen.

I think this is pretty straight forward. If God wants me in Africa and I'm taking one step at a time to get there (not just hiding under a rock waiting for God to just hand it all too me), one step at a time INTO the promised land; then God's will WILL be done. I will get to that promised land, not for my glory, but for His. Those children in Africa mean SO much to Him. He's going to do what it takes to bring them love and I feel like He has called me to be a vessel. We can't fight God, no one can change what he has planned.

I also think on this when I think of supporters, God will use whomever He wants and if one says no to this vision, then He will find another in his stead, because as He has planned so it will be.

The bottom line- there is a lot for me to figure out (I don't have a clue, what I'm doing, how I'm gonna get to the financial goal, where every cent of my money is going to go, where my cats are going to live, what to do about car or my debt, how lonely I'm going to be, how I'll adjust, will I form fruitful relationships and touch lives (aka- will they like me), will I be safe, will big bugs crawl on me in the middle of the night (yes, I worry about this!), what if, what if, what if... )
BUT my heart bursts painfully for the people of Africa- especially the children and God has given me a gift, a gift to love them unconditionally and a gift to teach, to teach their teachers. I know God can use me. I want more than anything to be used by Him. If I'm a that vessel He wants to use and I'm willing, I know He will do it...

Newest 'Project'

It is 2:45 am and I have officially stayed up WAAAAY too long

and completed another little project! :)

I hope you like my magnet reminder layout! :)

(Whew, 8am is gonna come quick followed by three church services! All for Jesus!)

Finished Product

Ok, I keep 'touching' it and making improvments here and there, but I think I've finally finished folks! Here are my support letter and pledge card that I will be mailing out soon. I would greatly appreciate it if you would pray over it with me as I prepare to share my heart with as many people as possible. Yet another step out of the box:

One more "Check" on the To-Do List

Well, it may be 1:40am, but I'm celebrating that I just finished my support letter! YEAH!! :)

My biggest roadblock to getting to Africa is funding. I pray that this letter goes out with God's blessing and His supernatural tugs on the hearts of all who see it and hear my story. I've already been praying for hearts to be opened and ready to hear from me. I believe God is going to show himself so BIG in my finances! Woo hoo! Everyone will have to give Him 'props' because the results are going to be so amazing!

I pray if you are reading this, that you too would consider supporting God's work in Africa through financially supporting me!