happy new year.

It’s New Year’s Eve and I’m posted up in my bed (with Tootsie obviously... I'll have to upload a pic!) determined to get in my 1st official blog before 2012!!  I can hear my neighbors shooting off fireworks and I can't help but think about what an emotional holiday season this has been.  I keep thinking to myself “This ___ (Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, etc) looks a lot different than next year’s will...”  I don’t know what to expect for 2012, and it’s a very exciting feeling.  Lamentations 3:24 has been constantly on my mind this week - I love it! “The LORD is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.”

These coming thoughts are the hardest to articulate, because I don’t fully understand them myself, but my prayer tonight is that the Holy Spirit will step in to make things clear.  Hopefully, He will touch your heart and help me connect the dots, as I struggle through sharing with you what our most amazing Creator is doing in and through me during this season of my life.  I couldn’t be more excited to see God move in a mighty way in 2012. 

To bring you up to speed, 3 years ago I texted my little brother, Lee, saying basically “Emergency! I have to talk to you ASAP– my life is not going to be the same from this day forward.”  I cried on my drive to Chick-fil-a where I told him that the Lord had spoken to me in a dream.  I was 110% sure that for some reason God had plans to use ME in the spread of His life-saving message of love and hope to His people in other nations.  I knew in that moment that answering this call would require me to lay down many of the desires and dreams that I had been working years for... and at that moment (and even now) part of me was scared to death.  I knew Lee would understand best because just a few months prior we had spent 2 weeks in Kenya, where the Lord placed a supernatural love for Africa and her people, in my heart.   I left Kenya knowing that short term mission trips would always be a part of my life, and I was already scheming on how quickly I could return.  This day in Chick-fil-a, however, was different - I knew God was requiring so much more.   (Truth is, He deserves it all).  Over the next two years, I returned to Africa twice – once to Ghana and once to Niger, each time hoping a two week trip would satisfy my soul’s longing for what God has ultimately created me (and many others) for – global missions. 

As 2011 is coming to a close, I am happy to finally announce:  I am moving to Uganda!  Some of the details are still sketchy (at best) but I trust Him with the details.  As my March moving date approaches, I am preparing for the Lord to break me for the sake of His name being known and worshipped among the nations.  I'm sure that you have better things to do, but I’d be honored for you to waste some of your time following my journey via this blog!  I’ll do my best to write weekly (or more) about how God is moving in my life leading up to my move, and then the entire time I am in Uganda.  3…2…1… Happy New Year and God Bless!