Summer Comes to an End

During the last week of summer, I had the opportunity to speak at both my Youth and entire Church congregation. This was the first time I had ever really preached in America and it was an amazing experience. I was so blessed, humbled and honored. The last weekend of summer my Church had a conference. I only had a chance to go on Friday night because I came back to school early for RA training. God moved in miraculous ways just like Brazil and his Word, power and presence impacted many lives. The Lord spoke to me on Friday and I had an incredible experience at the conference. We had two missionaries from Puebla, Mexico with us as well as a preacher from California. They blessed us so much coming and speaking to my Church and we all left encouraged and excited about what God was doing in our area. We had many local Churches come and be apart of the conference and many Pastors left encouraged and renewed to do the work of the Lord. I was encouraged and felt launched into this next year at Montreat!



One other really amazing thing that changed me this summer was this message called "Luke Warm and Lovin' It" by Frances Chan. My sister and I just cried for a long time after we watched it and I think it would be a good experience for every Christian to watch!

Mom's graduation

Dad giving Mom her degree at Graduation

Last year my dad started a Bible school called North Carolina Theological University. This summer my Mom graduated with a Bachelors of Biblical Studies. We we're all excited for her accomplishment. Ashlin and I were asked to sing at the graduation while five new graduates graduated from my Dad's school. One of the graduates was a lady named Otelia Bumgarner. Mrs. Bumgarner received an honorary doctrate of Ministry for her service as a Missionary to the Cherokee Indians for fifty years. I was so privaleged to hear her speak at the graduation about her experiences as a missionary, especially since I was so recently called myself. She preached on the power of prayer.

Flamingoing

My sister Ashlin and I decided to do something crazy one night. So we decided to "flamingo" my friend Melissa's home. We went one Sunday night and put a blow up flamingo, palm tree, and some rose petals all over her porch. We also tied a flamingo balloon to her mailbox. You have to know my sister and I, we never do anything like this so we knew she wouldn't suspect us. We waited about a week and then uploaded pictures to facebook and tagged her in them. It was so fun. One of the neighborhood kids was riding her bike and came up and asked us what were doing. He was being a good neighbor but we laughed and explained our plan and that we were friends. Like we predicted she had no idea it was us until we uploaded the pictures!

Family Picnic

Every summer my Mom's side of the family has a family picnic at Dan Nicol's Park. We have a lot of food and fun as we go through the petting zoo, play miniture golf, and fellowship. All of my aunts, uncles, great aunts, great uncles, first, second, and third cousins all come. My Aunt Jenny makes homemade fudge and we all grill out food under a picnic shelter. This is such a great time once a year to get together with family and catch up. Everyone brings their dogs and we all have fun picking on my Grandma. This year my parents were out of town so they didn't make it but my sister and I went and had a lot of fun.

Trip To Mooresville

After returning home from Brazil, my sister and I went to Mooresville, NC to visit my friend Jada and her family. We had a lot of fun. We went shopping, watched movies, and went to eat at my favorite restuarant P.F. Changs. Her Mom cooked amazing homemade food such as homemade Chicken Alfredo. We had a great time and one of the highlights was going to Starbucks one night as dusk, sitting outside and talking about our Summers. We each talked about the new and upcoming season that the new school year would bring and had a time of thanksgiving for all the amazing things God did throughout the summer.

The end of my Trip in Brazil

Towards the end of the trip in Brazil we did what we called "Kindness day." We went to the poorest part of the town of Curitiba and provided food, clothes, games, and encouragement for the people living in the neighborhoods. I served in the prayer and encouragement section. We had teams who went door to door through the neighboorhood to invite people. While we took care of their physical needs, some heard the gospel for the first time and came to know Jesus as their savior. We put on a skit for the Children and many became Christians as well. It was exciting to watch God move and to see how greatful people were for the food and clothing. It was also very heart breaking. Most of the kids we're dirty and dressed in clothes that were either way too big, or too small. However, we did what we could for them and this was one of the most amazing days of my trip.

The night before we left we had a "Night to Remember", where we invited all the pastors from the Churches and all 120 of us came together for a meal of fellowship, thanksgiving, and remembrance for what God did while we were there. I was so sad to go home but I know I will never forget what God did in Brazil and there is much more to come!

Sharing the Love of Christ in Brazil

After the first week of training, I was much more confident. We split up into teams of about 10 people on each time, and went into different Churches. I went to a small church in Curitiba with my team. There we're two preachers on the team and I preached the first two nights. The first night I preached was July 9, my birthday. I turned twenty-one. It was very exciting and somehow all the nerves left me. I loved the people of my Church and became really close with the Pastor and my translator. I had the opportunity to pray and bless the senior pastor's granddaughter Julianna. This was such an amazing experience that no amount of words can ever express. I had a woman in her early twenties say how much God had touched her life through the message I preached. Almost everyone in the Church came forward for Prayer and we watched as God touched each of their lives. Some heard the gospel for the very first time and some connected with Americans for the very first time. It was amazing to see their hunger and excitement for God and what he was doing in their town.

The Call

Nearing the end of training for the first week, Randy Clark, the leader of Global Awakening preached a Message during the day called "Pressing In." He told the story of Heidi Baker a Missionary in Mosenbeke for the Part 20 + years. As he ended the story he said "God is calling some of you today to become missionaries." I began to cry uncontrollably but still felt so unworthy, so I didn't go forward. The preacher said if you don't feel called come and pray for people who are being called. So as I went forward to pray for my friend Melissa, I began to cry so hard I could no longer continue praying for her. I just fell on my knees and accepted the call. I cried even when the service ended and we got back on the bus. God completely shook my life. I heard him as me if I was willing to drop all to follow him. That is probably one of hardest questions we can be asked as Christians. I accepted and told God that I would do whatever he asked me to.

Isaiah 6:8 (New International Version)
Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?" And I said, "Here am I. Send me!"

The First Few days in Brazil

When we arrived in Brazil, we hit the ground running. They had plans for us for the next sixteen days. We started off by signing up for room mates and then having a worship/prayer time. We begin the next day by meeting together at a 4 Square Church in Brazil and having another worship time. Afterwards, they split the preachers and teachers up into two groups and we began training. I was split up from the rest of my youth group (since I was the only preacher) and had training with about 15 people I had never met. They taught us things about how to use a translator, when to have prayer time, offering time, etc. I learned so many different things about the culture and it was exciting to meet new people. I was extremely nervous though, I had never really preached in my life and I was scared to death to do it in a foreign country in front of people that couldn't even speak my language. The training lasted about three days and there were about ten leaders from Global Awakening (the organization we went through) that helped train us. Each night, after training, we split up into teams and went into different Churches and listened to these leaders speak. We then we're called up to help pray for people through a translator. It was an amazing experience to watch God save, heal and deliver so many people. The people of Brazil were so hungry for Jesus. They had no money, no healthcare, no hope. I watched as we prayed for them as tears rolled down their faces and they cried out to God. I was so broken and humbled to be there. I watched as God fulfilled his promise in Jeremiah 31 to allow the ones who were seeking him to find him. The first few days we're amazing and I began to be really excited as I anticipated what other amazing things God was going to do on the trip!

Off to Brazil

My trip to Brazil was July 1-July 16. We left on July 1, from the Charlotte airport. After saying goodbye to our families, we flew a very long 9 hour trip to San Paulo, Brazil and arrived around 7:00 a.m. (Brazil time). The time difference is only one hour, yet we we're all exhausted from a long night on a plane with fussy children and seats that were impossible to sleep in. After arriving in San Paulo, we went through customs and spent about three hours in the airport waiting on our buses. We then took a six hour bus ride from San Paulo to Curitiba. The bus ride was actually more comfortable than the plane ride and I spent the whole six hours sleeping, besides the thirty minutes we took for lunch. Food in Brazil is interesting. The meat is really cheap. We we're able to eat all you can filet minion and picania (a type of steak) for about $7.00 (U.S. currency). They had a lot of bread, cheese, meat, and dairy. I don't think I had one vegetable the whole time I was in Brazil. We mainly ate at Buffet styles because there we're so many people. My Church took 17 and the total Americans that we're there totaled to about 120. We all stayed in a relatively nice hotel together.