Who's really working?

I can’t live in my own strength.  Sounds basic enough right? Well maybe it would be if I didn’t have quite the independent personality that I do.  I mean I trust God, deep down, I really do.  But I have this constant battle within me.  Sometimes I’ll say I trust God and then start doing everything in my own strength, accrediting it to Him, or allowing Him to work through me and then taking credit for it. Either way is wrong. I don’t know why I do that, but I guess it’s my flesh working against the Spirit.  Things don’t go well when I let myself get too busy and start neglecting my relationship with Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit.  They may seem like they’re going okay, but it always ends in a crash.  Besides, I’m not okay with things seemingly going well.  That is not the way I’m called to live.  It’s not biblical, it’s not living out the Lord’s calling on my life.  And it’s also not going to bear fruit like John 15:5 says: "I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”  God’s word clearly reveals our calling as Christians, to follow Christ, going and making disciples.  But this has to stem from a relationship with Christ and a life of complete dependence on Him.  I don’t even want to see what my life would look like without the Holy Spirit working through me.  I would definitely not be who I am today. 

Fundraising Update

God continues to prove to me His plans are always the best and He will be faithful to provide.  I have raised nearly $2500 in two weeks!! Praise the Lord! I have a little over $8000 left to go.  But, I believe that He will provide, for this opportunity which He has called me to. 

I set up an online fundraising page to make donating easier, and hopefully allow more people to know about it.

 http://www.youcaring.com/fundraiser_details?fundraiser_id=155&url=summitoxford

Thank you all for your prayers and support! May the Lord continue to bless you!

This is discipling

An excellent portrayel of what we're called to as the Church.  Please watch and be inspired to action in furthering the Kingdom of God.  We must be intentional with our lives.

Getting to this point.

Most of you only know bits and pieces of my background, so I wanted to share with you how this Summit Oxford opportunity all came about. It’s pretty neat because it’s been in my peripheral vision ever since I was a senior in high school, but I never expected it to become a reality. Summer 2008 I had planned to spend overseas in Poland doing missions work with the Navigators.  I went through the training in Colorado Springs and everything, but God ended up shutting that door.  So at the last minute I was looking for something fun and worthwhile to do during the summer.  The year before, a very good friend of mine had gone to a Summit summer conference in Colorado, and was going back this year to staff.  She had told me how incredible it was, and encouraged me to go.  I looked it up and thought it sounded like an interesting and cool opportunity.  I asked my parents about it and applied, still not knowing a ton about it (like the fact that a big portion of the day was spent in lectures, and there was a huge emphasis on reading, studying, researching in order to learn more about the world around me and understanding why I believe what I believe).  Well those two weeks absolutely rocked my world, seriously.  It completely changed the way I viewed the world by showing me the biblical worldview lense to look through.  It didn’t even take a day for me to realize how messed up our society is, how Christians aren’t playing an active role to uphold truth, and that it wasn’t just okay to sit on the sidelines (even in church ministry) doing nothing.  Those two weeks were spent primarily in lectures, small groups, and open forums.  I learned a ton of information, but I think the most important thing I recognized was how little I actually knew about my own faith. I grew up in church, so it was what I had known since I was a baby.  I couldn’t really tell you why I believed it, because it really wasn’t my faith…it was my parents.  Needless to say, I drew closer to the Lord during my time there, and began to see big pictures of His will for my life. 

While I was there one of my two favorite speakers was Kevin Bywater.  At some point towards the end of the conference he told us about Summit Oxford.  I thought it sounded like such an incredible opportunity.  I especially thought it was cool because it was in England, where I’ve always wanted to live, since I was born there.  Anyways, I saw how much it cost, and I knew it was an extremely rigorous program (academically).  So I basically counted it in the category of “that’s sounds cool, but it will never happen.”  I really didn’t think I was very smart when I was in high school, since I didn’t make a 35 on my ACT like some people I knew.  So I constantly doubted myself, and I was never an avid reader, so this seemed like it was something for those “genius” type kids.  Also, in order to attend Summit Oxford, you must be at least a junior in college, and back then that seemed like a long way off.  But over the years God slowly changed my heart in a lot of areas. He taught me things about Himself, about my calling, and bout my identity in Him… Through those years I was occasionally reminded of Summit Oxford, but mostly ignored it.  Then in January 2011, after going through an extremely rough, Spiritual desert of a year, He rekindles the fire in my heart.  He lit a passion in my heart that wanted nothing else than to reveal His glory and further His kingdom.  Through this time I was asking Him what He wanted me to do in the future (immediate and long-term).  I had several different options on the table for the next year, and I constantly came back to Summit Oxford.  I prayed about it and prayed about it, and got pretty clear direction that this was where I was supposed to go, and that it was going to be the beginning of a lifetime of Christian service.  So I began the application process.  7 months later I was accepted and began preparing to leave in January.  That’s where I stand now: getting ready mentally, financially, spiritually, etc.  Looking back, it seems so unreal that this has actually become a reality. It’s been quite a journey, and the Lord has been extremely faithful to me!