No Speeding

I just came across something I wrote down a year ago. It threw me for a loop because it's so right on and relevant for me today, and I just have to share it!

One thing at a time. One step in the next direction. Life goes slower than we think it will. God knows we’re waiting. He’s taking it slow for a reason. If we got what we wanted as fast as we want it, would it really be a good thing? Would we learn anything about Him along the way? Nah…we’d just keep on speeding and tell God to catch up with us. And that’s not gonna work.

Wow! Sometimes it's a great thing to go through things you've written down in the past, since at least for me, I tend to forget a lot of what I learned, no matter how much I might have thought I would always remember it! I feel like I am doing a lot of re-learning about this lately. Hold up...wait a second...maybe because God's ways are higher than our ways, and His timing better than ours, that this waiting is for a reason. Even though we don't like it...maybe we'll look back and understand someday why we waited for whatever we're waiting for now. And then...just maybe...we'll see He was right all along and we wouldn't want it any other way.

A bday wish :)

Well, today is my birthday! The big 2-4! I have to say, there are many days throughout the year that I feel blessed, but one of the biggest is definitely my birthday, with this year being no exception. It’s a day where I feel overwhelmingly, abundantly blessed by all the genuine friendships and people in my life. It only takes one “Happy Birthday” to make me realize I am not forgotten, I am not alone, I am loved and cherished, and I have been sooo blessed by one amazing God to have the family and friends He has given me. My cup runneth over.

This brings me to desire this sweet blessing for every person in this world, that they may know how deeply they are loved by their Creator. This includes all the lost and hurting…all the orphans and widows…and especially those caught in sex slavery, who may never hear an “I love you” in their lifetime…who may never understand what true love and joy and happiness and friendship feels like. Those who are used and abandoned and hopeless and broken. They deserve the love I have been given, so much more than I do!

In honor of my birthday, would you, instead of giving me that coffee giftcard (because you know how much I love coffee!), would you instead give a gift to Compassion, or Mission of Mercy, or Feed My Starving Children, or Children’s Cup, or Venture Expeditions, or Blood:Water Mission, or Road of Resistance, or World Vision, or Children to Love International, or Convoy of Hope, or Love 146, or TheA21Campaign? Wherever you feel led? This would make me so very happy!

Thank you so much for all the birthday wishes!!! You, my awesome friends and family, have each blessed me more than you could ever know! I love you all!!!

Moving Forward

I'm excited about what one of my favorite organizations, Venture Expeditions, is doing, and thought I'd give them a little shout out and post their latest video update here. It's pretty cool...they're launching something called Venture Local which will help people raise money for issues they're passionate about, all while staying in the Twin Cities or wherever you live. So if you don't have time to commit to a huge Venture trip, yet still want to be involved, you can now do that. And I think that's so awesome. So check out what Aaron and Ryan have to say, and give them some props, a shout out, comment, whatever, and let them know how excited you are about it, too :)

The Next Chapter from Venture Expeditions on Vimeo.

Hiking for Hope

So a couple months ago I was asked to write an article on human trafficking for the NCU magazine, and since I hadn't done anything of the sort for quite some time, I was all for it. I really enjoyed writing it, since I am passionate about the issue, and I was able to feature an awesome organization, Venture Expeditions, as well as an incredible girl named Renae Post, alumni of North Central and uber-passionate about the issue of human trafficking, as well. It was just a great mix and I'm happy to say I'm super excited about how it turned out :-). The NCU marketing guys sure made this look good! Props to Jeff Hathaway and Ryan Decker and team...you guys rock!

Venture has also been kind enough to post the article on their blog, so here's a link to it if you'd like to check it out there.

I'm also including a link to NCU's online magazine...just page through until you find the "Hiking for Hope" spread :-)

AND, as if you weren't tired enough already of the article...I'm including a picture of it...because...well...not about to float my own boat but totally want to give a shout out to NCU's graphic design guys...I think it looks sweet and Renae and Venture definitely deserve the feature.

So all in all, I'm just a wee bit excited about it :-) Hope you enjoy, it's hot off the press!