Dancing in the Sunshine

Have I ever mentioned how much I love changing seasons?  Spring is especially refreshing.  It makes me want to go splash in the creek, have a mud fight, write, read and pray in the grassy field in back of my house, crank up the music in the car and roll down the windows feel the warm breeze messin' with my hair.  I'm dreaming of long days, with not a hint of speech writing, chemistry formulas, or algebraic equations.

Now that I've got you longing for warmer days... We can at least be grateful to God for the wonderful changes He has already manifested!  There are robins, the geese are flying North, bugs, and the grass is even beginning to grow back.  And this weekend we were hit with our first major thunderstorm, it was incredible.  Thunderstorms remind me how gigantic God is!  Glorious.  I've already been able to enjoy rollerblading last week!  I really enjoy doing that, wonderful fresh air rushing by, the sun shining on your path, and I get to enjoy the Iowa landscapes.

June 3-13th of this year, I have the amazing opportunity to go to Guatemala for a ministry trip with my youth group at Walnut Ridge.   It's called Adventures In Missions.  I absolutely can't wait to see what God is going to do throughout the whole process!  He has already been involved in it. Let me explain.  At youth group we started to pray that God would lower the price of the plane tickets.  And even as the gas prices are increasing, God showed himself wayyy bigger than our economical state, and let us get our tickets for $320.00 for each person round trip.  That was down over $100 dollars from what the group thought was a reasonable price.  Prayer works.  That really helps to increase faith, if you ask me.  God saved our group as a whole around $3,000!

What will we be doing in Guatemala?  We will be sharing our personal testimonies, singing, and teaching children, do some service projects and hopefully encourage and help the full-time missionaries a lot.  There will be some other activities like sightseeing, and a bit of shopping. But I can't wait to minister to the people-especially the children there!

Now I can't help but think that it would be hypocritical if I was so excited to see what God is going to do there when He's doing great things here. I need to be open to serving right here in my own town.  Having a servant's heart is a challenge. For me at least.  I want my will to be what God wants in my life!

Please pray for our trip. Your prayers are greatly coveted.

• Pray for those who are going on the trip to have unity and the attitude that God would want each of us to have. 
• Pray for the people that we will be in contact with in Guatemala, that their hearts would also be prepared. 
• Pray for our leaders-Nik and Kristi Payne- that they would have increased patience and stamina. (Who are we kidding, it's not a breeze taking about 16 teens on an international trip!)  
• That God would make Himself so evident, real, and glorified!

Thank you for reading and praying. Please let me know if you have any questions or comments! I like getting mail. :)