New Journey

Hello Everyone! I just wanted to give a quick update on where I will be heading in this amazing journey God is taking me on. The team of 12 people and I that are heading to Cambodia will be leaving tomorrow! The time has come so soon but I am so ready!

At first I was really nervous for outreach because I never want to shove what I believe at other people but I want them to know about who God is. I am always really cautious and often afraid to approach them because I don't want to be too forceful. I praise God because after much prayer and asking him to shine his light on this area of trouble, he gave me an amazing revelation!

God told me to look at 1 Corinthians. "Now the body is not made up of one part but of many. If the foot should say, 'Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,' it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be. The eye cannot say to the hand, 'I don't need you!' And the head cannot say to the feet, 'I don't need you!'" 1 Corinthians 12:14-22

I am extremely comforted by these words because I would always get upset at myself because others seemed to be good at what God called them to during our time of evangelism and felt that I could never meet the expectations of God. I wished I could communicate better with people on the topic of relationship with God. Through this passage in 1 Corinthians I realized that my mind set was wrong on so many levels. One realization that I had was that God does not love us more if we are "good" people or ‘bad’ people. He loves us 100 percent whether we are committing a sin or being completely obedient to him. Second was that it is ok that I do not function in the same way as others. I know that God created me the way that I am for a reason; he didn't create two Autumns.

If I connect better with people by first serving them and then later telling them that the reason I serve them is because I want to love them the way Christ loves them. It is awesome because that is the way that God has made me, with a servant heart! However, someone else might have been designed to connect with others by using their heart for athletics. But the bottom line is that God loves and uses all of his children in different ways and he does this intentionally because we are the body of Christ.

It is so cool because I don't have to feel pressure to function the way everyone else does. I can just go right ahead and serve other people with the love of God! Because if we all functioned as an eye then where would the sense of hearing be? The body of Christ needs all body parts and so we shouldn't be hard on ourselves when we don't feel gifted in the same area as someone else or feel as if we are not doing something as good as someone else. It says it perfectly in 1 Corinthians! So I am very thankful to God that he has given me this revelation and that I can head to Cambodia with a renewed heart knowing that I don't have to share who God is in any certain way, there is not right or wrong. God is so great!!! I am so excited to go!

     As far as updates go, I am not sure how often I will have internet access. I might only have a little bit of time. So I don't really know what that mean as far as blog updates. I just don't want to commit to something I can't fulfill. I promise though that I will try as hard as I can. I will love you all and miss you tons! Talk to you when I talk to you but until then my prayers are with you and God bless! Please pray for our team as we travel and serve in Cambodia!