Just Gettin Started

The First Blog...

This is my new missions blog site. My goal is to keep all my family and friends in the know of my mission experience. I would love to hear from all of you and i am sure that i will love to hear some encouraging words while i am away for a year. Prayers will always be needed for all of the missionaries who are going out throughout the world spreading the word of Christ so encourage you to keep us all in your prayers.

Where am i going?
I'm not sure yet... Right now it sounds like somewhere in South America. Perhaps Peru or Guyana. Those are the two places that i am looking into. A pastor out in TN where i am currently going to college was talking with me and said some very encouraging words. I have been frustrated in finding a place to be next year. Most all of the SM's who are going out next year know there place and know what they are going to do there and here i am... Still waiting moderately patient. But i was very encouraged when Pastor Litchfield was telling me about Noah and a few other bible characters who had calls from God but didn't have clarity about what is was they were to do. Noah didn't know what an ark was and couldn't even imagine what a flood was. So I am a Noah right now. I know i am going to be doing the work of God but the clarity of what i am doing and where i will be going will later be revealed.

List two areas in your life you would like to develop throughout your year of student missions and explain why in a short paragraph.

1.My relationship with God. I know that this mission trip will test my patience and limitations. Even though I feel like I have a strong relationship with God, I do still take him for granted and a lot of the time try to do things myself. I know that without God I am nothing. Even in searching for a mission destination, it is out of my hands. I can try to find a place as much as I want but when it comes down to it, it is up to God. I want to learn how to trust in God more than I do now and rely solely on him.

2. I want to become a more versatile person. I want to learn new things and use what I learn in my every day life. I think that this will make me a more well rounded person and really strengthen my character and my view of life.

Please provide a one-page personal essay on the topic “Why I want to be a student missionary”

I want to be a student missionary so that God may help others and change their lives through me and through the people around me. I don’t know why that I have this burning desire to be a missionary but I believe God put it there. I have heard many mission stories from my grandparents, parents, and sister. This is what I want to do. They have helped so many people in other countries and in our own country as well. I remember thinking when I was young that I would love to be able to help people like they did. Now I have that opportunity. I am still not certain of where God will lead me or what kind of work I will be doing, but all I know is that I am going.
My first mission experience was my sophomore year of high school. My sister Melissa was a missionary in Majuro for a year and I went out there for my spring break. It was an amazing experience of teaching and helping out in the school. A few years ago Ryan Naus started a band aid clinic there where the missionaries would go out on Sabbath after church and patch up wounds, cuts, and scrapes that would normally not be looked after and soon be infected. The program still goes on today and has inspired me to be an individual and think out of the box with my mission experience. Then my senior year in high school some of our student body went down to Mexico to pore cement in an orphanage school. There were so many adorable children that had found a home in this orphanage. There can never be too much love in a mission field because there is always someone that can use more. Both of these experiences have impacted my view of being a missionary. I can do the littlest things and still make a huge impact.

I want to do the best I can wherever I go so that I may be a Christ like example to others. I feel the need to serve others and want God to lead me on my way. I am excited to have the opportunity to serve and can’t wait to enjoy the experiences that God will lay before me.