These are the wonderful women who I was so incredibly blessed to live in a house with my last two years at Miami. I could not ask for a better group of sisters to walk through life with. The seven of them have been constants in my life to experience joy, to suffer together, to figure out how to anticipate uncertainty, to continuously encourage each other to surrender control and to learn what it looks like to walk with Jesus on a daily basis. The true essence of community.
These women have played unique roles in my life, as they have experienced my entire journey with me to making the decision to go to the Dominican Republic. They were there when I was first talking about how I fell in love with the pictures of those Dominican children I saw at the National Missionary Convention, in 2007. They heard stories of my first trip down to the DR, summer of 2008, when my heart was first left there, and more stories when I returned from my second trip, summer of 2009. In our house, they would pile up support envelopes I had received in the mail on my desk for me to find after a long day of student teaching. They celebrated with me by squealing, jumping, and dancing around our living room while the percentage of my financial support continued to raise closer to my goal. And on Saturday, some of them, among a few others, will be helping me lug my suitcases around the airport to send me off.
Support Raising this Summer...
To raise my funds, I sent out support letters, had conversations with people, my mom and housemates had a spaghetti dinner for me in Oxford, and I held a benefit concert to share my heart and to try and bring in another chunk of support. It is honestly not very fun to ask people for their money to support you, so I wanted to try and raise my support creatively. With lots and lots of help from the sweet community of people I get to live life with, I was able to do just that. Anna and Milovan and Kyle Sweetland and Brian Beyke (from Still Pioneers) so graciously performed for the evening. I was so encouraged by the amount of people that came! The sense of community that was built around my decision to teach and serve abroad was incredibly encouraging. I was able to share my heart about serving in the DR. And with a raffle, bake sale, and generous supporters, I was only left with a small percentage of support to finish by the end of the night!
The rest of the summer, I continued teaching Spanish at the day care, and continued raising support. I PRAISE GOD for providing above and beyond what was needed for me to spend nine months in the Dominican Republic. I received 100% support, and enough extra support to provide for my boyfriend to come visit me for a week or two while I am there!
This summer has been such a testament of God's faithfulness and how He truly does provide. I am so so so excited to be moving to the DR to ultimately love with His love and to serve, and to share with others what God has done in my life. :)
As this week goes on, I have been working to finish the curriculum I've made to take to the DR for the music education program I hope to establish. Tonight, my mom, housemate Kori, and I spent hours and hours cutting things out and laminating materials for me to take with my curriculum. If I had done that work all by myself, it would have taken three times as long to do it. This is more evidence of how God has shaped a community of people around me to send me to do His work in the Dominican.
Community support in the form of laminating, scissors, and music notes.
I have been affirmed over and over that God has clearly called me to spend these next nine months teaching music in the Dominican Republic. In all honesty, there is absolutely no way that I would actually be going to the DR without the community support that has been built around me.
If you are reading this, and you have supported me in any way, shape, or form... whether it be prayerfully, financially, donating your musical talent, donating your time to help me create my curriculum, donating your time to give me advice along my journey of arriving at this decision, or even donating your time just reading my ramblings thus far on here...
... I thank you. From the very bottom of my heart.
I would not be going to serve the Dominican without your support.
While I continue moving toward Saturday, I want to ask for prayer in the following areas:
- To rely solely on the Lord for my strength, as I am having extremely late nights getting things together.
- To follow His lead in my daily schedule as it seems crazy busy and all over the place. I tend to want to take control.
- That my time with God this week would be a time of resting in Him, and processing through everything so I am able to be mentally, emotionally, and physically prepared to go.
- For the limited time I have remaining with my friends and family, that it would be encouraging for everyone involved.
