4 DAYS AWAY!!

Hi everyone!  I hope you all had a great weekend.  WOWSERS, I’m leaving in 4 days for the DR!!  I can’t believe I’m really going!!  Thank you so much for your continued prayers and support.  I know many of you are praying, and for that I am so, so grateful.  I am getting very close to my fundraising goal, and want to thank each and every one of you who've contributed.  I’m so excited to see what God is going to do down there, and am ready to serve with open hands. 

I hope to be updating this pretty frequently as these last few days wind down, and during the trip, and I want to cover some things that God’s been teaching and showing me.

Over the last few weeks, my small group has started a study called Experiencing God.  One of the huge focuses of it this week was on doing what God wants us to do, not dreaming up the plans that we want God to have for us.  This is a hard subject to grasp, because we’ve all heard the motto of “going for your dreams.”  Yes, that’s great, but at what point do you address whether it is self-centered or God-centered?  If we’re not glorifying God, who are we serving?   Ourselves?  Yep, probably.  So how does that fit with God’s plans? Well, it doesn't.

I know that I myself have many dreams of my own, many plans, thoughts, hopes, and ideas.  But I am learning that they have to be in line with God’s will, and that God can change anything at any given moment.  So where am I getting with this, anyways?  Well, I’ve been praying and preparing for this trip for months now, and in my life, I’m constantly asking the question, “what is God’s will for MY life?”, but I’ve realized through this study that the right question to ask is just “What is God’s will?”  As I serve down in the DR, I pray that I would do God’s will, that I would allow Him to place me wherever He needs me to be, even if it’s uncomfortable or difficult or awkward or if it’s loving someone who is hard to love.  I pray that God will use our team’s hands and feet, and that we would serve where HE needs us.  I pray that I will not focus on what His will is for ME, but what HIS will is in the bigger picture. 

 Whether you’re serving somewhere or not, I encourage you to think about this (I am thinking about it myself, because I know I'm nowhere near perfect, and can be self centered too):  

Are we doing God’s will, or are we just asking What is God’s will for us?