Making A Big Difference

You never realize your dreams really can come true. Putting them in the hands of God was one of the hardest thing I had ever done. From the skyline of Vancouver, Canada then the the our BIG little area of Tri-Cities in Washington State to the view of the lines of sky that I have been blessed to see in the last 4 years serving to extend the Kingdom full-time, I am constantly humbled that the Lord is blessing me with the opportunity to take flight again and again. The first big trip, after fishing in a successful, in wordly terms, career job for 13 years and still missing "it", The Lord kept saying, "Come, I will show you how to fish..." It took me 3 years to obey. And in 2004 I quit my 6 figure job to go to follow that command. As we are called to go "... in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."

MY ENDS OF THE EARTH

I first set foot in Northern Argentina for a 6 month training course with a well-known Youth ministry 4 years ago. Then, while I was there, He started showing me Thailand again, a country I had been to 5 years previously. After the intense, value confirming, life-changing, and extremely rewarding training I went back to America to debate what to do...but the mission field continued to speak to me. I returned 6 weeks later to continue to serve where He wanted me to for the next 3 years:

• In our Mercy ministry: tutoring, teaching, discipling, and fostering hope in at risk kids...
• With Education ministry, teaching at our now nationally recognized Elementary School!
• On the base, with community responsibilities & gardening the well-landscaped 3-acres.
• Leading a Dicipleship School, just like the one that changed my life 2 1/2 years earlier!
• While raising support by Teaching English to staff and people in the community and with a small business with a fruit smoothie stand, too!

I knew that my time in Argentina would come to an end and with many tears, but a sense of the Lord's peace I left there 8 months ago to beging the new phase of God's plan!

FINISHING A DEGREE WHILE BEING IN 3 DIFFERENT HEMISPHERES!
While serving full-time finishing my master's in education was NOT easy. The arrangement I made with my directors was that ministry came first. There were many conflicts over the 18 months of courses--especially lack of internet connections to send in essays & do research as we were writing almost a 1000-word essay (at least!) a week! So after leaving Argentina, I traveled to help missionary friends with their wedding in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and visiting a missionary called to art ministry in El Salvador and then stopping for 4 days in America before heading to Beijing, China to have to opportunity to extend God's Kingdom during the Olympics--it was so unreal, I felt as though I had been placed for a little while in a place where all people were united for the same thing--it was AMAZING! And God was glorified!

Now after raising support, taking some classes and working part-time I will leave once again for Australia. After training in a School of Frontier Missions there, in Perth Australia, I will be heading to join my team already on the field in Bangkok, that works to love, educate, restore and advocate for children at risk...