What I'm Loving - October 2011

I'm loving how the preparations for Costa Rica are coming together. God is good!

I'm loving my new phone (the Droid Bionic). There are things in life worth splurging on, and for me a smart phone is worth it.

I'm loving the decorating inspiration that I'm getting from Pinterest. It's about time for another transformation in my house and the master bath is looking like the prime target.

I'm loving that the weather is finally starting to get to the point where I can make homemade stews and soups. Time to pull out the trusty crock pot.

I'm loving The Hunger Games trilogy. It's unlike any other series I've read before and is the kind of story that stays in your head, in a good way. Hopefully the movie coming out in March will do the books justice.

Costa Rica - One Month From Today

On Sunday I had my final team meeting before my trip to Costa Rica next month. I’ve taken part of all of the meetings via Skype, since they were hosted in Pennsylvania. I have to admit that initially I was a little disappointed to find that a large majority of the team members are coming from one location, but only because it made me feel like one of the odd ones out. I initially pictured a trip with lots of individuals coming from all over the US. Being one of the few people to connect via Skype while most of the team was sitting in one room was hard for me. I was also having a hard time getting excited about the trip in general with how busy my life gets sometimes. All the things I have to get done in preparation for the trip just became points of stress rather than things that excited me as I moved forward.

I realize that a lot of this could be the result of Satan trying to discourage me as I take a huge step in serving God. I’m well aware of how good a job Satan does at stuff like that. Sunday was a bit of a turning point for that however. As I listened as my team leaders talked about details of the trip I started to get really excited about it again. I started making lists of things I needed to pack and anyone who knows me knows how much I love lists…and packing….and anything that combines the two. What really helped the most was finding out that there’s another girl who just recently signed up for the trip, and she’s coming from a different city as well. She’s my age and was on the Skype call yesterday and we got to talk a bit. We’re now Facebook friends and following each other’s blogs (Hi Ashli!), and she’s already proven to be a great source of encouragement for me. Having someone else in the same boat as me, with the same concerns about the trip, is going to be such a blessing to me as we prepare over the next month. God is really blessing me with the amazing leaders on this trip as well as the recent addition of Ashli to the team. I’m starting to get really excited about being used by Him in Costa Rica.

All this being said, I still have a lot to do to prepare, both paperwork wise and with preparing myself spiritually. I appreciate any and all prayers, especially for spiritual preparation over the next month. God has already been answering my prayers leading up to this trip, and I’m looking forward to seeing how He answers more of my prayers as things move forward. Just my going on this trip is already an answer to prayer, so I know that good things are ahead!

Funding Update: The total on my support site isn’t accurate at the moment because I can’t manually enter check donations. I think it should update once the organization processes my checks. With the help of a large gift from my home church yesterday, I’m currently 62% funded! Woot! Since I started raising funds pretty late in the game 62% is a pretty great amount to be at right now.