Newsletter

Dear Friends and Family,

The past months have been busy and blessed. January found me moving to Mexico. I started the month by helping to lead a short term trip in Mexico. We helped build roofs, visited the homebound and sick and worshiped together. It really has given me a greater fire for missionary evangelism. The next few weeks myself and the team I was sent with continued to the do pretty much the same things, settling into our house and ministries. The priest at our local parish is an amazing man of God, and he had a lot of ideas that correlated with ours.

Then at the end of the month I started to feel that I needed some more spiritual formation. As a missionary in Mexico I was going to be in a position of leadership, and I don’t feel ready for this. Now this month, February I am back in my home state of Oregon. Here I hope to get involved in the local ministries while seeking a spiritual director.

I will also be studying to become a midwife. This is something I have been hoping to do for many years and now God has blessed me with the time and ability to do so. I am excited to use this skill in my future missionary work, both stateside and abroad.

This year holds so much and so I’ve taken Psalm 27 as my meditation for the year.

“My heart says of you, "Seek his face!" Your face, LORD, I will seek. 9 Do not hide your face from me, do not turn your servant away in anger; you have been my helper. Do not reject me or forsake me, O God my Savior. 10 Though my father and mother forsake me, the LORD will receive me. 11 Teach me your way, O LORD; lead me in a straight path because of my oppressors. 12 Do not turn me over to the desire of my foes, for false witnesses rise up against me, breathing out violence. 13 I am still confident of this: I will see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living. 14 Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD.”

Thank you for all of your prayers and support!

Abi

Week One: Mexico Mission!

The first week of Mexico has been so blessed.  We had a short term trip with us.  And what I great way to start out the mission! With a renewing of fire and love for Evangelization and the poor.  
During one of my daily prayer times I asked the Lord to give me a verse for my year of missions.  He gave me Psalm 27.   This Psalm is beautiful and speaks to me of no matter what trials come my way, each day I will live for God’s Kingdom.

The Lord is my light and my salvation—

   whom shall I fear?

The Lord is the stronghold of my life—

   of whom shall I be afraid?

When the wicked advance against me

   to devour me,

it is my enemies and my foes

   who will stumble and fall.

Though an army besiege me,

   my heart will not fear;

though war break out against me,

   even then I will be confident.

One thing I ask from the Lord,

   this only do I seek:

that I may dwell in the house of the Lord

   all the days of my life,

to gaze on the beauty of the Lord

   and to seek him in his temple.

For in the day of trouble

   he will keep me safe in his dwelling;

he will hide me in the shelter of his sacred tent

   and set me high upon a rock.

Then my head will be exalted

   above the enemies who surround me;

at his sacred tent I will sacrifice with shouts of joy;

   I will sing and make music to the Lord.

Hear my voice when I call, Lord;

   be merciful to me and answer me.

My heart says of you, “Seek his face!”

   Your face, Lord, I will seek.

Do not hide your face from me,

   do not turn your servant away in anger;

   you have been my helper.

Do not reject me or forsake me,

   God my Savior.

Though my father and mother forsake me,

   the Lord will receive me.

Teach me your way, Lord;

   lead me in a straight path

   because of my oppressors.

Do not turn me over to the desire of my foes,

   for false witnesses rise up against me,

   spouting malicious accusations.

I remain confident of this:

   I will see the goodness of the Lord

   in the land of the living.

Wait for the Lord;

   be strong and take heart

   and wait for the Lord.

Annnnnddddd...

I can now announce where I'm being sent for my first year as a single missionary!

General Cepeda Mexico! 

I am so blessed to be sent with two families and two other ladies.  The Quinn Family, the Martin Family, Megan and Madi.

Update!

It's not almost the end of Intake and what a crazy time it's been!

This Intake has been the largest Intake FMC has had yet! 

With 13 single girls, 5 guys and 4 families!

Community life has been awesome.

We had an amazing blessed time in Mexico.

And we have 41 missionaries going to 5 mission posts worldwide!

The Lord has blessed me so much. 

4

4 days left till Intake starts!
I'm so excited and nervous at the same time.  I can't wait to be blessed and challenged by the Lord. 
Intake is basically like a three month retreat, during which I will listen to talks, learn how to give talks, and study from the Bible and Church documents.  For my first year I will have a dating fast and internet (save for 2 hours on Sunday) fast.  This is so I can focus my whole self on the mission God has placed in my life.  To go to the whole world proclaiming the kingdom of God.  One of the months, November, will be spent in Mexico, in active service and proclamation.  At the end of my training, the directors, Joseph and Brooke Summers, will send me and a team of missionaries to our first mission post. 

Please keep me and my fellow missionaries in prayer.

Make My Heart Like Yours

There is a little less than a month till Intake starts. I'll admit I'm nervous. I'm an introvert and I'm afraid I'll shy away from my fellow missionaries-in-training. I'm nervous about being the youngest girl, I'm afraid I will just try to ''keep quite and keep out of the way".  In the midst of my worrying God has been showing me that it will all be okay.

Psalm 55:22
Cast your cares on the LORD and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous fall.

What I need to work on now, and for the rest of my life, is to make my heart like His. People are not my favorite.  They are noisy, talking all the time, they have different ideas than I do, sometimes even a small group of friends intimidate me. Me, is my space, and I don't want a ton of people tramping in it. Dwelling on this I've asked God why He's called me to be a missionary.

Ezekiel 36:26

And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.

 

I, by myself, can not be a missionary. By myself I will fail. I will see people and freeze, not knowing what to say or what to do. Only with God can I work to be strong enough.  He can nudge me towards a group of people.  Only with God can I be the crazy person who smiles at everyone, even stopping to talk to people on the street. 

This change can only happen if I give my heart to God and ask Him to make it like His.   

 
 

I'm Just Like Them

              I have this fear of letting God take complete control in my life.  It's as if I think He's the big bad guy in the sky, waiting for me to screw up so He can rain down punishment.  As if He's going to trick me into doing something I don't want to do. Seriously?

I have this fear that is completely unfounded. God has only good plans for my future. And I know this because of all He's done in the past. This summer I've been on two amazing mission trips. This fall I have my missionary training.  I have a wonderful family that inspires me to grow closer to God.  I am surrounded by missionaries who give of themselves to the fullest extent.  I turned my back on the Divine Lover, but he never stopped wooing me.  How's that for blessed? Who am I to fear?
In the book of Exodus, right after God leads his people through the Red Sea, we read that they start to grumble and complain and worry.

"Would that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the fleshpots and ate bread to the full; for you have brought us out of into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger." (Exodus 16:3)

God has just done mighty deeds for them! He split the Red Sea and wiped out Pharaohs' army. And the Israelites are worried about something as trivial as food?  The God who created the earth, who created them, who led them out of Egypt with signs and wonders is not going to forget about food.

        I guess I've always kinda known this but it really hit me today.  I'm just like them.  I sit back after I see God do miracles and say, "Um God I don't trust you with my future."   Wow.  He's shown me in so many ways that He loves me.  And yet I still fear.  God forgive me!   I'm just like them. I can make excuses:
"If I don't know what God's will is then I'm going to mess up and I'll ruin my entire life." 
"God may have done miracles for others but He doesn't do them for me." 

On and on.   Stop.  Think. Are any of those excuses true? No. Okay? Okay.


To wrap up my ramblings I have to say that I don't have a brilliant answer or solution to this problem.  But I'm gonna bet He does.   And I'll just go with that and pray, and ask others to pray as well, that I would learn how to completely trust God.