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.

Ecuador Trip 2

I first watched the movie The Lord of the Rings when I was 10 years old. I'm now almost 18 and I've seen the trilogy more times than I can count; needless to say I'm a huge fan.    At the very end of The Return of the King when Frodo starts to narrate again, talking about how they leave Gondor and head back to Hobbitton I always get a lump in my throat. I can't help but say, "No, stay, don't go back. Just stay." 
As I left Quito, heading to the airport, to fly back home I was telling myself the same thing.
"No, stay, don't go back. Just stay."  God worked in wonderful ways on the trip and I didn't want to leave.
Leading up to the trip I prayed that those on the trip would have open hearts and minds. God answered that prayer 100%.    I came into the trip only know one of the teens, but even in that one week of getting to know them, I saw so much change.   I saw their hearts open to the children we played with, and the adults we talked and prayed over.  I saw their minds open to the great task of missions.  I was so blessed.
One of the main things I love about Ecuador is how hard we have to work to go to small communities.  One day we hike hours to a community, and once we get there we usually start a game of soccer with the kids. It's exhausting but so rewarding. Your legs ache, but as you sing and hold the hand of a small child you know it's worth it.
I was also just so blessed to be back in missions.  I wake up each morning and I know my goal. Sometimes, when I'm back stateside, it's easy to get sidetracked. In missions everything you do is for Him.
Another thing is being surrounded by likeminded people. Not only are you going through a life changing journey, but so are the 20 or so other people with you. And it's so amazing to see them change, to hear their testimonies of God's grace and serve along side them.
Missions is not just me going to another country and teaching people about God. It's also God teaching me through them.  This reminds me of a verse from Sirach: "As you have used us to show them your holiness, so now use them to show us your glory."

Praise God!

Singing at a community

 

Ryan and Matthew (our full time missionaries)  with two of the girls on the trip

Quito 

Singing

 Dirty after a long hike

 

 

 

God is Good

God is amazingly good to me! The past few weeks have been crazy.  My family has been away from the Philippines for almost three months now, we traveled from the Philippines to our home state of Oregon. There I graduated from High School and traveled back down to Big Woods.  From Big Woods I flew to Ecuador where I spent two weeks helping to lead a mission trip.  It was so amazing! My second favorite country is now Ecuador.  I fell in love with the people, and the beautiful jungle. It was so good to be back in missions serving and preaching.  I will be leading another trip in July.   

Another wonderful thing that happened was I got accepted to this years Intake! 

Every year starting in September, Family Missions Company (FMC) trains new missionaries to go out to the world.  I will be apart of that this year.  I ask for everyone to please please pray for me. That I would have an open heart and mind to be taught. And that God would just shower graces upon me and those joining me in this blessed work. Also pray that I get enough money to pay the training fees. 

I hope and pray that God shows how good he is to you this week!

Pictures of the Philippines

Christmas Day

Last night we went to midnight mass, it was beautiful. We went up to the Benedictine Monastery. Then we came back down and had snacks with our friends and the Alvarez family. This morning we opened up presents and skyped with some family. Today was a crazy day. We went to two birthday parties and also to a Christmas gathering. Having tropical weather and sweating today made it hard to believe it was Christmas. But today was very blessed.   I'm so thankful to be in missions again.








I hope everyone has a wonderful and blessed Christmas,



Abi

Typhoon Days

I've been going over what happened in my mind, but I still have not come to a ''post worthy'' conclusion.  So I'll just say a little something. On Tuesday the typhoon hit us, kicked off our electricity and left us without water, but besides that we were good. Our new but good friends Kring and Ramon and their two kids came over. We played games, played the guitar and read as the wind and rain battered outside. By that night we had 21 other people in our house.  That made a total of 32 people in our four bedroom house. All I can say is I was so incredibly blessed to share our house, our beds and food with these wonderful people. 
Abi

I post!

Isaiah 49:1 Listen to me, you islands; hear this, you distant nations: Before I was born the LORD called me; from my birth he has made mention of my name. 



We are here in the Philippines!  It still seems kinda crazy that I'm on the other side of the world. As of yet I don't have very many pictures or stories, but those will come soon. The weather here is really nice, and the people are so friendly and excited to see us. And the food is good too. ;)

Back to Missions we Go!

Today we bought our tickets to fly to the Philippines!  Everyone is dancing with joy. God has blessed with cheap tickets, both to our home state of Oregon and to the Philippines.
It seems almost unreal, we really are flying out into missions again.   We fly to Oregon on Oct 30 and we will be there until Nov 11th.  

Please keep us in your prayers.
Abi

Community

I don't usually post many pictures so I'm trying to take and post more.  Today being the first Saturday of the month we have community work day.  So after morning prayers we get together and are given different jobs around Big Woods.  These pictures are of Mom and the little kids, the blond ones are all our kids. ;)

 

 The best way to help little people work is to turn into a game!

 Because of the storm we had we have tons of branches everywhere, the job of the kids was to pick them up and put them into piles.

It was fun to watch them, they were so cute. :D

 

 



They had to see who picked up the most the fastest.

I tried to get a picture of our house but I didn't quite get all of it. :)

Good job!

 

I hope everyone has a great day!

 

Abi

Stateside Mission

A week ago today my father, and three of my siblings, and I came back from Joplin MO. We went there to lead a work mission trip.  Six students from New York came down to help work on some projects. I wasn't very excited about going on this trip, I would have much rather stay at home with the rest of my family. But God did amazing things on that trip.  Every night I went to bed sore and aching, and every morning I woke with renewed strength. I made some wonderful friends, and watched the group turn into MISSIONARIES.  Its amazing how close people become when working selflessly side by side for the furthering of the Kingdom.   Being back on the mission field changed my heart. It's amazing how much God has to do that for us. And yet He never stops.
I'm very excited to go on more mission trips this year. :)

God Bless!
Abi

God likes little people.

This week God has really been teaching me that he loves little people, and he cares about little things in our lives.  One night our cord for our laptop stopped working, we would plug it in but it wouldn't charge. Needless to say we were all upset, the thought of having to get a new cord was in our minds. Suddenly Peter, (age 12) says, "Hey guys let's pray over the cord."  All of the little kids agreed and soon all ten of us are laying  hands on the cord.  My sister Ellie, simply asks God to heal our cord, we plug it in and it works.  All of us began to praise the Lord.  A cord is such a little thing, but God answered our prayers.
All of us have dreams of being something big, a famous novelist, a singer.  God wants us to be the best we can, but he also loves us as the little people we are.  A 16 year old, sister, daughter, and missionary. I am nobody to most of the people in the world. But I am someone in God's eyes. To him I'm His daughter, His lover, His little missionary.
I'm so thankful for God's love and mercy!

Blessings this Sunday,
Abi

Pics of our time in Kansas

Here are some pictures of our time in Kansas. :)

Blessings,

Abi