one more week!

hello! well as you can imagine is has been a bit of a whirlwind getting everything prepped and ready to hop across the pond! happy to report several things - we both have our Visas! we have  ALMOST raised all the money we'll need, we only have this week left of work & we got our t-shirts in! which is fantastic news! they turned out better than expected & i'm personally stoked about the design! :) 

Front View - Grey V-Neck

Backside

this journey has been challenging, encouraging, stressful, joyful and hopeful. it always surprises me how many emotions one goes through when embarking on such a life changing trip. i mean, i'm pretty logical so it really shouldn't surprise me but it does. :) 

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we're due to head out this sunday! i can hardly believe the time has finally arrived! through all the ups and downs God has shown Himself faithful, gracious, and in COMPLETE control. sometimes i forget that and think He needs my help. which, is pretty hilarious since  He formed ALL of Creation and i just learned how to a make one perfect cup of coffee :) 


ah, i am amazed at how often He puts up with me, my frustrations and my control issues. but i am most thankful for His continuing grace and patience! it's pretty neat to look as far back as 5 years ago or just last month and see the work He's been doing in my life. i could never have imagined or dreamed that in just a few days i'll be walking around the very same places some of my quotable authors lived! c.s. lewis, edgar allen poe, jane austen - just to name a few ;) what incredible gifts!


now i'm off to start packing! :) but i'll end with this scripture - Psalm 145:3 "Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable." if you have a moment read the entire chapter & may your heart be full of His praises!

beverly 

Living on a prayer

So as many of you know Beverly and I have been really praying hard over our trip to school and the financial aspect of it all. It was a crazy amount of money that we had to raise in what felt like such a short amount of time. We just didn't have $20,000 laying around and we surly could not save that much up. We had to rely totally on God to provide. From my last entry you could all tell that I was really struggling with letting go and letting God. I tried to hold on to it for so long, thinking that I could handle it all on my own (I know I sound like a broken record) but I could not get through this thick skull of mine that all I needed to do is trust in Him. He lead me to this school, He has opened every door. Why wouldn't He be faithful with this? You see this lesson I have learned is when you do things liking agreeing to go to Europe without knowing anything, like where, when, how long, these are moments that God really shines through and you have no where else to go but to trust solely on Him. In those moments He is going to shine so bright.

This lesson was very hard for me to learn. I just could not learn. Then finally about 2 weeks ago I couldn't hold on anymore. God and I had a talk and I laid everything on Him just as He wanted me to do from the very beginning. After that I have had such a peace about everything. So about a week ago Beverly and I decided we would go ahead and pay for what we could, which was the first 6 weeks of school. So Sunday while at church pre-selling our shirts I started paying for our school. Now at this point we are about $13,000 short and our missions pastor came to us and said someone donated $500. That's awesome and I was in shock! That was so amazing! It kept getting better, between different donations, the yard sale, and our t-shirt sale we went from needing $13,000 to needing $2,500.

Again I say I learned such a valuable lesson here, that I hope I never forget. That once God tells you something He will follow through. He is not like me, who could back out at any second, or when things get hard. He will provide every step of the way. So my hope is that you see the beauty in all of this. That when you stop thinking that you can handle this world on your own and give everything over to God, He will out do whatever you thought was the best. He will show you beauty in every little step. I now look back on this journey and see the beauty of all the so called failures and frustrations and see that He was just trying to show me that I truly need Him.

- Hannah