Full Acceptance

Hello Valerie,

 

Congratulations on your full acceptance as a Campus Ministry intern of Campus Crusade for Christ!    We are excited as we anticipate what God will do in and through you during this coming year.

Yahoo! I'm accepted in Intern with CRU this fall! I know have to start working on raising support, which I know is not going to be an easy task. I've raised money before for mission trips but never for an entire year! I know that in order to raise all the support I need God is going to have to come through, BIG time! 

I am so exited to begin this new journey in life and I will be sharing it with all of you as well! I will try to keep you updated as much as possible during this experience and let you in on what God does through out my year as an intern. I am so grateful for this opportunity to serve God in this way! 

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Out of my box

Today I gave a 5 minute presentation on my upcoming mission trip to Africa at a church I used to go to when I lived with my parents. Now that I have moved to a different city I no longer go there. If you know me at all you know that I really, really dislike public speaking. It was great to be able to share about what God is doing in my life and my excitement for Africa. Afterwords everyone was so nice and excited for me as well. God is so good how he sends encouragement when we need it the most! The church also provided me with a donation towards my trip which was way more than expected! (not that I was expecting anything).

After church I meet up with an old friend from high school. It was so great to have lunch with her, we have been trying to plan a time to get together for the last 6 months! We live a couple hours from each other so it's not like we can see each other a lot. She also gave me a card and a donation for my trip which was unexpected. I thought I had seen all the support I was going to get but turns out it is still coming in.

Christmas in June?

Lately I have been like a kid at Christmas time! I can't wait to rush home and open the mailbox to see if I have received another letter! I sent out about 50 support letters for my mission trip to Africa. I have received seven back so far. Each check or money gift usually comes with a little note and that is my favorite part, reading the wonderful words people write to me. One of my favorite so far is from a college friend named Amanda. We lived in the same house for a year and went on a missions trip together I want to share with you what she wrote because it really blessed me.

Dear Val,

I'm glad to hear that you are doing well and are enjoying both of your jobs as a nurse. Nurses definitely have the ability to touch people's lives wherever they serve and a Christian nurse can share the greatest gift ever, Jesus Christ! I'm sure you will be able to do a lot of good with all those you meet in Africa. It will be nice to be able to help the young women be able to sustain themselves through selling jewelry. It's also nice going with a church because that way you can share your Christian faith with others; there is no greater gift than to help someone enter into or strengthen their relationship with Christ and the greatest thing is that while you are helping others you yourself are also growing in your relationship with Christ! I'm sure your nursing background will also come in handy while in Africa as well. I would love to hear about your trip when you return. I'm sure this will be quite the experience for you. Hopefully, once I pay off all my loans I will be able to do mission work as well! I cannot give a whole lot of money as I just paid of $10,000 of my loans so I am pretty broke right now but I will definitely pray for you and your fellow missionaries and the fruits of your mission! God bless and love always!

In Christ,

Amanda

Amanda gave me $5 for this trip, and that $5 means so much to me! It reminds me of the story in Mark about the widow.

"Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a fraction of a penny. Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, 'I tell you the truth, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything -- all she had to live on.' "

Mark 12:41-44

I'm not saying Amanda put in all she had to live on but I think you get the picture! Speaking of picture below is a picture from my second mission trip to Mississippi, Amanda is wearing yellow in the picture, towards the middle!

In God we trust

This week I began sending out support letters for a missions trip I am going on in September. I have already received 2 checks this week and they were both for large amounts! I can't believe it, how quickly they came. It feels like the trip is years away but it is actually just a few months away! This will be the first time I leaving the country unless you count Canada .... I don't! It's like Christmas every time I go and check the mailbox!