Desires of my Heart

God is so good!  He has given me another opportunity to go on an international mission trip, and He orchestrated it in a way only He could do:

When I came back from the Philippines, all I wanted to do was go back and serve.  I thought I was going to be a full-time missionary raising my support and going wherever the Lord wanted me with just my suitcase, passport and a willingness to help in whatever capacity needed.

Fast forward to the present... I have been teaching at the same school in Frisco, TX for the last seven years, married to a husband that loves the Lord and can handle my craziness, just bought a house, but still has a heart for the mission field.  My "summer" back in the States back in 2007, turned into a permanent residence here in Carrollton, Texas, and the Lord has been with me every step of the way, going before me and covering me with His grace.

This year, He has revealed how much of a mission field my classroom and school are.  My primary job there is to love.  To love not with my own strength, but with the LOVE that surpasses all understanding, the LOVE that casts out all fear, and the LOVE that never fails.  With that huge revelation filling that spot in my heart for missions, He gave me a gift to go back into the nations.

God is so so good!  He set up a divine appointment for me to meet Robin, a young woman who worked for the States' side of an organization in China training their future leaders (university students) with Kingdom principles.  After chatting about YWAM, teaching and missions, she suggested that I go this summer to volunteer at the one of their training camps.  I thought to myself, "China?  This summer?" When I looked at Charlie to see what he thought, he just said, "Go for it!"  My planning, logistical mind took a couple days to get over any fears and accept this gift of the desire of my heart to go out into all the world.

I miss my boys!

Neighbors

The New Class

Preschool Summer Tutorials

Facials

I had to impart some of my beauty knowledge to the boys before I left... but I think they just really liked pretending to be monsters with the masks on.

Going Away Parties

Hanging out with my cousins: Naomi, Elizabeth, Mary, and Abraham.

Girls from River of God-Galleria.

Staff from Jesus Loves the Little Children Foundation.

Some of the boys from Jesus Loves.

My mom's side of the family... Auntie Apap, Auntie Daisy, and cousins :)

Back in the US of A

I officially got back yesterday, but I wasn't on the mainland... I ended up changing my ticket to get back to Dallas early, but I still got to go swimming in the ocean, so that's all that matters :)

I will post more pics soon :)

with a wink and a smile...

I think I'll just ride my imaginary motorcycle across the oceans and continents to get back to Texas... or I'll just get on the plane on Wednesday, since I already have my e-ticket :)

Epal!

My Family Camp minus My Family

I went to Batangas for the semi-annual church family camp... now, I have been to Batangas before, and it was quite lovely. Even if the sand was dark, it was still very fine and nice to walk barefoot on... so this time, I was expecting somewhat the same for this beach resort.

After 6 hours on the road (it was expected to take 3-4 hours, and 2 of the 6 hours we ended up off-roading), we arrived at the beach... it was great the water was pristine, the breeze was cool, but when we got down to the shore, we found the biggest grains of sand ever... otherwise known as rocks. Now at this point, I was starving and my head was throbbing, so I was a little cranky and questioning if I even should have joined in on the camp, but because of God's goodness, it just got better from there :) we went boating, someone fell out, we hiked to a lighthouse, made rock castles, saw some corals, got stung by some tiny jellyfish... it was great!