One month and one day.

Tomorrow morning it will be exactly one month from the day I will leave Minnesota and head back to New Zealand to start doing full time missions. In many ways this is incredibly intimidating. Fundraising is going slowly and my finances are not coming in as quickly as I had hoped. I will be honest when I say I am getting very scared that money needed, specifically the moneys needed for my flight is not going to come in in time. Yet, in so many ways I realize this is a fleshy, nasty fear that has no place in the Kingdom of God. Romans says "God has not given me a spirit to fall back into fear." So, So many doors have already been supernaturally opened.

• The luggage that I was set to buy turned out to be on clearance from $175 to $35 the morning I went to pick it up!
• REI only had one more of the sleeping bag that I wanted and so because I was willing to take the floor model they chopped off half the price and I got a $220 sleeping bag for $47!
• Last night at a friend's bachlorette party I won $118 playing BINGO! 
• All last week my old job was dealing with some crisis and needed an extra pair of hands, those hands were mine and I picked up extra hours everyday last week!
• A woman I've only met a handful of times heard about my story and donated.
• A family from church that has come around me and supported me in numerous ways in the last year gave me two substantial donations that brought me to tears. 
• My church has pledged to support over 1/4 of my entire trip as soon as half the total money comes in.

Looking at that list the doors opened seem so much more numerous than the ones that are not opened yet. It is with much in-trepidation that I head into the next four weeks. Once again the next few weeks (as the last few weeks before my 2007 journey) their are a few major events between here and now. Dear friends Jon and Nicole are getting married in early May, best friend Bitsy is coming up to visit, and of course the much anticipated birth of my second dear little niece Faith Isabelle. The next four weeks are going to fly by, there are many things I have yet to do, many races I want to still finish strong.

A few days ago I checked the school website (www.ywamoxford.org) at the staff profiles and I'm up! It's just a goofy mini biography and an old photo but it was in someway this huge milestone to me. It's up. It's official! I'm going!

Tomorrow morning I'm going to wake up with a month left in Minnesota and a whole lot of a miracles that still need to be done. But a month from now I'll be posting a last blog, anxious and unable to sleep reading to head out. Ready to do this crazy, awesome, amazing, fearful adventure that God is calling me on. I'm not perfect, I'm not even great at this, I'm scared, I've got a lot of weaknesses but my heart is willing. "Here I am God, send me."

And here are some photos from Jessi's baby shower this afternoon. Dan is sporting his "Daddy-Survival-Kit" he got from Abbi.

 

And all of us ladies. Myself, Izze, Abbi, Sissy and Faith Isabelle on board for a few more weeks (or days if my prayers are answered)