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If you are a college student or really any person trying to figure out what the heck God has planned for your life let me just say that is a hard, confusing, and annoying place to be. I’m here to say I still have no clue about what I am doing, but here is how I found peace in the meantime.    I just do not understand how an 18-year-old supposed to know what to major in or what job to get. For a long time, I have felt stuck in the mindset that the corporate world is an evil place, medical school takes a horribly long time, teaching is underpaid, but also that you can’t do much with a simple sociology degree. Throughout my freshman year, I ~officially~ changed my major 3 times but ask my roommate, I really changed my major about every other day. I was stressing mys…

Take time to process. Do you ever put something off because you know you will have to process it? When I process something it forces things to shift back into reality. The reality for me is I’m back in the states after a month of getting to serve in Panama! I’m grateful to have some everyday comforts back like clean sheets and hot water. But I’d give those up and leave again in a heartbeat. As I transition back to my usual routine I’m so thankful for all the opportunities the Lord had and has for me through the exposure to life on the World Race. This past month as I worked with a team that has now been on the field for 10 months they taught me a few things. 1) The sooner you allow yourself to be vulnerable the sooner you can grow. Your teammates can better call you to higher thi…

I struggle with words and expressing myself often.But as I endured what I would say was my most difficult challenge mentally, spiritually, and physically, I expressed my frustrations clearly! My team and I were in the beautiful city of Boquete, Panama for a few days on our rest/adventures days and we were definitely going to make the most of it! So why not climb the largest mountain in Panama…Volcán Barú. Yeah we climbed a VOLCANO. The “we” in that statement couldn’t be more true! With lack of sleep due to excitement and a mix of other things, my body started feeling sick the first few steps into the hike. But climbing a volcano was something I always wanted to do. I wasn’t giving up. I turned to my teammates and shared what was going on. They instantly offered thei…

In 9 days I will be back home. I came onto this trip with expectations-good expectations. I wanted to see You move in my life and the lives of those around me. I wanted to see Your Spirit move. I wanted to see a miracle so I would never doubt You again. I trusted that You would satisfy my desires with good things. (Psalm 103) Currently, I have no “amazing” stories, I have no revelations, and quite honestly it‘s hard for me to see any clear impact/fruit from my time here. But, You know my heart more than I do. ~thankfully~ You know why I wanted cool stories and why I had these expectations. I wanted to be able to say my trip was clearly successful/impactful. I wanted to tell people these cool stories and show them how alive You are. I wanted to feel secure in my…

“… there is no growth without change, no change without surrender, no surrender without wound – no abundance without breaking. Wounds are what break open the soul to plant the seeds of a deeper growth.” ~The Broken Way, Ann Voskamp This quote completely describes the life I have been given. Constant change. Wounds left wide open. Surrendering everything -all your hurt, pain, heart, future, relationships, life- to God is one of the hardest things I’ve had to do. However, it is the sweetest and most rewarding experience of my life. God has been molding me into the woman He has designed me to be. Chipping away the wall that has built around my heart. Chipping away the shame and the guilt. Old wounds that have not properly healed being reopened. Clothing me in His grace and faithfulness….

I am writing this blog from Calama, Chile where I am finishing a month on the field with a World Race Team. For months I’ve researched the World Race, dreaming of all the things it might mean to live life with the Lord on the race. I’ve spent hours vlog stalking, reading blogs, and following Instagram posts. I have become quite familiar with one of Adventure in Missions’ slogans, The World Race: More than a Mission Trip. Naturally, I thought this was fairly cheesy advertising and simply moved on. But after only one month of learning from World Racers, experiencing life with them, and witnessing what life on mission looks like, I couldn’t agree more with the slogan. This is my first experience with overseas mission work. For many years, I’ve dreamed of the day I would get the opportunit…

During the world race “exposure” I learned how to live in community with people from different backgrounds. I learned that I was not just another American southern girl, but I learned how to be a construction buildin, furniture designin, nailgunnin, sawin, feedbackin, jesus lovin, evangelizin, Holy Spirit prayin kind of girl. I’ve learned to take the days as they come and not to worry about tomorrow especially when I have coffee pouring down my face right now. I’ve learned to find joy in all of it even the hard stuff, sometimes. I’ve learned that being dirty is ok and also how many times I can rewear my clothes without having to wash them. I have learned how to just nod my head when I don’t understand someone’s language. I’ve learned to just mouth the words I don’t know during the despa…

This may very well be my last blog post of my trip to Malaysia, so I decided I would give you a summary of what God has taught and shown me this month. He taught me: •How to build relationships built on the intentional pursuit to see Jesus within them •That My worth is in the cross •How to live in the freedom that Christ provides •How to pray deeply and hear Him more clearly •How to be still! (Such a hard one to learn, but completely necessary and freeing!) •How to depend on Him for literally everything •To seek out His glory everywhere •How to serve wholeheartedly, depending on his strength (quite literally-could have been crushed while building a rock climbing wall) •How to love strangers well and share the Gospel boldly •To fear Him,…

Each day, I am slowly learning that Penang can be a lot like home. People go about their own business each day, carrying out their own routine no matter what. But you see something different when you intentionally seek to meet people where they are at, seek to see their heart, not their routine. We have been partnering with PenHOP, a house of prayer that has allowed me to deepen intimacy in my relationship with the Lord and hear Him when he speaks to me. I have met some of the most passionate, Christ exalting people here. We have also worked with a cafe called Let’s Meat that is expanding not only their shop, but their ministry as they open their very own church, expand their restaurant, and build a rock climbing gym. Sometimes building the kingdom may quite literally mean “build”. Wh…

“Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.” -1 Kings 19:11 I never knew a desert could be so beautiful. Nor did I realize that sometimes the water we need most has the potential to wreck us. I hadn’t noticed the muddy streets that follow the rain and proceed the beauty. The Desert. Last week I found myself, along with my World Race team, trekking through a vast desert. Miles and miles of terrain with no vegetation, no water, and few signs of life. And then there were the mountains & my heart was captivated by the beauty of this landscape so foreign to others I have experienced in my life. But I couldn’t pinpoint what drew my heart so close to its splendor. Have you ever found yourself in a desert? Not a literal one, necessaril…