I have decided to start every blog with a movie clip emotion....
so today I am feeling like Abigail Breslin's character, Olive Hoover, in "Little Miss Sunshine", when she finds out that she is going to be in the Little Miss Sunshine Pageant and in reaction to the news she screams at the top of her lungs for about 2 min. straight while running around the house and throwing things in bags. Now I may not be running around my house screaming all the time but every once in a while I find my self doing my happy dance because I realize that I am going to be in Portugal in less then a week!!!!
so back to the blog......
A question that I have to answer many times is, "why Portugal?" I have given many answers to this question such as my heritage is from there and the percentage of Christians in Portugal is so low and they need missionaries. But the reason that makes me stay dedicated to ministry in Portugal is because I truly feel like God wants me there.
A little back story, all through my intercultural studies classes I have studied and have learned so much about the spiritual climate in Portugal. I have learned that northern Portugal has many counties without any evangelical Christian presence and because of this I have felt like northern Portugal is where I need to serve. Enough of the back story....now for the real story....
In February of 2009, I had been talking with GEM for about a year trying to figure out if they were the organization for me. My schools missions conference was about to start and I was planning on meeting with the GEM representative to further figure things out my ministry goals. However, I was internally really struggling with whether God wanted me in Portugal or in some other ministry role. I wasn't sure if during my meeting with the representative if I would be telling him I am totally ready for Portugal or if I would be backing out of Portugal. The first day of the conference I went and introduced myself to the representative and before I could say anything more he said I want to introduce you to someone. He introduced me to two retired missionaries from GEM, Bill and Sharon Wooten, they had decided to come and visit their old college and to help out during the conference. Now you may be thinking "woopty doo! Two retired missionaries!" but here is where only God could have been in it, the Wootens were retired missionaries from Portugal and on top of that they were missionaries for many years in northern Portugal before they retired. It is one thing to be told something once but when I was told the
same thing multiple times it made me regret questioning God in the first place. It was one of the most humbling experiences for me.
Now I am getting ready to depart on a mission that I believe God has called me and guided me towards. I will be leaving "sunny" California on September 13th and will be arriving in SUNNY Portugal on September 14th. I feel like I am going through every emotional possible recently. I think the only emotions I am not feeling right now are emotions related to anger but everything else seems to be fair game.
I also wanted to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has supported me this far in my adventure! I can not put into words how thankful I am for the people who have been praying for me and the ministry that I am going to help with and also the people who have given of their finances to help make this mission trip and ministry a reality. I also want to give a super special thank you to the amazing core support group I had from Bonnie Molinari, Lynda Campbell, Karen Boskoff, and Pastor Ben Sobels! I would not be where I am now if it weren't for all the support and sacrifices you have all made for me! I also want to thank the women's ministry at Cypress Community Church for supporting me not only through this mission trip but also through the last three years that I have been in school at Multnomah, you have all been such a blessing to me!
Peace Out
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