A year

Well it has been almost a year since I posted anything on here. I have not gone on anymore mission trips but that does not mean I have not been involved.

  My sister and I packed 7(I think) Operation Christmas Child boxes. We have been doing this mission for years. Operation Christmas Child is where you pack a shoe box with toys, candy, books, school supplies and other things kids might like they are then shipped around the world to kids who may not get a Christmas present otherwise. When they are given a box, they are also given a book that has the gospel in their own language. It is amazing.

I also helped support Imagine No Malaria. Imagine No Malaria is a campaign by the United Methodist Church to eradicate Malaria from Africa by 2015. Every 60 seconds a child in Africa dies from malaria. It is preventable, beatable and treatable. I was a member of the conference council on youth ministries( I graduated Boo Hoo :'( ) and we decided instead of raising money for the Youth Service Fund(YSF) we would put all money raised at Resurrection towards Imagine No Malaria because we wanted to do our part. Our part in what you may ask. Well our Conference the Holston Conference decided we would raise One Million dollars for Imagine No Malaria in one year. Our conference raised the money; God used us to raise over one million dollars in one year. 

In March, my church hosted a group of young people from Estonia. They spent a week at our church. I got to learn a little about their culture and they got to learn a lot about America. I become friends with them over the week. When they were here, they were asked by a member of the church if our church could give them one thing or do one thing for them what would it be. They answered that they would want our church to send a team of youth over so that we could share our faith with the youth of Estonia.

Now we are trying to answer their request. Lord willin' and the creek don't rise next summer my church will send a team of at least 9 people (3 of whom are under the age of 20) to Estonia for 12 days. What will we do there? We do not know yet but we know that one of our main goals is to build relationships with the people of Estonia, and encourage them in their faith. They do not live in a country that has a church on every street corner. It is not like American were you say my parents go to church, my grandparents go to church.  For years, Christianity was outlawed in their country.

We are just in the beginning stages of planning. Please pray for us as we plan and figure out what we will do and how we are going to fund this trip. In addition, pray for the people who we will reach when we go to Estonia.