ENDINGS:

I ended my class in Dallas. It was so amazing.  One of the most exciting things I learned was of the Church Planting Movement.  It is so wonderful to hear of people across the globe becoming Jesus followers in such amazing numbers! And they are such prayer warriors!  They spend hours praying together over their sharing stories of Jesus and for the groups God is growing from them!  Check out this video that Kent Parks shared with us from Beyond–a mission that desires to spread the Word of God to areas where it has not been before:

Beyond Overview

I also learned that sometimes our attempts to help those in poverty can actually hurt them in the long run if we are not wise.  When Helping Hurts is a great book on this subject.  I’m still working my way through it, and learning a lot. How I will need the wisdom and discernment from the Spirit of God to do what is best!

Next week I end my teaching position with White Oak schools.  It is bittersweet–I will desperately miss those I have worked with and come to love as family.  And the kids–I will miss them.  They each have touched my heart in some way–even the hard ones!

I am moving all my belongings from school into my room, and soon after I will be going through my remaining things to store at a dear friend’s home.

I have a trip to visit my family in Washington and Oregon the end of June to end of July.  I am looking forward to it, and yet saying good-byes are so hard!

BEGINNINGS:

I leave for Burundi August 22!  I will actually be meeting up with my cousin and his family–Jesse and Joy Johnson and three boys–to fly to Burundi together.  God just sets things up so well for me.  How good He is!

School will begin shortly after I arrive, but my classes should be a couple of weeks in, so hopefully I will feel semi-stable by then.  I am so looking forward to the challenge that awaits me.

I really am praying about the fellow teachers I will be working with.  Please pray with me that we will be a team that is unified.  My hope is that I will gain some really close relationships and be able to possibly rent a room from someone.  We’ll see.  God will direct, and it’s not always the way we plan it!

God is making a way.  I’m writing newsletters, speaking at CHURCHES(!), and doing all kinds of things I never thought I would be doing.  He is behind AND before.  The Alpha and the Omega.  May He get all the glory!