1 More Month!!

Many people are asking me when I start my new journey. Sometimes I want to be funny and say, “not soon enough,” but the truth is I leave in one month. I am moving to Grundy, Virginia on July 11^th. I am so excited to be able to do my internship with a ministry that I full heartedly believe in. Mountain Mission School will be my home for about five months. I am excited to see how God is going to use me there and also how He will stretch me. I’m excited to build relationships with the children and even the staff down there. For all the internships that fell through, I know that there was a reason for that. God has really been working on me lately, even in ways I would not imagine.

I have honestly been challenged with living the simple life. While I was in Uganda and Ethiopia, I saw people who had less than I did and they were much happier than I was. Yes, I am happy in life, but am I content with what I have? No, I don’t feel content because the American lifestyle tells me that I need materialistic things to make me happy. Honestly, it sickens me how much I have in my room and most of it I no longer use or even need. Some things that are souvenirs that I believed would have so much meaning, but are almost pointless to me now. I look at it as stuff that is collecting dust. Most of it will go in a yard sale this fall in order to just get rid of it. I am sick of living the American lifestyle of thinking I need a lot of “stuff” in order to be happy. Just to show you how much of the American lifestyle I used to live, I have an example. Before I left for my trip, I got a brand new pair of Asic running tennis shoes. When we were in Uganda, we were there during the rainy season. As we did house visits, I stepped in a huge puddle of water. I “thought” that I had ruined my shoes. I complained to my mom as we were walking and she proceeded to tell me that she would buy me a new pair for Christmas. As we returned from the trip, I looked at my mom and told her to just throw my shoes in the washer. I realized that my shoes were not ruined, but just needed a little cleaning. To say that a little part of me died inside when all the red Ugandan clay came off is an understatement! That clay was something that reminded me of what we did there and the lives that touched my heart. I have realized that I don’t need half the stuff that I have in order to be happy or content. I can’t wait to get rid of most of my things this summer. I watch people that buy so much just because they can and wonder why.. Why do they need all of that to be happy with their life? Is it to show that they have so much going for them? Any more, I could care less that people have more money than I do. I could care less that I have a little amount of things.

This year in chapel, we have had some really good sermons. There was one this semester that really challenged me. It didn’t hit me until after and to be honest it was one of those chapels I halfway listened to. It was a sermon that I need to go back and listen to fully. The basic concept of it was that we shouldn’t collect the glory, but give it back to God. Here is why it has stuck with me more than some of the other sermons. The guy giving it asked everyone to stand on the pew, if we felt comfortable doing that. He proceeded to say that this is how we view ministry sometimes, that we are higher. He then asked us to get down and then lay on the floor. I questioned it at first, but then realized there was a purpose. As everyone in the chapel was lying down, he proceeded to say that this was the way we should view ministry. A lot of times, we accept the glory that we get from how well we are doing a ministry or with what we are doing with our life. I have realized that it isn’t our ministry in the first place to accept the praise for how well it is doing. That is God’s ministry and we shouldn’t be accepting the praise without directing it up to Him. I have been wrestling with how to respond when someone will say something about my life and ministry. It is hard to direct the glory back to him and not keep it to myself. I believe that a lot of times I want people to see what I am doing so they know, but that shouldn’t be the sole reason. I need to realize that it shouldn’t matter at all of what I am personally doing.

       I have had a lot of people give me encouraging words lately. Words of how proud they are of me or how they love watching what I am doing with my life. I have to say that all of these encouraging words mean a lot to me. They mean more than I could ever express and I can only say thank you! I honestly would not be where I am today if it wasn’t for certain events in my life. Life changing events that led me to realizing that I was running away from the idea of being a missionary and trying to do something where I made money. The world tells us that we should get this job because you make this amount of money. In the end, I want to be able to do something that is going to matter for the Kingdom. I want to be able to show kids love that they may desperately need.

Some have been asking me what I will be doing while I am at Mountain Mission School or where I will be staying. I don’t have all the answers for the questions that have been thrown at me, but I can answer some with the best of my ability.

What is MMS?: This is a place for at-risk youth to have a place to feel safe. They serve as a home, school, and church to over 200 children from over 60 different countries.

What I will be doing?: Well, I will be doing a little bit of everything. I am hoping to be able to see what it is like to be in the office part. I might be working inside the classroom as an aide. I might be in toddler hall playing with the little kids. I could be helping out in the kitchen if it is needed. Honestly, if they tell me to go clean a toilet, I will be doing that!

       How long will you be there?: My last day will be Monday, December 7^th. I wanted to be able to have a full experience of an internship. I will be at MMS when they have the Indiana Christmas party and then I will leave the next morning for home. I will be home a couple times during the internship because of class and a couple other events, but I will be able to spend Thanksgiving away from family. This may sound awful, but as a missionary, you are not able to see family when you want to. My family and I are still working out the details, but I hope to be able to spend Thanksgiving at MMS without family.

Where will you be staying?: I will be staying on one of the floors of girls. I am not exactly sure which floor. When I was down in March, I was asked if I saw myself as a mother figure or a big sister. I said big sister, so I am hoping to be a mentor to the girls on the floor I live on.

Ways that you could be praying for me:

·      As I am doing my internship, I will be taking an 8 week Psychology class. I ask for prayers on how to balance everything in my life. I know how to balance ministry with homework.

·      Pray that my time there will be fruitful and that I would be able to apply things I have learned at LCU to my internship.

·      Pray that with all of the pouring out into others lives that I would be able to fill myself back up.

·      Pray for Mountain Mission School and the kids there. Pray that the ministry could be fruitful and that they would be able to reach more children.

·      Pray that as I am at Mountain Mission that God’s will would be done.

·      Lastly, Pray that I can be patient until I leave.

Thank you everyone for blessing my life and that I have been able to learn from people around me. I am super thankful for the people that have helped God redirect my desires for the future. When I was younger, I never would have believed that I would have huge heart for the Fatherless or even for the orphaned children. Everyone has a purpose, whether that be to help those children or to support someone that is working with those children. Thank you to the people that have helped guide me through the major life events that have shaped me to be who I am today. I am thankful for all the opportunities that God has allowed me to serve Him and His people.

I will be keeping everyone updated while I’m on my internship.

Until next time, blessings!

Ally

Here are some pictures of MMS. 

Going up to the school.

An overview of the school

The countries that have been or are represented at the school.

My favorite statue at MMS. 

God is moving!

I sit here thinking about what I am going to write about. I ponder all the things that have been going on in my life. There has been so much that God has been showing me lately and sometimes I don’t know how to handle it. He has been showing me things about the future and even about time now. Since I gave up almost all of my social media up for lent this year, I have learned that I do not need it and I spend more time on it than I really should. I think the biggest thing that God is teaching me right now is that He has a big plan for me.

I have learned that there is something that I am supposed to be doing in the future, but to be honest I have no idea what. I just had my final spring break and I was heading back to school on Easter to finish out the semester. I was driving on 74 when everything happened so fast. I had been on the road for no more than thirty minutes when it happened. I was in an accident and this time it wasn’t my fault. To be honest, I was lucky to walk away with a couple scratches. You may ask what happened? I was trying to pass a van and I was in the van’s blind spot. They started coming into my lane once but then went back to their own. Then they came back to my lane when they actually hit me and I didn’t realize it. I got off onto the shoulder as much as possible. I hit a gravel patch which I lost control of my car, I proceeded to overcorrect and it spun my car to face the field next to 74. As it spun me, I made contact with the car a second time and then I went across the other lane of traffic. I then went into the ditch through a barbed wired fence into a field, where I realized my foot was still on the accelerator and that’s why I wasn’t stopping.

Dad checking out the car in the field. 

As I called my mom, I definitely didn’t have some pretty words for her and I was so shook up. It took the whole night and part of the next day to calm myself down from the accident. I struggled with blaming myself for the accident and telling myself that I could have prevented the accident, but to be truthful I couldn’t. I honestly have just been thanking God that I am still here and I wasn’t hurt. Having to deal with everything throughout the whole week has been a little stressful, but we have been very blessed with how things have worked out. I still question how I wasn’t hurt more or how I wasn’t even killed. I ask why did it have to happen and how was I so lucky to walk away with a bruise on my neck and my leg from walking in the field.

Throughout dealing with everything from this second accident, I have learned that God has a big plan for me. There is something that He wants me to do, but honestly I have no idea what it is. I know that I have been blessed to walk away from both accidents. I have learned so much from the accident and I’m thankful mom and I have been able to joke around about it. She has said that we are going to get blow up bumpers for my car and a neon sign that says, “I’m in your blind spot.” Throughout the laughter and many tears, I can see God moving in my own life. I can see Him working and it is pretty incredible to see.

I volunteer in the prison every Monday and we are teaching the women practical information for when they leave. I was in there this last Monday for the last time of the semester, maybe even the last time ever. I had several women ask me how I was after my wreck and I even had one say that she had been praying for me. It is hard to see how fruitful our work has been in there, but I know that He is working in there. I know that every trial or every thing that I have done in my life has prepared me for what God has planned in my future. I am absolutely terrified to see what God is going to do with my life, but I am also super excited. I am ready for the journey.

After towing it to a gas station

I am going to leave you with this verse. 

“Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”  -Romans 5:1-5


Blessings, 
Ally

New Year... New Blog!

I truly hate that we haven’t been keeping the blog up since we came back from Africa. A lot of things have happened since we have returned. I have finished my third semester at Lincoln Christian University and I have enjoyed a nice long break at home. When the semester ended, I knew that I had a good month at home and during that time I had some things that I needed to decide on. As I have written about before, I have an opportunity to spend my summer in Zimbabwe for an internship. I need to be honest; I have been dragging my feet about it the whole semester. I never really knew why I was dragging my feet on it, but I was. Don’t get me wrong, I was super excited about the opportunity, but something didn’t seem right about it. When I came home, my mom said that I needed to make a decision about Zimbabwe by the end of my break.

Since I have been back from Africa, I have known that I left my heart back there. Ever since I was a little girl, I knew that there was something about Africa, but I never knew what it was about it. I have to say that it is the people there and the kids are a huge part of it. One child can have the biggest smile on their face, but you can see how absolutely broken they truly are. Those kids do not have a lot. They try to hide their brokenness. They make the most and are thankful for what they have. I can say that I was more blessed by the people there than I feel like I was a blessing for them. I learned so much while I was there and I would take any opportunity that I could to go back. Being able to learn from the people there was something that God had been preparing me for. To think that God has been preparing me since I was a little girl is even more mind blowing.

God prepares us for something long before we even know about it. He has been preparing me for a life of missions ever since I was a little girl. I have known that I wanted to help people. I still don’t know exactly how God is going to use me in that way, but I know that He will. I know that He has some great plans for me. During my break, I was able to contact the people that I talked to about my internship. I have learned that God has shut the door for my internship. It is just not the right time for that internship. Mark had told me back in September “That the door may be open now, but that doesn’t mean that it will be open later.” There was a reason why I was dragging my feet on applying for the internship and I have learned why. I hope that in the future I might be able to go to Zimbabwe and serve along side of Zimbabwe Outreach Ministry. They are doing some great things there.

I am now back to square one of not knowing what to do for the summer. Right now I have many options that I could possibly do. I am in the process of checking on some other internships or possibly working for the summer. Whatever I may be doing for the summer, I know that God is going to guide me in the direction that I need to go in. I have started my 4^th semester at Lincoln Christian University. I am super excited about this semester and I also know it will be a challenging one. I am taking three different mission classes and a spiritual conflict class. I can’t wait to see what I am going to be learning this semester. These are going to be things that I can apply to what I do in the future.

Before I left to come back to school, mom had me read a devotional that she had read. It was something that I needed to hear. I have been worrying about what I should be doing this summer and about my future. The devotion was able to take me back a step or two. The devotion was about how we don’t see the whole picture but God does. He gives us a little glimpse of what we should be seeing at a time. It also gave a great analogy. The analogy was of stand still traffic. We don’t always know why we are in stand still traffic (life) but God knows and He is guiding us through it. It also talked about how we can get off at different exits to avoid the traffic, but we usually don’t do that. We don’t always know what is coming up ahead, but we need to trust that God does. Even if we don’t know it, He is always guiding us. Don’t get ahead of yourself when you are trying to figure out your future. Soon you will see what you are supposed to see.

I found this and I feel that it is true. People portray Africa from what they see in movies, but that's not all of Africa. If you are having a hard time reading it, here is the link: http://www.pinterest.com/pin/150941024985027724/

Here are some other pictures from the trip that we haven't posted. 

They were always taking care of the younger children. 

They were so excited when we brought them books! 

Some of the things that we saw when we did house visits in Uganda. 

This was on the side of the road. You can see that there is trash in this pile. 

We are truly blessed by the things that we have in the United States. We take a lot of things for granted and we don't even realize it. 

Happy New Year and Blessings,

Ally

A View from the Mountain Top

Today we visited our last orphanage for our trip.  We have one full day left in this beautiful country before we start our journey home.  We went to an orphanage today that is run by the Catholic Church.  I had asked Deanne early on about children with handicaps and if you ever see them in the orphanages.  I found them today!  Many of team members held the hands of these innocent children and just prayed.  God has not forgot these beautiful children.  He has provided a nice home filled with wonderful women to care for them.  We saw children with hydrocephaly, microcephaly, epilepsy, and spina bifida. 

 

I talked to one of the sisters and she told me that four of the children go to a special school that they pay for one time per year.  She said they are transported to and from school.  This little guy has an adventure ahead of him and will be adopted soon in the US.  Praise God!

 

I am thankful that I got to see this orphanage and that it was on the last day.  In the middle of all of this sadness in this country beauty can always be found.  Today, I found beauty in a rose blooming in the courtyard of this orphanage, the cross sitting high against the clouds, and innocent brown eyes that long to be loved!

We journeyed up the mountain today and witnessed some beautiful scenery.  The city below was beautiful and the drive up was breathtaking!  We sat on the roadside and had a picnic lunch of delicious pasta and bread.  After our lunch we went to see a church.  The church is over 120 years old and is filled with beautiful paintings.  We also went into the older church (over 700 years old), which was a cave and was able to see where many have worshipped long before us. 

We came down the mountain and witnessed a lot of children begging on the roadside.  It is heartbreaking to tell them no.  You have it in your pocket but if you give to one you will be giving to all because there are so many of them.  We went to Kaldi’s Coffee for dinner tonight.  Ally and I ate on $104.02.  Birr that is.  In reality, we ate for just $6.00 total!  Cheap dinner but oh so delicious.

Tonight Ally and I got a taste of home!  We were able to Skype with Adam and in turn he called Scott so we could talk to him as well!  It was nice to hear Scott and see Adam.  He also called my mom so I could check in on her.  I think we are missed just a little bit! 

 

Tomorrow we have church-for 2 hours!  We laughed at dinner and said that Americans would get up and leave after one hour!  We will shop tomorrow as well and start packing up our belongings.  Praying that tomorrow is another God filled day! 

Blessings from Ethiopia,

Tori