It's a bird! It's a plane! Yup, it's a plane.

What a full day of travel I've had. After some flight delays and rerouting, I am on my way to Jamaica. Praying Pelican Missions has a full summer of trips ahead of us, and Jamaica has its fair share. I am excited to begin this season of leading trips, after putting so much work into planning them. I know that all our hard work and detailed scheduling is going to pay off. At the end of the summer, I will consider my trips a success if the students and individuals who came to serve in Jamaica go back home knowing that they were the hands and feet of God and are changed because of it. I am looking forward to seeing how God is going to change me as well.

Please keep the prayers coming and I will keep the updates coming. My previous blog post has a listing of all the stops I am making this summer and details some specific ways you can pray for me and my hubby, my teams, Jamaica, and Praying Pelican Missions. I appreciate your support and love and encouragement.

Remember, you don't have to get in a plane and cross the ocean to be the hands and feet of Christ. Sometimes all you have to do is cross the street. :-)

Recently Mailed Postcards

By now many of you should have received a postcard in the mail from me of my missionary travel schedule this summer. As exciting as it is to see so many wonderful places in such a short period of time, I recognize that the only way I'm going to make it through the summer is with prayer, which is why I sent the postcards out. The most important thing that you can do to support me & Praying Pelican Missions is to lift me and my teams up in prayer this summer. Please put these postcards in a place that you will see on a daily basis. Even now I am feeling the enemy's attacks, as he tries to destroy the work the Lord has already begun. 

There are some very specific things you can pray about this summer on my behalf:

#1 - For my husband and myself, that God will continue to strengthen & protect our marriage as we both serve the Lord this summer.

#2 - For my teams serving in Jamaica and for Praying Pelican Missions, as we lead thousands of students and individuals onto the mission field in nine different countries, that God would work in their hearts as they serve others & that He will draw them closer to Himself.

#3 - For the people of Jamaica, that God would begin to do a work in their hearts, as He reveals Himself to them and His desire to know them in a one-on-one relationship, & that they would come to know His saving grace.

I want to thank you in advance for the prayers that you will lift up for the above requests over the summer. I know that this is what God has called me to do, this is what he has created me to do, but I also know that I cannot do this on my own, so thank you for your prayers. Through your prayers you will be an active participant in what the Lord is doing around the world.

I have one final request of you. Not only would I ask for your prayers, but I would also like to pray for you. Please take some time and message me or text me and let me know how I can be praying for you this summer as well. Even though you may not be serving on the foreign mission field this summer, I know that God has great plans in store for you & that you will need my prayers too.

Thank you for agreeing to partner with me and I with you in prayer over the summer. I will do my best to post updates on a regular basis here on my blog.

Upside Down Postage Stamps

In my family we have a tradition. When we mail each other letters we place the postage stamp on upside down. When I asked my grandmother what that meant she told me that it was a way of saying I love you. Through the years I've continued to place my stamps on the envelopes upside down, unless of course it was a bill, & I never really looked anymore into why we put postage stamps on envelopes upside down.

The other day, however, I became curious and so I did some research on the Internet. There were a lot of different opinions about why people put postage stamps on upside down, but the one that I think my grandmother would agree with is this:  In wartime, soldiers were discouraged from including anything in their letters that might show affection or that might put their loved ones in danger if the enemy intercepted their correspondence. And so soldiers and their families began placing their postage stamps on envelopes upside down as a way of being able to say I love you without actually having to write the words.

So if you ever receive a letter from me and you notice that the postage stamp is on upside down, now you know it's a way of saying I love you in my family.

"How are you?"

Have you ever said something to someone in a conversation and thought, "Why on earth did I say that? I didn't even know I felt that way!" Well I had one of those moments today while talking with a good friend of mine in the church parking lot. She caught me by surprise by genuinely asking me how I was doing. As I responded to her I began to realize that I was feeling disconnected from those around me. Up until that point I hadn't felt like anyone genuinely cared what my response was to the "How are you?" question and so I hadn't really asked myself that question. So it surprised me when I answered her the way I did. As I began to pray about it later the Lord began to reveal to me that I do the same thing to others. I ask them how they are at times when they can't really answer the question honestly - maybe we are just passing or maybe we are in a location too crowded to share. When my friend stopped and asked me how I was she did so at a time when neither of us were pressed for time and we were not surrounded by other people who could have interrupted our conversation and so we were both able to openly share. It was refreshing. The lesson I learned is this: I must be intentional about when I ask others how they are and make sure to genuinely want to hear their answer to that question, otherwise I will leave them feeling the same way I was earlier today.

As I study the life of Christ, I notice that each of His conversations were intentional and genuine. He was never too busy to stop and minister to others, even when He was pressed for time (like when Lazarus was dying). He made it a point to connect with and make time for others and I must do the same. We are all busy and have stuff in our lives that easily get in the way of our connecting with others - the key is found in the second greatest command in Scripture, to love others as we love ourselves. This includes genuinely making time to ask others how they are, because we like it when people do this for us. You never know how that simple question is going to influence their day.