I've realized that some of you coming to this blog don't really know what the blog is for. Well, to explain that, let's go back to this past Christmas…

Over Christmas, I was talking with my sister-in-law about possible trips I was thinking of going on. She mentioned an organization called Adventure in Missions (AIM) and a mission trip called the World Race. I was intrigued. I looked into the trip and found that you have to be 21 to go on the trip- at that point I was still 19. Also, I chose to take this past spring semester off of college. I wanted some time to get things in order, try to figure out where God was calling me to next- (I knew He called me to missions, just didn't know when or where). Around March, I had figured that I would go back to school in the fall and that the following fall (after I was 21) I would go on the World Race. That was my plan. One day, an email from AIM showed up about a First Year Mission (FYM) trip in Nicaragua. It caught my attention… but I kind of stashed it away in my mind. Thought I would maybe go on the trip after the World Race. I got in touch with a representative at AIM and she was gracious enough to answer all the questions I had about the World Race. One day, she called me to talk and asked if I had thought about going on any of their other trips, specifically the FYM trip to Nicaragua. That phone call was around 9:30 in the morning and I wasn't able to shake the thought of Nicaragua for the rest of the day. By the end of the day, I had talked to my best friend, sister and parents about it and they all suggested that I should at least apply for the trip. I applied and left it to God. I figured that if He wanted me to go, He would open the door. A week later, the door opened.

So now, I'm leaving in the beginning of September to go down to Nicaragua for 9 months. This trip is made up of 2 parts- the first is called The Awakening. It's going to be a time of daily worship, bible studies, discipleship and ministry as a team. It's going to be intense and a huge growing time for all of us on the team. Also during that time, we will be praying and finding out where God will lead each of us personally for the second part- The Outreach. During this part, we will each have a ministry we will be working with, whether it is a hospital, orphanage, school… From January to May, we will work with these ministries. We don't know a lot of details about what we will be doing down there. All of us are simply following Christ's call. We will be coming home in between The Awakening and The Outreach around Christmas.

To state it simply, I could never imagine going on this trip without Christ. And I'm so blessed and excited that He has called me to this adventure! If you have any more questions about the trip, please ask me!