Once upon a time, long ago, a young girl boarded a plane in Chicago and flew off into a life she never imagined.  One hour and forty-five minutes later, she stepped off that plane, onto a bus and into the clay red dirt of Gainesville, Georgia.  And now, six years, dozens of flights and fifteen countries later, here she stands again, and it's the same.  But it's different.

The dirt is the same and the place is the same, but the girl has changed.  She has taken a beautiful journey from the US to the Caribbean to Mexico to Europe to Asia and so many places in between.  She's met incredible people and seen the Lord work in awesome ways. 

More than anything, she has come to know and love her Maker with a genuineness and depth that she never expected.  He has revealed Himself to her over and over again:

Faithful, Trustworthy, Rock, Provider, Protector,

Help, Friend, Father, Lover, Joy...

I am this girl, and here I stand, looking at the dirt one more time, one last time. 

You see, today is my last day working in the AIM office.  I'm moving on.  Many times, I have told the Lord that I will follow wherever He leads, and now His path is going in a new direction.  I am excited to share that with you, but first, I want to take a minute to revisit some of the places I've been.

 
Mexico April-May 2005                        GA Training Camp June 2005

Ireland & England June-July 2005

New Orleans September 2005

 
England Fall-Winter 2005-2006

 
England Spring 2006

India Fall 2006

Hong Kong & China Fall 2007

 
The Philippines Fall 2007

As you can see, it's definitely been a journey.

With all of it's ups and downs, highs and lows, I wouldn't trade a single second.  Thank you so much to all of you who have made these last few years possible.  Your prayers and support have changed lives around the world and have changed my life in such a way that I will never be the same.

As I leave AIM today, I start a new season.  I have joined the staff of Calvary Chapel Clermont, where we will be working to help our church grow in the Lord and reach our community for Christ.  Please join with me in prayer for this new venture.

For more information on how to be prayerfully and financially supportive and for continued ministry updates, please email me or look me up on Facebook.  Remembering all that the Lord has done, I look forward with great expectation to all that the Lord is about to do.

He is good, and His love endures forever!

As a very proud, first-time parent, I am pleased to introduce my newest and cutest family member:

There is an exciting God-story coming soon to this blog about how he joined my family, but, in the meantime, I need your help thinking up a good name for him. Please comment on my blog and leave any boy-name suggestions you have for my new kitten...

Dear friends, family and supporters,

If you've been watching the news, then I'm sure that you've heard by now about the flawed elections in Kenya and the huge upheaval they are causing.  At this point, 300 people have been killed, 70,000 people have been displaced from their homes, and the economy has collapsed.

AIM has a base there as well as a school and an orphanage, and we minister in the midst of the worst slum in the country.  In the midst of the chaos, we are trying to take care of those who are suffering the most--those who live near our base and have no food to eat and and no medical care.  We are trying to share Christ by meeting their needs.

In response to this situation, AIM has established a special fund called the Kenya Relief Fund.  Any money contributed to this fund will be wired directly to our Kenyan staff and used to by food for those who are starving because of the situation.  Would you please join me in helping to be Jesus to the lost in Kenya by reaching out to them in their time of greatest need?  I will be making one as soon as I post this blog.

You can make a contribution by following this link: 
https://www.adventures.org/give/donate.asp?giveto=kenyaBaseRelief

My friend and fellow staff member, Denise, who serves in Kenya, writes, "When we buy food, we work with local pastors to distribute it to those in the worst condition. There are a few staging areas beginning to develop and two have been identified thus far that we are going to try and fund. Please help bring hope to this horrible situation."

Thank you very much!

Hanna

I'm Home!

This is just a quick note to let you guys know that I'm home safe and sound.  After being temporarily delayed by a TYPHOON, I finally made it back to Georgia a week ago Thursday.  Since then, I have take my youth group girls to Revolve Tour for the weekend, attended one of their basketball games, and moved into a new apartment.

As you can see, it's been a LITTLE busy for me, but overall I am adjusting well and enjoying being home.

Soon, I will try to get up more pictures from my trip, and those of you on my newsletter list should be getting a snail mail report of my 10 weeks in Asia sometime between now and next year!

Thanks again to everyone for being such a wonderful prayer covering, support and encouragement while I was gone and for the great welcome home that many of you have provided.  An extra thanks to those of you who have been helping me out with furnishing and decorating my new apartment.

Praise God because He is very, very GOOD!!

Wow. I have so many stories to tell, and yet I feel like I haven't had the time to tell them... Today I want to share the story of one of the pastors that I met in the Philippines. In total, I've made three trips to the Philippines now and spent a total of 3.5 weeks there. It is an amazing place, and the Lord is doing some awesome things there!!

For two weeks, I travelled through three cities and spent time visiting with Filipino pastors that are a part of the International Care Ministries network. As I visited each pastor, I talked with them and asked them two main questions:
1. What are your needs that no one is meeting right now?
2. What are your prayer requests?

In answer to the first question, pastors stayed pretty quiet. They're rather humble men, and they don't like to ask for much. They just trust the Lord to provide.

However, in response to the second question, pastors' hearts tended to flow freely, sometimes with tears. As I listened to them, I learned of the desires of their hearts and the things that they daily cry out to the Lord for. More than anything else, I learned that they love the people in their communities, and they want to see them reached for Jesus. In fact, most of these pastors have surrendered all that they have to make sure that the Gospel goes forth. They have surrendered things you and I never dream of surrendering...

For example, consider Pastor Fedil:

He and his wife and their two kids used to live close to a city, and he made a living by making signs for businesses. In this way, he supported his family and was able to work as a pastor. His ministry focused on children, the disabled and those in prison. He has a huge heart for each of these groups!

A couple of years ago, God called him to move to a new place and plant a church in a mountainous region. He obeyed. As a result, he now lives too far away from a city to make a living by selling signs and the village he's in has no other work to offer. He and his family have to trust the Lord for their every need. For several months, they have been eating unripened bananas at every meal because they cannot afford to buy food and the bananas grow near their home. To you and me, this might seem like a terrible situation. When I tell you that Pastor Fedil prays with tears to the Lord every day, you might assume that he is petitioning the Lord for food or money.

He's not. Do you know what he cries out for? He wants to see the people in his new community come to Jesus. Nothing else matters to him. He is willing to sacrifice anything to make sure that the Gospel goes out. What about you? What do you give up to make sure the Gospel goes out? Would you go so far as giving up the ability to guarantee that you could feed your children each day? Do you trust the Lord enough to believe that where He calls, He will provide?

I, for one, can testify that my faith was truly challenged by Pastor Fedil and others like him. Over and over again I met pastors who have laid their lives on the line and are deeply depending on the Lord in ways that go beyond what I can imagine.

Please pray for these pastors. Right now, there are three teams from AIM working with them for one month. I know God is going to move in awesome ways this month, and I cannot wait to hear the stories. Please join me in holding these teams up in prayer this month, and I'll let you know how everything goes. God bless you, and HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Hey everyone!  Sorry I haven't written lately.  I've been super busy.  I have several hundred pictures though so I will try to get some of them up soon, k?

Here are some prayer requests:

1) My grandmother has a blocked artery in her abdomen, which is a serious problem.  Doctors attempted a surgery to put in a stint the other day, but it didn't work.  Pray that the doctors will find a successful alternate treatment, pray for her healing, and pray for her salvation.

2) My dad's work recently restructured which resulted in a serious paycut for him.  Pray that God will provide for my parents' financial needs and that He would give them wisdom about whether to seek a new job or what to do.

3) Pray for me as I continue to solidify plans for our teams debriefing in a week.  Continue to pray for good locations.  Three teams will debrief in Hong Kong and one in the Philippines.

4) Pray for a baby boy I met in the Philippines.  He is one month old and very sick because of a blood type/liver condition.  His parents had two previous children who both died from this problem because they couldn't afford treatment.  I paid for the baby to go to the hospital and have initial tests run.  Pray that God would heal the baby, that God would give the doctors wisdom, and that God would raise all the rest of the money necessary for medical bills.

Here's My Schedule:

November 5 - Several meetings in Hong Kong

November 6-9 - Debrief preparations in Hong Kong

November 10 - One team arrives in Hong Kong for debrief

November 11 - Two more teams arrive in Hong Kong for debrief and I attend a church service raising support for the ministry we are working with in the Philippines

November 12-13 - Debriefing of three teams in Hong Kong

November 14 - I fly to the Philippines to help with a debrief there, that team arrives in Manila

November 15-17 - Philippines' debrief

November 18 - I return to Hong Kong, three HK teams finish their debriefs

November 19-27 - I'm in Taiwan visiting a friend and fellow missionary

Here I am in Dumagete, Philippines! 

For those of you from Calvary Chapel Clermont, you will appreciate that fact that there is a Calvary Chapel Dumagete, and I ended up attending there last Sunday morning.  Ha, I didn't even know I was going to a Calvary Chapel, but then there I was!  Isn't God funny?  I met some really cool people who teach in the Calvary Chaple Bible college here in the Philippines.  Yea!!

Manila is the star on the map.
Bacolod (shown) and Dumagete (not shown) are both on Negros Island.
Bohol is a city (not shown) on its own Bohol Island.

So, in the last week, I have been in Bacolod and Dumagete meeting with local pastors and setting up for our teams and their ministries.  Today I will travel to Bohol, and on the 29th I will go to Manila, meeting with people in each place.  The Lord has opened many doors.  Keep praying!

Also, here's a special prayer request: One of our teams is finishing their year of ministry in November.  During their last week, we usually take teams to a nicer place and spend time with them helping them process all that they have seen and done and learned over the year and getting ready for whatever they are doing next.  We call this debriefing.  Anyway, this particular team will be in Hong Kong, but we still need to find a good place for them to go.  Please pray that the Lord will show up a great spot.  Thanks!

Alright, sorry this doesn't have too many exciting details...  I will try to share some more specific stories and pictures when I have a longer time on the internet.  Love you all!

One day, while I was walking the streets in a tourist-filled Asian city and wondering why on earth we were planning to send a team there, the Lord showed up.  When I went home that night, I sat down to spend time with Him, and this story came out.  I'm not often a creative writer, but that day my writing was really an act of worship more than anything else.  It just flowed in response to what the Lord showed me that day.  Here, I want to share it with you.  May you also be led to a place of heartfelt worship as you walk an Asian road with me and meet Jesus in the moments of your own day.

I saw you today Jesus.

You had no eyes and no hands, just empty, red sockets on either side of your nose and hard, brown nubbs at the ends of both your arms.  You knelt on a croweded city street, awkwardly perching and empty bucket between your limbs, waiting for coins.

As I approached you, I heard myself say, "Ni-hao" -- the only word I knew in your language.  My friend and I had brought you dinner, and we wanted you to know.  You could not see or feel it so I gently craddled a bit of chicken beneath your nose until you inhaled and understood.

Since you had no hands, I carefully held food to your lips until you took your first bite.  Then I contnued holding it there as you slowly took your second and your third, each careful, each deliberate.  When you seemed thirsty, my friend moved a straw to your lips and waited as you gingerly sipped your drink.

Minutes passed by quietly as we sat with you Jesus.  I enjoyed every moment.  Rarely do I find such a simple opportunity to serve you even though you have given your whole life to serve me. 

Thank you for a chance to love you tangibly.  Thank you for a way to spend time in your presence.  As I walked away today, I had tears in my eyes becaus you showed up in my day, quite unexpectedly, and you changed my life forever.

Thank you Jesus.

I love you.

Amen.

The last few weeks have been incredible!  The Lord has opened many, many doors for us as we travelled doing Asia setup.  While I can't mention specifics for security reasons, praise the Lord with me for His faithfulness and favor the whole time.  I look forward to catching up with you guys in person and through snail mail newsletters when I return home to better explain where I've been and what I've done. 

Meanwhile, let me share a few highlights that aren't super-secret...

After the Philippines, I visited six different places, which means that I rode on

         5 planes in 7 days
               
                        one of which we bought the ticket for only 30 minutes before taking off

        Innumerable passenger trains

                      Most of which took 1-2 hours

            But one was 28 hours and 43 minutes!!!

I also met girls from an unreached people group that I've never heard of, and they attempted to teach me their cultural type of dancing.  (Let's just say that I'll probably keep my day job!)  They also took me out for their native type of food, which was awesome (except for the huge rat that almost fell off the ceiling and landed on our dinner table!)

And, though I didn't visit Korea, I ate some amazing Korean food, which included an octopus pancake.  (Yep, that's right...  Imagine a lovely, fluffy pancake full of thin, squiggly purple legs.  Yum!!)

     Actually, it really was pretty good!

Alright, I guess that's all I can say for now.  I hope you all are doing well.  That's for your constant love, support and encouragement!!

PS--Thank you very much to my H2O friends and to my family members who sent me over here with encouraging cards.  I had a day last week that was rather frustrating, and they were exactly what I needed to lift my spirits.  You guys are the best!

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Here are a few more photos from the time I spent in the Philippines.  These are from the pastor's conference I attended in the city of Bacolod, and I didn't have a chance to put them up earlier...

My dear friend and sister in the Lord, Vichie, works with ICM's medical team.

We spent much of our time building relationships with the Filipino pastors and staff that work for ICM in the Philippines, encouraging them and helping them catch a vision for the future of their ministry.

Here you see many of the Filipino ICM staff as well as Jane (girl in front of me) from the Hong Kong staff and Sharon (two to the right of Jane) who founded the ministry 15 years ago (and of course me too!).