LIONHEARTED LANDLOPER

    On Monday, my team will head to South Dakota to spend a week on the Pine Ridge reservation. We will be serving at a church there and doing all sorts of things -- from children's ministry to a short drama. This will be our first official mission trip, and I am getting so excited as we prepare and pack. It's approaching so quickly. Please join us in prayer this week.

84th Street     The 15th of this month was an event called Serve Our City. All classes were canceled, and the day was to be spent working on projects to help people and businesses all around Ellendale.     Three of us girls were given the opportunity to serve a woman named Margie by pulling weeds and doing yard work. We were handed a small piece of paper with a brief description of the job and the address we were to go to: A trailer on 84th Street North.     Now, 84 is a lot of Streets for a small town, and we soon discovered that walking was not going to work, and hopped in the car. Before     -- I don't know if we were suspicious of the reality of this address since the first time we typed it into the GPS, or if it was when we had to go through a different town to get there -- but I do know that our curiosity was affirmed when the robotic "in 100 feet, turn left onto 84th Street North" took us to some grass-covered tire tracks al...

Photo Taken by Selah Kramer     To start off the month we were able to spend a four-day weekend playing games, getting to know each other, and looking at cacti in Canada.     Oh, there was also an exciting two-day adventure involving a high ropes course and zip line. But that's beside the point.     Just kidding, it was basically the whole point.     We had a lot of fun, learned how to work together, and built up a lot of excitement for the trips we will be able to go on as a team in the future.   ***     The weekend (for me) was filled with one constant reminder from God: these people are the ones He chose for me to spend this year with -- traveling the world and all -- ever since before He told me to come here two years ago. And I need to realize that.  They aren't for me to criticize, they aren't for me to hide from, they aren't for me to impress. They are what God wants to use to build real relations...

    You see, life in a dorm can get kind of dull. And sometimes you have to do something to keep things exciting. Let's just say last night I was having one of those times.     It was that time of day when I am in my pajamas but it still won't be a decent bedtime for at least two more hours, so I am required to stay awake. I got all my homework finished, my roommate was gone and had been gone for awhile, and I had been sitting for way too long. You know the feeling -- it's like you need to go actually do  something because you've started to feel like one of the humans on Wall-E.     There was no one to talk to, and no one to hang out with. I wanted to go outside, but I was already in my pajamas... this left me in quite the predicament. Therefore, I decided (for obvious reasons) to turn off all the lights, shut the door, throw a blanket over my head, and walk around my room exploring in complete darkness. Because what else was I supposed to do? ...

 And here arrive the days I have been talking about for so long.     I would like to say thank you to everyone who has supported me this far -- financially, emotionally, whatever it may be -- without you in my life I would not be able to be here. I wouldn't have the funds, the gumption, even the desire. So many people have poured into me, prayed for me, encouraged me, and given to me. And I cannot say thank you enough. I know I am where God wants me to be, and there is no sufficient way to express how much peace that fact holds in one's life.      It does not matter where or what circumstances you are in. It is whether or not you are in the will of God. And that is exactly the calling I feel placed on my life that brought me to this program.    The burning passion inside to go where God goes and do what God says whether I live out of a backpack, have little sense of financial security, am disliked, or simply humble enough to serve where no o...

It is August, the month of adventure (as it tends to be in my experience).     And as the days count down to my leaving date, the details of leaving present themselves more pertinent. Things such as "how is this fitting in the car?" and "Who is going to take care of my goldfish?"     I like my goldfish, but honestly, I was not expecting him to survive long enough for me to have to worry about it.     And now we put petty things aside.    I have never been lead by God to do something as bold as to leave everything and everyone I know and obey Him, and that excites me. I may joke about spending my days in North Dakota alone and staring at the mountainless landscape, but I really am excited. and I do think it will be a great season of life and I will learn a lot. God could call me anywhere to do anything and it would be exciting solely by the fact that God called me. So please pray with me as I go -- For provision and moments with God, fo...

"Stanton Lake" by Becca Brander Sometimes it feels as if I have  eight hundred trillion and twelve  things on my to-do list, and only  fourteen seconds  to get them done. But, then I realize I'm exaggerating and there's only like twenty-something things to do and I have two months or so. Which can still be overwhelming, but it's a lot less daunting than eight hundred trillion and twelve.   The other day, I decided to finish getting my passport   -- because it seems like a good idea to have a passport when I'm planning on traveling to Africa and such this next year.  You see, I had already filled out my passport application and gone to the courthouse, but the lady and her desk informed me that my birth certificate was not chill and my driver's license was an insufficient photo ID. So I grabbed my better birth certificate, and (because I do not have any other photo ID) headed back to the courthouse a couple days later to figure this thing ou...