Heigh-ho! Heigh-ho! Its off to work I go!

This keeps getting cornier and cornier. And it will get worse before it gets better, trust me ;-)

Alrighty guys, this is it

I am all packed, and as always, I know I am forgetting something. I know I overpacked. Oh well, its not like I can't just head to the store in the next few days.

In all honesty, as the minutes tick by, fear is starting to creep itself in. I am not too fond of change. I am very stuck in my ways. I have basically eaten the same thing for lunch since kindergarten. I tend to date boys named Adam and both of my best friends are named Jessica. I have gone through a half dozen pairs of Rainbows and several pairs of Nike Shox, and thats about all that graces my feet. Just the other day I went swimming and thought it would be fun to try breathing on my left side instead of the right. It wasnt fun. I almost drowned. I have been swimming since I was an infant and I almost drowned in my own backyard, in four feet of water. Change is just not fun sometimes.

So this is crazy for me. I have never done anything like this in my life, it will be my first (but definitely not last) mission trip. I will literally be spending the next nine weeks of my life with 45 total strangers. That is so out of my comfort zone its shocking. I have never been the independent one among my friends, I can only pull off confidence if I have someone next to me to back me up. Ever since I decided to live my life for God and not myself (freshman year of college) I have struggled with finding my confidence in Him and not others. So this is literally a leap of faith for me.

God has really proven himself faithful through this process. I have heard absolute horror stories about raising support. Some of the most Godly people I know have had their faith shaken when support raising efforts failed. So I went in with an attitude that my experience would be the same.

WRONG.

For those of you who don't know, less than 24 hours after I sent my support letters out, my dad was diagnosed with renal and testicular cancer. My dad is my hero and my best friend. My world crashed down around me. Just last summer, my mom almost died from a blockage in her carotid artery caused by a long-undiagnosed genetic condition which makes her liver produce way too much cholesterol even though she weighs like 90 pounds and eats like a rabbit. It was terrifying and I had basically just regained my strength from that when my dads diagnosis tore my heart in two. I spent so many nights in bed basically yelling at God and asking how he could do that to us again. My dad was in and out of the hospital for all of march and april, having surgery after surgery. Complications from each surgery led to several very very scary nights where I basically waited up all night waiting for a phone call.

Instead of God shaking my faith with a lack of support, every time that I would reach a breaking point, a check would come in the mail. It was almost scary- God used this experience to constantly remind me that He was there and He loved me. I unarguably have the best support system in the world. Regardless of religion, my friends are the most encouraging, loving, and supportive friends and I never would have survived without them. (My friends actually made up over half of the money that I was able to raise, which is unexplainable. That never happens. Its crazy.) My dad was declared cancer free a few weeks ago, but he has a long road ahead of him- renal cancer has one of the highest recurrance rates, so prayer is still needed and much appreciated. But God is bigger and more powerful and I know that no matter what, everything will all work out.

So, lets do this thing. I think its almost better for me to go in knowing that I am in no way, shape, or form ready for what God has in store for me. Usually (like 99.999% of the time) when I go in knowing what to expect, I am wrong, and then not only do I have to start over but I have to swallow my pride and deal with being wrong, which is not fun. Yeah, I struggle with pride a lot. I am workin on that.

So heres to one last supporter shoutout:
Thank you so much!
My great aunt Fay (again!)
Sharon Brown
Janice and Paul Libbey
Kristen Marks

And I am so happy to announce I have raised 100% of my support for this summer (my mom gave me the last $24 lol) I literally would not have been able to do anything this semester without you guys, but as always, all the glory goes to God. After all, He put you guys in my life at this time for a reason. Its pretty awesome.

So, I will post often. I cannot wait to post pictures of my new home, my new job, and my new "family." I will send postcards too. I love you all and feel free to write me while I am at project! I will have my computer but come on, who doesnt love mail? My summer address will be:

Mike Ditka Resort
Kelly Wood
Campus Crusade for Christ
3000 Bonfire Beach Drive
Kissimmee, FL 34746

I LOVE YOU ALL SOOOO MUCH!!!
Kelly

Let's Get Down to Business

.... to defeat... the Huns....

Just kidding.

I tried to make a tap dance routine to that song for the 5th grade talent show but my mom wouldn't let me because she said people would think I was weird if I danced to a song called "Be a Man."

I know I have sucked it up with updates, but this post is my attempt at redemption.

I am SO stoked to report the current standings- I have reached 92% of my support raising goal!! God has been so faithful throughout all of this and has shown me how truly generous some people are. It is so easy to get discouraged when trying to complete a task like this, but it is further proof to me that nothing is impossible when God is in control.
I would like to thank:
David Peterson
Kristy Simmons
Rachel Snowden
Brittany Trimble

I love that all four of those people are my college friends. I honestly cannot even begin to count my blessings. I really think I am one of the luckiest people on the planet. Sure, this has been the crappiest year of my life. My whole world has been turned upside down so many times that I have no idea which way is up anymore, I just know I have to keep swimming. I think that a lot of times when we go through trials, we try and admit that we come out "stronger" on the other side. But that is totally not the case right now. I am not stronger. I am not necessarily "weaker" in the way most see it either, but I am definitely not stronger. So often as we grow up we become more and more independent until we reach a stage we consider "self-sufficiency." Well, quite frankly, self sufficiency sucks. Sure, its nice to not depend on someone else for food, transportation, major decision making, etc. But the more broken you are, the less able you are to pick yourself back up.
This year I have relied more on God than ever before. This has always been hard, I don't like giving up control (see my entry on "surrender") I have always been worried that if I put all my hope in God, He would take away the amazing people in my life because I wouldn't need them. But on the contrary, I found that when I turned it all over to Him, whether that was a whisper in my head during my daily routine or practically shouted as I lay face down in bed, angry at the world, there was someone there with the right words. When I prayed for an opportunity to just express the crazy emotions I felt, I would arrive at dance to find that we were working on a particularly emotional section of the piece. When I just needed to smile to feel like everything would be okay, I would walk into Sign Language class and see the beautiful faces of my friends who could make me laugh if it was the last thing I wanted to do. When I needed to cry, I would stumble upon someone from Theta Alpha who just happened to have tissues, an encouraging word, and, to the benefit of my soul but the detriment of my waistline, some sort of comfort food. When I needed encouragement, my community group was there. I had people holding me accountable for everything from actually attending class (although we all know thats the least important thing in college) to spending time with God every day even when I was pissed beyond recognition at Him.
No matter how hard I tried to escape, someone blocked my exit. And I am so thankful.

So here I stand. 18 days before my biggest adventure to date. Not strong enough to do it on my own. But wise enough to know thats not the way to go anyways.

"It's waiting for you, knocking at your door
In the moment of truth when your heart hits the floor,
and you're on your knees...

Love will hold us together,
make us a shelter to weather the storm.
And I'll be my brother's keeper
And the whole world will know that we're not alone"

-Hold Us Together by Matt Maher


In Christ,
Kelly