KPgoesDurban

this is literally my 3rd attempt to post since the last time i did.. so here it goes..

Ah! The long-awaited post! I’ve been meaning to post for a while now and just haven’t had a big enough time gap to post and really put effort into it. Needless to say, I am now done with college.. minus a transfer credit class on “The Gospels” that I am currently working on. The idea that I am done and can say, “I HAVE a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology and a minor in Biblical Studies,” has really not hit me yet, it probably won’t until I leave for Durban.. or maybe not even til I come back and see the actual diploma.

On another note.. IT IS MAY! This is the month I’ve been waiting for since last August when I found out I was officially moving. Not only is it May, but also the current countdown is 14 days! WOW! I know I am more excited to go then words can explain, but I honestly can say I haven’t fully grasped the idea of it yet. Since I am finally done with the hectic schedule of college, I can get to packing and organizing for my trip.

However, the closer the time comes to leaving some of the excitement turns into nervousness. I don’t think I have fully grasped that I will be gone for a year. Let alone that this is actually the beginning of my life after college. Forever ago I changed the caption box on my facebook to this…

dream vocation: missionary to Africa!

May 25th 2010: achievable!

I had totally forgotten doing that til I just was looking at my profile the other day. It’s so true! This will be my 4^th trip to Africa. Ever since the first one I went on in the summer between my freshman and sophomore years of college, I have always had a heart to just go there and live. God put that calling on my life to go and I am following it. I’ve had a lot of people tell me how amazing I am for doing it or how much they admire that I am. In all honesty, I feel more blessed than privileged to do so. Personally, I am still wow’d by the line “missionary to South Africa” under my own name! ..like it amazes me that that is what I get to be. I in no way feel like I have done enough in my short lifetime to gain that title, but I accept it. It gives me the drive to constantly be doing more and wanting to do more to just love and serve others.

I am also really blessed in that I went from needing $14,000 more for my trip just a month and a half ago.. and now I only need $2500 more. I can honestly say that was all God! Many people would make astonished faces and be stunned by the amount, but I decided in the beginning to just give it to Him and knew it would get taken care of just like He has every year. :]

so it’s late on a Friday night and i am taking a blog break! i have been working on homework for my few online classes for about a little over 5 hours now.. so my brain needs a much need break! i know some of you may be reading this and thinking WHY would someone want to do homework on a Friday night?! trust me it would not have been my first choice, but I am catching up from some of the work I didn’t get to last weekend and trying to get ahead. Last weekend, we launched our Jackson campus and opened up our Collierville campus in a building that we just bought. Needless to say my weekend was PACKED with craziness and excitement! By the time all the services were over with on Sunday, our expectations for the weekend were definitely surpassed! here are some pictures from Pastor John’s blog..

Jackson campus

Collierville campus

I still however serve at the Cordova campus and it is still growing strong and growing more than ever before.. But everyday Africa is still on my mind.. I cannot wait to help plant and build up The Life Church of Durban!

needless to say i am not very good at keeping up with this whole posting thing with all the other things i have going on.. i’ve logged in a handful of times but never actually made a post. i’ve tried to tweak website layout and widgets and such but that didn’t get far. i made myself a new years resolution to start posting AT LEAST once or twice a week.. as you can see that didn’t get far either.. until now!

this is my year! i cannot wait for the great things God has planned.. i CANNOT wait to graduate and go to Africa! we’re only 3 weeks in and this year has already had me pretty busy. our church is growing and we just bought a new building for our collierville campus.. so i am definitely in a growing and stretching season. however, i have no complaints, but i do prefer doing church stuff over school anyday. welcome to senioritis extreme!

all i can say now is look forward to way more posts.. and if you have any questions feel free to comment!

So here goes my first real post! I guess I can start out by saying my life is considerably  always busy, but I like it that way! Being a  full-time college senior and a full-time 2nd year intern at my church will do that.

Although with all that has happened in my life within the past few months this post is solely directed toward the aspect of school in my life. I am a few months away from graduating and well over halfway through my first semester as a senior. I thought senior year was supposed to be easy.. I was wrong! I’ve just this semester started on my minor in Biblical Studies and I love being able to learn more about God and the Bible with each class. This semester I am taking Poetic and Wisdom Literature which is on the poetry and wisdom books of the Bible such as Psalms, Proverbs, Job, Song of Songs, Lamentations, and Ecclesiastes. Definitely have had my view on how to read the Bible expand with this class. On the other hand, I just finished a night class on Biblical Interpretation which is the foundational core class for my minor. I think I may have worked harder in this class then I did in Pentateuch. This class required a lot of exegesis on different passages in the Bible. My first main interpretation paper was on Matthew 5:13-16 on being the “salt and light” of the world.. the great calling for all disciples and missionaries! :] However, my final paper we had to choose yet another passage and this was an even harder decision. With this final paper we even had to do a presentation in front of the class! That is something I am really not good at. Ultimately, I chose 1 Timothy 4.  My main points in the exegesis were to highlight on being the example to others instead of following one. I went through and further explained different aspects of the chapter, but my leading point was from 1 Timothy 4:12, “Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity.” I explained how this was not only instrustion to Timothy as a new pastor, or to young people, but also to those who are new believers. It’s a passage of encouragement to everyone, and even in doing this paper I was encouraged.

Now despite all the anxiety and nervousness for giving the presentation, apparently I did something different from everyone else. During the Q&A part of my presentation, I had a few classmates ask what I was doing with my degree and tell me I should preach! HA! Of course that is not my plan, but those were more words of encouragement for the calling I have. I even got to specifically share with the lady next to me, who just wants to be simply a nurse, what my plan was for after graduation and how I am moving to Africa to help others and work with youth. Being the youngest in the class by far, she was encouraged and inspired by my plan to consider maybe even being a nurse in Africa. Wow!

So it was as if my pursuit of finding encouragement had come full circle! I tried to find the encouragement to find the right passage to write the paper, then fulfilled that with explaining the calling of encouragement within the encouraging passage, and then by receiving encouragement from my classmates for my work. Then, I was able to encourage another with my heart for Africa, which her awe alone was even more encouraging.