July 16th–GOD’s not done

I hope as you read this, you read with a soft heart. There is not bitterness or judgement towards anyone and I hope you see JESUS and not me! 

July 16… It is so hard to believe what this day represents and how things can shift and change in a blink of an eye. On this day exactly two years ago I woke up to walk down the aisle in my dream dress, with all my family and friends there to witness,  to my best friend. With my life ahead of me, all the hopes and dreams of my future of a family and life with each other, running through my head. Now two years later, I never got to really celebrate an anniversary. Year one, my dreams had been shattered as I struggled to fight for my marriage, one that was hanging on by a thread, a very thin one I might add, believing that some way, some how GOD would step in and perform a miracle. Now on the two year mark, It feels as if the devil won this battle (a lie). As reality slowly sinks in that almost two months ago I sat in a court room and let a judge declare our marriage over.

This sounds like a sob story and to be honest parts of it are. I won’t go into detail about how it got here because it is not just my story to tell and not everyone’s business to know, but I will say that to me, divorce was the last option. I felt at the end of a long year, that the LORD finally told me that I did all I could do and it was time to let go. If you have read my last few post than you have seen my struggle, hurt and heart during this time and know that this was no easy decision. This might also sound nonchalant , but trust me that is not the case but it has been a long year and a half and I have been processing all of this for a while now.

My purpose in writing this post though is that maybe there is one person that needs to hear from someone like me that GOD is not done. We hear so many stories of the miracles GOD does in situations like saving a marriage that seemed beyond repair because one spouse walked in obedience with JESUS and that JESUS blessed that. Which is amazing! Unfortunately though that is not always the case. As for me, not in a prideful way, but honest way, I ran after GOD and held HIM to HIS promises more than ever over the past year, begging HIM to save my marriage. I did all I knew how and believed GOD would do the rest. Now as I sit here typing, there is this overwhelming feeling that GOD didn’t answer my prayers or hold up HIS end of the bargain. That honestly all of my worst nightmares have and are seeming to continue to come true. It seems so easy to look at GOD in anger and say “where were you!” ” Why did you let this happen.” ” Why did you call me to love him, again and again?” and I still don’t have the answers. I have at times literally  yelled these things at GOD, and the best part is, HE is not intimidated by my questions and anger. It is hard not to have answers or not be able to see what GOD has in-store for me. Sometimes I feel like everything I did was in vain.

But then I remember how the Bible talks about how the LORD speaks and HIS words do not go out in vain or return empty, but does what HE set it out to do. (Isaiah 55:11) And how HIS ways are higher than our ways. ( Isaiah 55:8-9) and in this moments where I don’t understand or have answers, or feel like the devil won, I can rest in the knowledge that those are lies. I might never know why or how the LORD is using this for HIS glory, but I can trust that HE is. I have to let go of the idea that this life is about me, and dang if that is not the hardest thing to do! I can however look back over this year of heartbreak, unanswered prayers, and chaos, and see how JESUS has literally carried me through it all. I mean I know it sounds crazy but I don’t think HE let my feet touch the ground once, in all the searching for HIM, I found HIM holding me up! Not once did I feel unloved by HIM when I searched for HIS face, HE always meet me there in the quiet, in the tears and renewed me day in and day out. When the world and enemy tried to convince me that HE abandoned me, HE whispered “Fear not, for I AM with you.”

I wish I could tell you that I am not scared, but honestly that is one of my biggest struggles. I am so fearful of so many things, but fear is not from the LORD and as HE speaks into my life, through worship, church, people, and the Bible, the chains of fear fall and shatter at HIS feet. That is why it is so important to do all those things daily, because fears follow you from the night into the morning and the only way to win over the fears is JESUS. When we place our fears and insecurities at the feet of JESUS we let go of this control and really, truthfully live carefree before the LORD. I have felt it and seen it and would never want to live in any other way. When we as Christians truly begin to understand what the word christian actually means we live full and free lives!

I don’t know what my future holds, honestly I am trying to just make it to tomorrow and I daily have to place my life in JESUS’ hands and trust that where HE calls and leads me will be a life fully and completely free in HIM. I know that GOD is not done with me, my situation, my ex, or anyone else that this has affected. Even more so I believe GOD wants you to know HE is not done with you yet. Maybe you are walking through hell right now, maybe your about too or maybe like me you just walked through it, I urge or really beg you to lean on JESUS. To run from the hurt, fear, trouble, temptations and run full force towards JESUS. It doesn’t always mean that everything will work out the way we want, asked, or hoped but it does mean that HE will meet you in your mess and carry you all the way through bringing joy, hope and love. You will begin to have a relationship with JESUS that is so genuine and intimate and overwhelmingly amazing that nothing will ever be enough other than HIM. You can be like me and decide to go for a walk talking with JESUS and end up walking 6 miles because you don’t want to stop talking with HIM! If you asked me now was it worth all of it, even without knowing the real purpose, I would say HELL YES because I began to truly experience JESUS and all HE is and I am in Awe !! You, like me, are not defined by sin, hurt or situations but can find yourself in JESUS and nothing can shake that. HE will put your feet on a rock that can’t be moved!

 

With all the love,

Kylie Marie

( He is turning my darkness into dancing, because HE longs to dance with me.)

Forget Tomorrow, What About Today?

I have been thinking about writing this blog post for a few weeks now but was struggling to decipher  what it was the Lord wanted me to say. I am still not sure the exact topic, but maybe as I begin typing this it’ll start to fall into place or this will be a very all over the place blog, so bare with me…

This coming week and month or months I am about to walk through a heartbreaking season of finalization that I honestly believed would not come. I am still in a place of denial because none of it seems real. I am actually in a place of feeling kind of numb, but deep inside I am terrified. I don’t think I have ever felt so scared in my life. I feel scared of what is to come for my future and the heart break that I am scared will never heal. I am scared of what might happen to others involved and where their life might be heading. All of me wants to feel so much more in control and to skip ahead a couple of years just to see how my life turns out, to see if I actually make it through. But, I think that that is exactly where GOD is telling me to stop.

For the past year and really my whole life I have heard the well meaning christian, including me, say this well meaning advice, ” all things will work for your good”, “GOD has amazing things a head for you.” , and the worst of them (in my opinion) “The best is yet to come.” Don’t get me wrong I believe all these things. I know that GOD has a plan and a future for me and that good will come out of all this mess. I have even hear GOD whisper promises to me about my future and I am so excited to seem them come true. I think it is important to know and believe in the future GOD has, but I think as christians we look to the future so much that we miss life now, the lessons and healing GOD has for us now. I have felt more than ever GOD telling me stop worrying about your future, just stop, I want you to focus on what I am doing now to and for you!  If we focus so much on the future or the “best that is yet to come” we will miss everything JESUS wants to do in this moment. We might even miss our whole lives waiting for that best moment! If I skip ahead, I won’t be allowing JESUS to feel all the places of my brokenness, emptiness, and loneliness. Instead they will never be healed or I will fill those voids with things that will never ever sustain me. Nothing can sustain us but JESUS.

In the verse that the LORD has laid on my heart the most this past year, Isaiah 43, It tells me I will go through waters, rivers, and fire. It does not deny the hard times, the painful times, but it promises that HE will be with me through it all. Later on in the chapter it says “You are my witnesses,…and my servant whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe me and understand that I am HE.” Maybe, just maybe that is what we learn through the waters and fires as we slowly walk with HIM. If we race through the fires we will miss how amazing GOD is by not letting us burn. We can’t be good witnesses because, it is easier to see someone sprint through a fire and say that by luck they didn’t get burned but someone standing in a fire for a long period of time and walk out unscathed, Miracle! Only GOD can do that!

Though it sucks to feel the pain and loneliness, and not really have a fix for it all, it is so important to feel and acknowledge all of these hurting places. There have been nights where I have felt so much, everything inside me hurt, and through sobbing tears I yelled at GOD for letting this happen and I begged HIM to not let me wake up tomorrow because I didn’t want to hurt anymore. Each time I would find myself  turning on worship music (my personal remedy/comfort) and I would hear HIS still small voice lull me to a place of some peace and feel myself be filled with more of HIM and less of everything else. I would wake up the next morning with HIM asking me to trust HIM once again today and not worry about tomorrow.

I first really heard HIM ask me to trust for just the day, when I was in Zambia in July. The end of the 2 weeks our team sat around a fire encouraging each other and discussing the things we had witnessed. That night I sat and heard each person in my group be prophesied over, encouraged about their future and things we all believed GOD would use them for in the coming year, everyone except me. I really felt so forgotten, misunderstood (as usual) that I prayed to myself “Why am I the only one who seems to have no glimpse or prospects for the future.” The LORD spoke to me in that moment and said , “ I am not telling you about your future because I need you to trust me every single day and moment. Tomorrow doesn’t matter yet.”

That is nice and all but let me tell you, that is the hardest thing I believe GOD can ask of you, or at least ask of me. Not only is HE asking me to be patient but to trust HIM completely. I have struggled with this more than anything the past few months. I wish I could tell you I am living this and it is so rewarding, but truthfully it is hard as hell. Placing my life, and even more so, someone I love’s life in the hands of JESUS and believing that HE loves more and has a better plan than I do is almost impossible. Sometimes I sit here and think how freaking stupid of me, to think that I have to be involved or “in- control” for GOD to do what only HE can do. How dare I believe that I can fix, restore, or save anyone. But that’s just it, the devil likes to take things that might not necessarily be bad or a sin and might even be a good thing (like someone following JESUS) and make us believe GOD needs us to make that happen. JESUS sure as heck didn’t need us to heal the blind, to walk on water,  or you know to beat death, why would HE possibly need me to save someone! Don’t get me wrong, I think JESUS loves to use us as HIS vessels and calls us to help others see how good HE is, but I think we or maybe just me, give ourselves to much credit. I am struggling with is more than anything. I want to lay everything at the feet of JESUS, but selfishly and wrongly I have felt that I trusted HIM to fix this situation in my life and HE came up short. But during church Sunday I felt GOD tell me that the prayers I thought were unanswered weren’t, they just weren’t answered how I thought they would be. I thought I was praying for one thing but the truth is , there is so much more going on then just my situation and what is on the surface. GOD is after hearts and in my case one heart that will be a catalyst for others hearts. I know it and believe it more than I ever have before. I asked GOD to get a hold of a heart and to do whatever it takes and well that is exactly what HE is doing. HE is doing whatever it takes to draw hearts to HIM. A line from Kari Jobe’s song Garden ” YOU will stop at nothing, to heal (have) my very soul.” reminds me what is at stake for JESUS is even more than what is at stake for us. It is the soul at stake, to JESUS it is eternity spent without someone HE loves and died for!

So though it is scarier and more painful than I ever imagined anything to be, I know I have to step aside and let GOD do the one thing HE is king at and the one thing only HE can do, and that is bring  the dead to life. I told you at the beginning of this blog that I am terrified and I am, but lately I have felt more peace than ever before. The peace is knowing that the LORD’s promises are true and HIS word’s do not return void. So Today I choose to trust HIM and let HIM feel the empty places in my life. I believe HE has a good future a head but I am going to take the time to know HIS goodness today and pray I can say the same tomorrow!

 

 

 

Be praying for me through the next few weeks if you can and know that I would love to pray for you as well ! Let me know how I can help!

Lots of Love,

Kylie M

 

 

Beauty from The Ashes (2016 in review)

To be honest I don’t know where to start, or how to even truly write this. Reflecting on the past year seems almost impossible for me and to be honest, very hard. I have gone back and forth about whether I would say anything about 2016, but I have seen so many others be brave and have seen how their stories have helped others. So instead of being scared and keeping silent, I am going to let the LORD use me.
This past year, almost to the exact date, my life got completely turned upside down. I thought I generally knew what certain parts of my life would look like, I had plans, hopes and dreams to only have them in a matter of a month be completely stripped away. All of a sudden I had no idea what my life would look like, I couldn’t even imagine what my tomorrow would hold. I began to question GOD and how he let this happen, where was HE in this moment? I began to question everything about myself, I doubted everything about me and felt every insecurity I ever had rise to the surface. This past year I have felt hopeless, unworthy, broken, at times depressed and unwanted more times than I would like to admit. I found myself at a cross roads. I could run and distract myself from the hardships and problems of this world, or I could dive into who GOD says HE is and hold tight to HIS word. Though I was very tempted to turn to the first option I opted to find out if GOD really is who HE says HE is. As I began to search in the Bible for some kind of relief, some kind of promise to hold on to I came across Isaiah 43
“But now, O Jacob, listen to the Lord who created you. O Israel, the one who formed you says,
“Do not be afraid, for I have ransomed you.
    I have called you by name; you are mine.
2 When you go through deep waters,
    I will be with you.
When you go through rivers of difficulty,
    you will not drown.
When you walk through the fire of oppression,
    you will not be burned up;
    the flames will not consume you.
3 For I am the Lord, your God,
    the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.
I gave Egypt as a ransom for your freedom;
    I gave Ethiopia[a] and Seba in your place.
4 Others were given in exchange for you.
    I traded their lives for yours
because you are precious to me.
    You are honored, and I love you.
5 “Do not be afraid, for I am with you…..“But forget all that—
    it is nothing compared to what I am going to do.
19 For I am about to do something new.
    See, I have already begun! Do you not see it?
I will make a pathway through the wilderness.
    I will create rivers in the dry wasteland.”
As I read these verses I felt the LORD speaking these words directly to me. I felt like HE in that moment was making a promise to me, that whatever the rest of 2016 and beyond held, HE would be with me all the way, that the year 2016 would not consume me, and that HE would do something better than anything HE has done before.
Looking back over 2016 I have seen the promises of GOD hold true more than I ever imagined possible. Not because all my long, heart wrenching, tear stained prayers have been answered, because to be honest a lot were not. Not because I am now in a great place in my life, I am still very much in a heartbreak season. But instead, in 2016 I was made more aware of the craziness of the love of JESUS and what it must feel like to love us, people, who turn our backs on HIM even though all HE wants is to love us. I have for the first time had to completely rely on my faith and learn to truly trust HIM when it seemed liked I had no faith left. I have seen the Bible come to life more than ever when I saw the deaf hear, the blind see and the sick healed in Zambia. I swear I encountered JESUS when I looked into the eyes of a dying man. I saw the LORD use my story to speak HIS love and purpose for a single mother half way across the world. I felt the LORD call me into trusting HIM daily without always looking into the future when I saw everyone in my Zambia group get prophesied over except for me. I gained and strengthened so many friendships over the last year to the point many feel like family. I have felt the love and support of my family more than ever. There have been many days I have prayed not to wake up, to only wake up the next day and have a joy that defies all logic. I have had moments where I felt there was no hope for me and my future, but then get reminded that my hope isn’t in anyone or anything in this world but the one who beat death. I have felt my questions and insecurities about myself, be answered and filled by who GOD says I am. I have found something I am passioniate about, which has been a prayer of mine for years now. I felt moments where it seemed GOD was nowhere to be found and then HE would show up like He never had before.
All of this is to say, that though 2016 was hard, heartbreaking, life altering, and in all manners of the word, the worst; it was also a year of the LORD in my life. This has been a year I sometimes wish never happened and would never want to relive or wish on anyone else, but at the same time in a weird way I am so thankful for the good things the LORD has brought out of this mess. One of my favorite verses/sayings is that the LORD will bring beauty from the ashes. So as I still stand here with ashes all around, I can see the little seedlings popping through and find myself trusting and praying that they will flourish into something beautiful beyond belief.
If you find yourself in a hard season or even a great one, I urge you, beg you to seek the LORD. As you seek HIM and obey, you will live a life fully alive. I honestly don’t think I would have made it through this year without the LORD holding me up and pushing me forward.
2017 holds a lot of unknowns and that is completely terrifying, but just as GOD has done before, it will be a year of HIS faithfulness and I can only hold tight to HIS promises as I step into the unknown. HE is doing something new and making away. Bring beauty from ashes, and turning darkness into dancing!

“ Jesus replied, “You don’t understand now what I am doing, but someday you will.” John 13:17

With lots of love,
Kylie

Life, Photography, & inadequacy

Hi Friends, It has been too long since I have posted anything. I meant to post many of the stories and experiences I had in Zambia back in July and that obviously did not happen. I do hope to someday get some of the stories written down and shared, so be patient with me. =)

I am writing now to give a kind of update about what has been happening in my life the past few months. I don’t how many of you really want to know but I am going to share anyway =).  The past year of my life has been the hardest year/season I have ever had to walk through. [ I am not going to go into detail about this but always appreciate prayers]. This season has had me wondering and questioning what I am going to do with my life. Though I feel most of us 20 something year olds feel this way, It was overwhelmingly strong a few months ago. I was going to school for psychology, which I enjoyed learning about but just wasn’t, still isn’t, sure I can see myself having a career in that field. When things in my life got , lets just say difficult, I decided to take some time off from school and figure out what it is the LORD really wants for me. I was working full time at a daycare at time and I loved my kids but the hours and little vacation days just were to much for me. So this summer I was jobless and had no foreseen future of school. What was I going to do?

If you read my last blog posts than you know that the LORD had a huge calling for me to go to Zambia. During my two weeks there I grew so much and learned so much about who JESUS says I am. (hopefully future blog post). That was my first step in going where the LORD called.I also believe that it will not be my last time in Africa, though I do not know specifics at this time=D.But, knowing I was going to Africa and going to see more of that beautiful continent I wanted a nice camera to really capture all I could.  So I splurged and bought my first DSLR camera, or in other words a real fancy camera. Having this nice camera lead me to practice some shots and even take some fun pictures of my littlest sister’s prom. I decided it would be a fun easy way to raise money to put towards Zambia. I offered photo shoots for a small fee and got to do a few. I began to realize I kind of enjoyed it. After I got back from Zambia I decided to continue to offer shoots for anyone that might want some. The more pictures I took the more I wanted to take! (for me to miss something after a day or so not doing it is kind of big deal.) Then The LORD seemed to prompt me even more towards photography by laying on a couple’s heart to bless me with a newer and fancier camera, that would take me forever to buy! I never imagined that I would love photography. I had some friends mention it to me before just because I have always said I would like to do something more artsy and a schedule I can have some control over, but I honestly always said I didn’t think I would be any good. Well surprise I love it!

If you follow me now on social media then you know I have started my own little photography business, if you can call it that. I think photography is one the most amazing inventions because it gives you a visual, hard copy of a memory. Let me just tell you though, photography is hard. I have been learning so much about myself through photography and a lot of it is the hard stuff. Right now photography is kind of a saturated business venture, in other words there are lots of people trying to get in and make a living off of it. That is very intimidating for me because to be honest I do not think that highly of my photography and question whether anyone would actually want me over someone else. I follow lots and lots of photographers and constantly feel I fall short. I am highly critical of my work and constantly feel inadequate. Majority of the time I go into a photo shoot with lots and lots of ideas of the kinds of pictures I want to get. Well about 9 times out of 10 I walk away disappointed that I didn’t get this or that shot or the photos did not turn out how I wanted. I have even walked away and realized my camera focus was off just a little and about half the pictures are in bad focus. More than not I feel defeated and frustrated with myself. Then I send them off to the “clients” (kind of hate that word, but don’t know what else to use) and feel worried they won’t like them. Then something crazy happens and they seem to love them. They use them as their profile pictures and post them on Facebook and all of their friends comment how good they are. In those moments I realize maybe they didn’t turn out how I wanted but I didn’t take them for me. These families have those memories to hold on to and they are exactly what they wanted. It isn’t about me, It is about them!

The reason I am telling you all this is because it is exactly how I and so many of us feel about life and GOD. We look around and play the comparison game, everyone else seems to be getting it right or at-least doing way better than I am at this thing called life. Or Our life is not as glamorous as others and no one will want our life.We even go through life with a plan of how things are going to go or how we want them to go, but we leave a season or situation feeling disappointed. Like we failed ourselves and others and even GOD. We send off our “photos” of the sometimes lack luster life and believe GOD won’t like it. Then we get to that moment where GOD says “I love you, and well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things.” – Matthew 25:21. In those moments we remember, oh wait it isn’t about us. What we see as a fruitless or disappointing life or situation, as long as we strive for obedience, GOD sees it as beautiful! HE wants to use our moments in life as his “profile picture”(sorry cheesy) the thing that puts HIM on display, the first thing the rest of the world will see when first looking for HIM. How crazy is that? That moment in life I feel disappointed or even inadequate at, is exactly what GOD wants to use for HIS glory. It is not about us!

This post probably seems to jump all over the place and well it does because that is how my brain works sometimes. I wrote this to give you a glimpse into where I am and what the LORD has been showing me. I know I have lots of room to grow and learn. Both in photography and life. I don’t know what the next few weeks or months hold but I do hope I get to continue to capture memories for amazing people and that the LORD blesses this new love of mine!

 

I would always appreciate any prayers both for this business and just this season in my life. I am trusting the LORD to pull me through! Thank you for taking the time to read this!

with lots and lots of love,

Kylie M

{Follow my Photography on Facebook at :https://www.facebook.com/kymariephoto2/        Or instagram @kymarie_photo}

 

Come Away With Me

Hello again friends! I feel like I should tell ya’ll how and why I’ve decided to go to Zambia and why I decided to go with Overland missions. This post is a little more personal and honestly a little more intimidating to post so bare with me as expose a little of my struggles.

I went on my first missions trip three years ago with my church (Newspring) to Kenya, Africa. I fell in love with Africa and the people. After returning I told myself I would do anything to go back! Though every summer after that, life got busy. Kenya became a distance but incredible memory and other excitements in my life over took my thoughts. It was always in the back of my mind, but like I said other things started to take president in my life. Until circumstances in my life made me take a step back and look at things differently.

When life started to get really hard and certain areas of my life seemed to be turned upside down, I began feeling an urge again to go to Africa. I began looking up mission trips and different organizations, many trips were longer term lasting a month to three months. Honestly these trips were so very tempting and I was really starting to look at a specific one month trip, but the Lord began to show me my heart behind my searching. He began to show me that I was running from hard situations, hoping they wouldn’t follow me where ever I would go. My heart was not in the right place at all and so I began to think I would not go at all.

Until one day I Felt a nudge and GOD’s still small voice whisper, “come away with me.” At first I wasn’t sure what that meant. Did it mean a weekend get away to the mountains? or did it mean maybe looking at mission trips again? I begin to look up different mission trips and the different places in Africa they were going. I always thought I would go back to Kenya, but I also didn’t want to go for just one week because I felt it was to so short and that you just get into rhythm when you leave. I prayed over where I might go and who with, when I randomly came across the Overland missions website. It was like a gift fell into my lap. Their mission trips are two weeks and are not pampered trips, but leaving out of tents in the bush of Africa. Exactly what I was looking for. As I read more my heart began to flutter and then their mission statement and motto stood out to me so clearly “Any Road, Any Load, Any Time.” “Taking the gospel of Christ to the remote parts of the earth.” It was incredible because GOD had been laying on my heart and speaking through Isaiah 43 and verses 18-19 echoed within me, the end saying “I will make a pathway through the wilderness. I will create rivers in the dry wasteland.”The motto of Overland was matching up with the verse I was praying through! That was a “Dang GOD” moment for me and I was ready to go.

After sometime I applied for the July first trip and was contacted within the week. I had a phone interview with one of my expedition leaders and after hearing the questions that he asked and the exciting and somewhat intimidating things that happen on expeditions I became even more excited! When I was informed I was accepted to the July first trip I was so excited. I was also a little worried because I had a very short window to get funds raised. A few days after the great news I started to become anxious and began questioning whether I was supposed to go.

I looked at my current circumstances and began thinking well what if this or what if that. I began questioning if I was just running away or if I was really hearing GOD right.Doubt and fear began to take hold of me. Then I got some good advice, my friend told me that fear is not from the Lord, and that being called to go to Africa is not usual and that most people don’t say hey I am planning on a mission trip to Zambia, that that calling seems pretty specific from the Lord, and last that if GOD provides the funds and doesn’t seem to close doors than that is a pretty clear sign. After hearing these wise words GOD began to remind me of the times that the best leaders of the Bible would step away from their ministries and have time alone with GOD. Moses did on Mount Sinai, David did in the caves while running from Saul, Paul did when he was in jail, and JESUS himself did several times, one of the most powerful times in the garden of Gethsemane. So I began to pursue this mission trip, and GOD has continued to provide; just as He always promised. I realized I wasn’t running but taking a step back from my life and taking time away with GOD. Instead of focusing on my life and my circumstances, I am going to focus on others and serving them, I am going to get to see GOD do real life miracles, I am going to see what it is like to truly walk in total faith, I am going to get to see people hear about and receive JESUS for the first time and I am praying that I am going to hear and see GOD more clearly than ever! I hope I come back closer to JESUS than I ever thought possible and that Zambia is changed forever!

I ask for continued prayer and support as the days grow closer! GOD is about to do something new and more incredible than anything He has done before!

“Be still, and know that I AM GOD; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.” Psalm 46:10

Love, Kylie Medina 

 

Prayers for Zambia

Hi Friends,

I am writing because in one month I will be boarding a flight to fly half way across the world to Zambia, Africa. To say I am excited is an understatement! I believe that GOD is going to impact so many lives; especially mine! With excitement sometimes follows a little anxiety. Though I am not one to get anxious often, I have moments of worrying. One thing I am anxious about is the travel. Yes, I have flown to Africa before but this time  I will be doing most of the airport and flight navigating with a few other students and well that is a little terrifying. Airports can be a scary place! Also being the introvert I am, meeting and spending two weeks with people I have never meet before has me a little on edge. I do believe GOD has specifically chosen each individual for this trip but meeting people is always a little intimidating.But, I am most anxious about preparing sermons. Ironically I am also just as excited about it! Since my trip is mostly evangelistic there is a huge chance we will not only be sharing the gospel through our testimonies but also through Biblical sermons. This is a huge weight and privilege. I believe this is an area GOD will grow me in immensely, but it still brings about some anxiety. I am asking for prayers for the next month in each of these areas specifically. First that all my flights will run smoothly and I won’t be to overwhelmed, second that friendships with other teams members will blossom, and Third that GOD will lead me directly to passages He wants the people of Zambia to hear and that He will use me to present HIS love and mercy well. I am praying for many Zambians to come to know JESUS and even step up as leaders in their own communities! I am praying for miracles to happen and for the country of Zambia to never be the same!

One last prayer is finances. I have raised most of the funds, but am still need of about 1,000 $ to be fully funded. I have been blessed by so many generous people and I want to thank you if you have given already! Honestly raising funds is the hardest part for me when doing missions because I feel strange asking for money, but I walk in knowing that I’m not asking for money for myself but support to help reach so many people who have never even heard about the love of JESUS. I would ask that you take sometime and pray and see if there is anyway you can help out financially. The smallest gift can go along way. “Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for GOD loves a cheerful giver.” 2 Cor. 9:7 . There are a few different ways to support. First you can give a donation at  overlandmissions.com/donate and put Kylie Medina in the box for specific donation (this way is tax deductible). I will also take checks but my bank information is still under Kylie Miller. I am also having a garage sale this sat., June 4. (more info will be on FB), I am also giving mini photoshoots for families or couples or friends (disclaimer: not a professional, still learning) 45$ or donation. I also have some watercolor art I am selling, and will also do some by request. If you have any questions you can email me at Kymarie20@aol.com .

All in all I need your prayers and support. I know GOD has incredible things in-store and I can’t wait to see HIS plans come to life. I will hopefully write some more post about what all GOD has taught me while there. I might even put another post later going into more detail about the trip and organization specifically. I am so grateful for this opportunity and that I have a GOD who calls me out of my comfort zone so I can rely more and more on Him knowing I could not do this life without HIM!

“For I know the plans I have for you.” says the LORD. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and  a hope.” – Jeremiah 29:11

“But forget all that- it is nothing compared to what I am going to do. For I am about to do something new. See, I have already begun! Do you not see it? I will make a pathways through the wilderness.I will create rivers in the dry wasteland.” – Isaiah 43:18-19

“Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your GOD my GOD.” -Ruth 1:16

The BEST IS YET TO COME!!

Love, Kylie Medina