Hey everyone! It is hard to believe that it is already about to be August. This past month has been very exciting, yet bittersweet. From sharing the Gospel with several people and leading one of my VBS kids to the Lord to saying goodbye to my friends and church family. No matter what happens ahead of me, this month will always have a special place in my memories.
Thank you all for continuing to pray for my coworkers. A lot of us are parting ways to go to a new store, move out of state, or go back to college. While it is sad to part ways, this has opened up opportunities to really get to know each other on a deeper level before our time was up. I was able to share the Gospel with several of my coworkers and answer a lot of the questions that they had about Jesus! Some of them are very close to placing their trust in Jesus, so please pray for them to be saved, get baptized, and find a good local church. Also, please pray for one of my friends at my old store to have someone come into their life to water the seeds planted. They heard the whole Gospel from the Tanack to the New Testament and had finally reached a point of being willing to read the New Testament. Unfortunately, after I changed stores, they returned the Bible I gave them to my roommate who was still working there at the time.
VBS
This year’s Vacation Bible School was very exciting! We had a circus theme at Pleasant Grove Baptist Church. This year, we had between 188-200 kids attend! More exciting is that 28 kids made decisions to place their trust in Jesus with one of them getting baptized in two weeks with his mom!!! 2 of those kids were some of my bus riders!!!! Seeing so many kids accept Christ as their Savior was definitely the highlight of the month for me! I will admit, this week felt like going through the crucible for me due to lack of sleep and having to work the morning shift without a break to be able to leave early and make it to Church on time. Despite the challenges, I would gladly do it over again.
Leaving for New York
This is where it gets bittersweet for me. I am leaving this Wednesday to go to my family reunion, after which I will be living with my Grandma to focus full-time on raising up the rest of the funds needed to start my internship. I am excited to be able to see my full family for the first time since 2019 and continue my education, but I am going to miss the family that I have made here in Georgia. I am going to miss my fiancé even more. Today was my last Sunday at Pleasant Grove Baptist Church until I come back, and I had a sending service on July 9th to pray over me as I prepared to go on my internship.
Progress on support
I am currently at 23% of my support raised out of $15,000. I am still aiming to reach my goal of getting to 85% raised by the beginning of September, but it is a very daunting task that is looming like a mountain over me. I am constantly having people say give up or it is impossible, but I was recently reminded of the majesty of our God. Yesterday, I climbed my favorite hiking trail, and when I got to the top, I was able to see all the way to the mountains bordering Tennessee. As I looked over the vast expanse, I was reminded that the same God who made everything I was looking at is the same God who is guiding me and living inside of me. He is the Lord over the whole earth and everything in it. If God is leading me down a path, I am trusting that He will also provide the means to follow that path. Will you prayerfully consider taking part in sending me to New York City to complete my internship. Three ways you can contribute is through prayer support, financial support, and sharing this with as many friends and family as you can.
Prayer requests:
- coworkers to be saved
- for Pleasant Grove Baptist Church to continue to grow and be a light to the community, country, and world
- For me to reach 50% of support by August 12th or sooner
- for me to reach minimum of 85% by August 31st