a quick life story

first things first:

i write this as a testimony to what Christ can do in a persons life if they let him...

so i grew up in the church, asked Christ to come into my life at a young age, and pretty much knew all the Bible stories and everything like that.

all through high school i pretty much did everything in my own strength. i had it all together, or at least that's the front i put on, but i always knew something was missing.

my first wake up call was my junior year. i got mono, strep throat, a fever, and puking all at the same time. i was completely helpless. as an involved student and athlete, that sickness pretty much screwed everything up. but i got through it.

the summer in between my junior and senior year i went on a missions trip to south korea. it was really awesome, but i was still missing something.

senior year started out tough. my great grandfather died right before school started. two weeks later, my friend's brother died. at the beginning on december, one of my classmates died in a motorcrosse accident. january, my grandpa died from cancer. i struggled with depression, grief, and questioned my faith.

finally at the end of summer, i attended a summer camp that totally flipped my life back on the right track with the Lord. i finally realized that what i was missing was having my own faith, not my parents, my churchs, but that i needed to make my faith in Christ my own.

i began my freshman year at college with a strong desire to pursue and develop my relationship with Jesus.

so here comes the best part!

so ever since south korea, i've really wanted to go another missions trip, but nothing has really come up. back in decemeber, after praying about missions for some time, some opportunities came up, but they didn't end up working out. i guess it wasn't God's timing. so i've still been praying about it and about a month ago, i was volunteering at a youth conference on a saturday when i ran into an old soccer teammate of mine. i asked her what she was doing this summer and she said that she was going to Indonesia on a missions trip. i thought that was really cool and told her that i was really interested in missions and we kinda left it at that.

so monday night i was talking to my mom about the whole missions thing and my prayers. basically i was kinda having doubts about whether God was listening to me or not.

well, i woke up tuesday morning, checked my email, and had an email from my friend, kylee, who i had run into that weekend at the youth conference. and her email went something like this,

"hey ellen, i was thinking about how you said you were interested in missions and we still need more people on our trip. would you be interested in going to Indonesia with us?"

ahhh it was so cool how God totally answered my prayers! and i felt really bad for even doubting Him.

so i told her that i was and that i would pray about it. so i spent a week praying and seeking counsel from people about the trip.

on friday i got a phone call from her saying that they needed to know by the following thursday if i was gonna go or not (because they had to purchase airline tickets).

i really wanted confirmation from God just so that i knew that this trip was His will and not my own, so i continued to pray and wait for confirmation.

so wednesday night rolls around, and i still haven't heard any confirmation. finally, i get a call from my pastor saying that he felt like the Lord told him that i should go.

so on thursday i called the team leader and made sure everything was good to go.

saturday, i sent out 50 support letters to friends and family. i needed to raise $1800 for my trip.

as of yesterday, i am fully funded. God provided all my financial need within 3 weeks. talk about answering prayer...

i am super excited because God worked out the timing for everything and it blew me away how awesome He is!

so i'm going to Indonesia this summer with fellowship of christian athletes and we're gonna go build a sports court for a muslim school and run a basketball camp. we may also be visiting a couple orphanages and doing basically anything else that needs to be done. i'm stoked because i've always wanted to do a missions trip that was a sports ministry type of thing.

God worked everything out to the last detail. i'm so excited. it's just so cool to see that God really does answer pray, and not only that, but God knows our desires and cares about us even down to the little things.