Plane Tix!

Purchasing plane tickets this week for the trips! Let's make this thing officail!

Until the Whole World Hears!

Wow, I feel like I have so much to share!

First of all, our teams are coming together great for our summer expeditions and I am looking so forward to doing ministry with my brothers and sisters this summer in Ethiopia ad Ecuador! Please keep our preparations, fundraising and safety in your prayers. Our first fundraiser is this Sunday 2/27 at Bridges Church in Long Beach. We will be handing out hamburger boxed lunches for donations beginning at 10:30 am. Stop by!

Second, I went to my second E3 Partners World Conference "Until the Whole World Hears". It was so awesome! All of our ministry partners from around the world joined us in Plano, Texas to worship, pray for our countries, and to learn new Church Planting strategies. They rolled out a whole new line of resources now made available to us and there was a Film Festival! Our film on the Gamo Goffa region of Ethiopia won the award for best film! WOW! So fun! I spent the weekend with our international Ethiopian partners Yoseph and Ribca Menna and our Ecuadorian brother Diego Trujillo, along with all of my colleagues from E3. What a blessed experience!

Last, I have been so honored to be a part of finally adding our brother Samuel Olto in Ethiopia to the list of missionaries that Bridges Church supports! Samuel lives in Arba Minch, Ethiopia, up in the Gamo region that we do ministry to. He is a well educated man that has stayed behind in the Gamo region, taking a huge cut to what he could make financially because he feels called to minister to the Gamo people. His people. Samuel is going to be our contact in the Gamo region and will be instrumental in setting up the trips with me, and overseeing a great deal of the follow up that will take place when we leave. Please be praying for Samuel, his wife and 5 daughters. If you are interested in giving to Samuel or encouraging his family feel free to contact me.

Whew! In addition to all of this, the Elders at my church have decided to invest in my mission financially and have raised my monthly support coming from Bridges by $300! I am so blessed to have their support and enthusiasm about what God is doing in and through me here in the states and abroad.

What an amazing few weeks I have had! I look forward to sharing even more with you as the expeditions get closer! Stay tuned!!!

e3 partners - Until the Whole World Hears

THIS VIDEO IS SO COOL! Explains what I do at E3 Partners... Check it out!

Let's do this 2011!

I am SO super excited about the trips that we have planned so far for 2011! We will be traveling to our brothers and sisters in Arba Minch, Ethiopia in the Gamo Goffa region from May 26- June 6. We will then be going to beautiful Porto Viejo, Ecuador! These are both church planting trips with E3 Partners and Bridges Church. As many of you know, the philosphy of E3 Partners Ministry is that "If Mary can't walk to church, Mary can't go to church". Millions of people all over the world don't attend a Bible believing church because there is not one where they live. It is our mission to change that! Feel free to join us on mission for either of these trips, and please pray! For more information feel free to contact me at any time. Our first meeting is February 6th, 2011 at the Bridges CHurch office at 11 a.m.! Hope to see you there!

Check out our trips online @ http://www.e3partners.org/

...and a Happy New Year!

Well, I had a great time visiting my brother in Susanville this Christmas. We had a lot of fun quoting our favorite Christmas movie lines, like from Elf... "You're not Santa!... You smell like beef and cheese!... You sit on a throne of lies!" Hahaha. Plus it snowed! A real White Christmas!However, it is always so bittersweet. We laugh together and cry together but then we leave, which is the hardest part. Fortunately we got to be together... even if it was just for a few hours.

And now, as I sit on my couch plauged with Strep Throat and a temperature of 103 I am pondering my inevitable "resolutions" for 2011. While I usually tend to focus on the physical (loose 20 pounds, establish a significant savings, get out of debt), I am thinking that this year I would like to look at this from a different angle...

In 2011 I would like to focus on growing in areas of weakness in my life. I resolve to grow in contentment, patience, wisdom and discipline. As I petition the Lord to grow me in the areas, and as I follow His moving in my life, I am anxious to watch Him grow me into a woman more like Him.

"If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you." James 1:5

May you all be blessed in the upcoming year.

A Merry Christmas?

While my mind is flooded and invaded with Christmas to-dos, gift ideas, cookie recipes... I keep having this feeling of apathy. Blah. Why am I not feeling jolly? Where is my Christmas spirit?

After reflection I realized that Christmas to me has become a sad time. Since my brothers terrible accident was in December, this month just leaves me with memories of horror and sadness. Ya, I know, not very elf-like. Over the past few days I have been actively reminding myself what Christmas is really about. As much as Target and Amazon would like for us to think that is about materialism, and as much as the liberal world would like us to think that it is about family and warm snuggles, it isn't. Christmas is about our Lord humbling Himself to become a man. He let go of all of His Heavenly awesomness and lived like a human. In the dirt and heat.

...and the reason why He did this was to accomplish the Father's role for Him here on Earth... To die for the sins of humanity.

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart." Hebrews 12:1-3

And this is what I find joy in this Christmas. Despite having a brother who will spend this and many Christmas' to come in prison, despite any hardship that I can endure or even imagine, Jesus died for me. He endured this opposition for us... so that I will NOT grow weary or lose heart.

Thank you Father for sending your Son to this Earth. Merry Christmas.

Off in October!

I am so excited to go to Ethiopia again in October!
This trip will be a medical trip and we will be holding a medical clinic as well as sharing the gospel. I am not the Coordinator for this trip so I will still need to fund raise! If you are interested in giving please go to www.e3partners.org/kbethiopia. Please be in prayer for us to get a few more nurses for our trip and that God would go before us and prepare the hearts of those who we will share with. Excited to see what God has for us in Ethiopia this October and excited to plan for next year! Blessings!