And so it begins

This past year I have been making it a habit to ask God to replace my dreams with His. This can be a dangerous thing to do because God will change your heart to be more like His when you seek Him. Prayer is a powerful tool I don't use as often as I should but God is changing my heart on that. God has been deepening my faith and growing me in some pretty amazing ways my whole life but these past years especially. It has been a time of intense growth and it has been painful but phenomenal.

In November, God laid on my heart India. Now I had no idea what this meant and my roommates and friends can attest to my wonderings. Italy had been my heart for the past 10 years or so (mainly because of their history) and I was hoping to possibly live there one day. I often joke that I am Italian at heart and the amount of pasta I consume weekly confirms it. It took a lot of wrestling in my heart and a lot of surrendering to God before I fully accepted this is what God was calling me to.
It was an amazing process God brought me through and is still bringing me through. There are so many things I had to work through in my heart and so many things I had to surrender to God. He showed me the many idols in my heart including my security, my dream of Italy, my plans for my future and my pride. I have to totally trust God that He is going to get me exactly where He wants me. My plans don't matter. Only Jesus and His glory matter. I'm sad to say it took me a few months before I firmly believed this again instead of just giving Him lip service in the name of my pride and reputation.

In March I signed up for a trip to Kerala, India through e3 Partners.  It was amazing to watch God bring support in. The generocity of my supporters and the speed at which the money came in was something only God could do. It was such a blessing seeing God work everything out. One of my prayers for this trip was that God would show me more of His plan for me and if that included India or if it was just this trip that would include India. Reguardless, this was going to be a very stretching experience.

I began studying more about the part of India I would be going to and praying for the team, the local church and for many to come to Christ. God was working in my heart in a mighty way and changing it to be more like His. Now the next thing to do was to get on the plane and head to India.