I spent the last week in Copperhill, Tennessee at  World Race training camp where about 150 Racers from the upcoming September (“Z” & “A”) and October (“B”) 2011 squads came together to be broken, built, trained, commissioned and released to start their incredible journey to love & serve the least of these all over the nations for 11 months.

I had the honor of being a trainer for “B Squad” which ended up being way more fun & insanity than I could have ever hoped for! I watched this group of 51 strangers start the week by surrendering their expectations & personal agendas to the Lord; watched as they learned to support and love each other through nights of rain, tents, tarps and unexpected challenges; and joined with them at the end of the week to worship God in a way that was so vulnerable and free it nearly brought me to tears.

This week was a blessing. Not only a time to pour out to others, but a time where God continued to speak to me about how He desires for us to become fully alive; to burn with passion to see his love displayed here on earth. I saw so much of God's character displayed through B squad and how they quickly became family; how they started to learn what it means to unconditionally love someone; how to believe in the identities and truth God speaks over them daily.  What an honor it was to stand before them 1.5 years after I left on the race and see the hope that they will bring to the world. Watching them burn over the last 10 days has increased my excitement and hope in living a life surrendered to the Lord.

Good luck World Racers! You are in my thoughts and prayers!

You are going to light it up!!!

Six months has passed since I first arrived in Spain to attend G42 Leadership Academy. It has been a crazy, amazing adventure full of learning, loving, and continuing to let God refine my character and depths of trust in Him. As I return to the states in a week, the big question is…. WHERE IS SHE GOING NEXT?

Over the past 1.5 years I have had a dream stirring within me- one that desires to see our generation come alive in who God has made them to be. Particularly I have a desire for the snowboard community to be awakened to the freedom and unconditional love that He has for us. I long to see this generation loving others and changing the world. Can we get out of our complacency and selfishness? Yes, I believe it is possible! Can a radical bunch of powder loving snowboarders change the world, yes.   

At the end of July I will be moving to Puyallup, WA to start my role with Nations Foundation as Director of Operations.  Nations Foundation is a Christian non-profit organization focused on sharing the Gospel message of Jesus Christ with this generation's global snowboard community. Our passion is sharing Jesus with people around the world through creating world-class snowboard films featuring some of the world's most talented snowboarders, while sharing the faith they all have in common. Our first film, ONEYEAR, was released in 2008 has been shown to over 30,000 people around the world in 12 countries from New Zealand, Argentina, Canada, United States, and all throughout Europe.

I will be in need of your support to make this transition a reality. I am drawing close to God and trusting Him to provide supporters who understand and are excited about why my heart burns to serve God. I'm so confident that God is leading me to pour out my energy to this ministry that asking for financial support is merely a small part of the big picture.  I am making a deliberate decision to live on less and trust that you all will help me make ends meet to enable me to give all of my attention to Nations!  God is asking me to be faithful and trust that He will provide; continue to let my character be refined, and continue to give my life away to serve others. 

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PRAYER:  I welcome prayers over Nations Foundation as a ministry and their leaders; As well as my steps as I join the team. Pray that the ministry remains focused and attentive to God's voice. That we stay pure of heart and continually seek Him. That as we are stretched thin, God will pour out favor and blessing. Health & strength for the pro athletes.

Thanks again for your continued support!

I write today in celebration of the life of Sylvia Whaley.  While being away from home and living in Spain, I have recently gotten the news that my grandmother has passed away.

Sylvia had three sons; Roger, Doug, and Donald, and lost her only daughter at birth.  I was her only granddaughter which made us very close- as if I was the daughter she never had.  I loved being with grandma so much that when I was a child I would pretend to be sick so I could stay home from school just to spend more time with her. Why was it so easy to love Sylvia?

She was a giver of Life! She had a joyous personality that would encourage anyone, even strangers.  She would strike up a conversation with anyone who had the time to listen; she was the type of woman who you could become best friends with simply spending 3 minutes with her in the grocery check out line. 

At the age of 20 Sylvia was diagnosed with Neurofibromatosis. This is a distinct genetic disorder that cause tumors to grow along various types of nerves and, in addition, can affect the development of non-nervous tissues such as bones and skin. Neurofibromatosis caused tumors to grow all over Sylvia's body which made her “beauty” slip away at a young age. When hanging out with her, we would often get funny looks from other people, some would stop and stare, and at times babies would even cry when she approached them due to how extremely rare the disease was. This disease has only shown itself for 1 out of every 3,000 births.

If I characterized Sylvia's life by they ways the world tends to judge, some may say that she had nothing…… no fancy job, no beauty, no mansion to live in, no heaping funds stock piled with millions of dollars.  But upon the death of Sylvia God reminds us of how riches are quantified in the Kingdom of God.  What we have doesn't matter; rather…..God cares about

WHO WE ARE!

  Sylvia had EVERYTHING!! She received life from the Lord and loved to give it away in abundance to others. She is one of the most beautiful people I have ever met, and it is because of her character.  No matter the challenge or trial, she would always be the rock of the family.  She was a fighter who won over adversity.

She was a lover EVEN when others did not give her love in return.

She was one of the greatest examples of unconditional Love I have ever seen. She gave her life to make others happy. She gave others who struggle with appearance & disease HOPE. She was an incredible friend, amazing mother, and inspirational grandmother.

She would want you all to know that when your time on earth passes, no one will remember what your job title was, how much money was left in your bank account, or what your house looked like.  But you will be remember for the LIFE you gave away, how you allowed God to Love you, and How well you loved others. Sylvia, you are my HERO!

Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.  1 John 4:11

They warned me about this moment before I left the World Race, but without control of how I might feel in this moment….it has arrived. I feel confused, helpless…. drastically different, like my perspective is so insanely different from when I left and from everyone else around me.  One would assume that you would be changed after serving around the world for a year….but I never could have imagined that God could do so much inside of me in such a short time.

I spent this Christmas in Florida with my family visiting my brother and the only grandchild of the family- my incredibly adorable niece Madison. I cherished our time together, as it had been over a year since we had been all together as a family. So it all started like this.....

One beautiful Christmas tree overflowing with gifts for my 4 year old niece... a precious and beautiful sight as she unwrapped each present with wonder and joy. There were so many presents the unwrapping went on for hours to the point where a few of us adults were starting to play with her toys to maintain focus. I picked up the game "Connect Four" and was not prepared for what God was about to do inside me......

I sat still, completely paused starring at the game, and slowly slipped back to the days spent in Thailand with the prostitutes that were being sold in the human trafficking market at the bars in downtown Phuket. The bar counters would be lined with Connect Four & Jenga games.  Ironically childish, but just the distraction a woman would used to engage a person long enough to solicit themselves to them to be owned for a night, week, sometimes months at a time. I tried to blink harder as if that would stop the cascading wall of images that flooded my mind. Images of people we met on the World Race came rushing back...children starving, babies infected with AIDs and orphaned, adults with no hope to break the chains of their addictions, woman and children being sold and trafficked as sex slaves....

In this moment Madison had just finished opening her last present, and looks up and says "I want another one, I want more!"  What was an innocent and cute moment broke my heart when i thought of all those kids around the world that don't have anything, not even shoes.  So, to harness the conflicting feelings in my heart as to not get angry or cry...I decided to shift my feelings to something positive and desired to spend some time as a family talking about the Christmas Story- and what really happened on that night our Savior was born.  I didn't want anyone to feel ashamed of having many presents or Madison to feel guilty, but I wanted to turn our hearts towards God and thank Him for blessing us in such incredible ways. 

When attempting to shift some of our attention to God, it seemed at though no one could hear me, that everyone was far too engrossed in their new ipod, new game, or cleaning up the mess of wrapping paper and bows... So i left the room disheartened and spent time praying and thanking God for all he has done in my lifetime...and praying specifically for my family.  By evening the the family had a short time to talk about the Christmas story and who Jesus was, although I was fighting feelings of it feeling forced or because of obligation to make me happy...... I kept praying........not even 24 hrs later I find my dad asking for my bible and has been reading Matthew & Luke for hours, most likely the first time he has revisited these books in over 28 years!  Wow God, you are good!  When taking a close look at the Christmas story you will find that there are things we have always assumed about Jesus' birth that has been implied by our culture, but there are many things that I failed to know until i looked a little closer....  Here are some questions that helped inspire us to look closer at our Kings birth...  

*  Is the birth of Jesus in all the gospels? (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John) No. Just Matthew & Luke

*  Were there 3 kings, and 3 wise men? Are the kings and wise men the same guys?

*  Does the bible says anything about animals being present at Jesus' birth?

*  Was Jesus delivered in a stable or a manager? What is frankincense? What is Myrr?

*  Was there ever an encounter with an innkeeper mentioned in the biblical story?

* What is a Heavenly Host?

I pray that during this hectic & digitally connected holiday season.... you find time to read in more detail the story of the baby who was born to save us! Today a king was born, and he is the one who has given me a heart beat and my joy! I hope you share with your family the story of Jesus' birth and celebrate the life & many blessing that have been given to us!

  I THANK GOD FOR EACH AND EVERY ONE OF YOU!  MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Enjoy these fun videos!

By their fruit you will recognize them...
Matthew 7:16

Our Last day in ministry:
Harvesting fruit in the orchards of Firladeni, Moldova

I could have never pictured what my last day of ministry might look like when I started the World Race 11 months ago. Through what could seem like a mundane, medial task of physical labor was the sweetest gift from God. We picked fruit from the trees and ground of this Moldovan orchard for 8 hours.....

¹⁶ By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? ¹⁷ Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. ¹⁸ A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. ¹⁹ Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. ²⁰ Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.

• For the first week of ministry during month #7, while the rest of the squad went ahead to Tanzania - Austin & I stayed in Kenya with 6 other members of our squad, some of which were dealing with pneumonia, Typhoid, malaria, stomach ulcers, and ovarian cysts.

• Week 2 of month #7 consisted of flying with a teammate who was extremely ill, back to America from Niarobi Kenya and returning to Africa 24 hrs later. Upon arriving back in Kenya, Austin and I then caught a bus to Tanzania to meet up with the squad.

• :::::::Insert Video footage here::::::

•  Our assigned seats are taken (Apparently Africans are first come, first serve/ no order on buses even though the tickets have a seat number assigned) Have to sit in the very last seat on a packed bus with a metal slab tied on as a substitute for a window.
  

• Metal sheet window blows out, dirt pours in for 2 hours straight before they fix the window.

• Don't have ATM to get currency= can't eat- very hungry! 

• Hit a bump in the African Pot hole roads, Austin & Krissy get launched and Austin hits his head on the overhead compartment, breaks compartment, Austin's head cut open and bleeding.

• Dirt in teeth

• Get a phone call 1 hour from destination saying that one of our teams had been robbed at gunpoint and all their things had been stolen....

While in Romania we visited a community of Gypsies, who are a people group that are known as the “Roma." The community consisted of 3 families that lived on the outskirts of one of the nicest neighborhoods I had seen in Timisoara, Romania.  These three families lived in shelters that were constructed of miscellaneous plywood sheets, old blankets for insulation, scrap plastic, and metal sheets. We had arrived 3 days after their houses had been bulldozed by the government. After several years of “squatting” on the land, people will eventually own the land by default, therefore- without warning…the government bulldozes the shelters and destroys  them and everything they own so that they can never legally own the government land. 

Then the families reconstruct their shelters which usually take approximately 2 days. This was another moment where God very quickly humbled me.  The most curious part of this visit was the fact that these families were merely 50-100 ft. from huge homes…..I kept scratching my head and thinking to myself… “Isn't the second of his greatest commands?.....to love your neighbor as yourself!?”  Why were people walking by as if they couldn't see what was going on?  What was I not understanding about this situation?!  There were 3 families….that's it!  And 50 huge houses…..how did no one take these people in?  The father of one of the families was so sick that he couldn't work and didn't have the finances to buy the necessary medications.  We brought food to the families along with toys for the children and clothes to make it through the winter. A little piece of my heart was left with them that day. God spoke that day.....Don't forget to notice and seek out your neighbor….We must love them as ourselves……  Don't let them be ignored- You ignore them, you ignore me!  Please join me in prayer for these 3 families.