From Texas to Utah...

After leaving from Houston this past Friday, I arrived in Syracuse today around 5:30 PM. It took my mom and I four days to finish the roughly 1500 mile drive through Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, and eventually Utah. We took some time along the way to sight see at Mesa Verde and Arches National Parks, which extended the trip a little bit. Tomorrow I'll drive my mom to the airport in Salt Lake City so she can fly home, and from that point until the middle of August I'll be staying here.

For those of you that don't know or just aren't sure, I'm spending the summer in Syracuse, Utah to work as an intern for Lakeside Church. Intern is the official word, but really I'm here to serve the church and community in whatever way I can. I want to be used. Mark and Tami, a couple who are members of Lakeside, have graciously opened up their home for me to stay in for the duration of the summer. Siera Hart is another student from Texas Tech who has come to be an intern for the first half of the summer. We'll both be working alongside Derek Jones, the pastor of Lakeside, to reach the predominantly Mormon people that live here.

For whatever reason you decided to follow this blog I've started, whether you've partnered with me in support, you're curious about what the mission trip will look like, or I begged you to follow so that I wouldn't be a dork with a blog that nobody reads...I just wanna say thank you and I appreciate it. Just looking at the names and faces on the side who are keeping up with it is an encouragement to me personally. I would like (fingers crossed) to post something on this site around once a week, depending of the swing things.

If I were yall, I'd be wondering what to expect. One thing you can count on, of course, is good news! I won't hesitate to share what God's doing up/down/over here (depends where you are I guess). He's gonna work. He's a good God and He desires to draw people to Him, in the same way that He's drawn you and me. I'll keep yall updated on where we are, what we're doing, what our goals are, results we're seeing, etc. It's so awesome to get here just knowing that even before I touched down, I was loaded by prayer. Your prayers. I love Christians, ya know? Because you tell them you need prayer for something and boom, they pray. Because they love you and they love Jesus. So sweet!

That said, this isn't a happy-all-the-time forum where I let you know how great life is. More often than not, you'll check and see that I'm also telling you how I'm struggling and what angle Satan has decided take. He isn't waiting around, unfortunately. Doubt, confusion, and emotional healing have been some themes in my life lately. Moreover, my tendency to isolate myself from God when I'm going through them is a major conviction for me and I've got to improve. I don't want to hide my problems and I hope that being open about them will help me face and deal with them, with the help of brothers and sisters.

That about wraps up this intro entry. If you talked to me about this trip before I left, you probably heard me say that I view the followers of the Church of Latter Day Saints as an unreached people group just like any other across the world. I promise, I didn't choose Utah as a mission field this summer because it sounds hard or will garner attention. Instead, God chose to grow my heart for the people here over Spring Break along with the rest of my church family in Lubbock, just like He called Derek Jones to minister here years before now. To God be absolutely all the glory and praise.

Feel free to comment or whatever it is you do for these sort of things. I'd love to hear back from yall. And by all means, invite anyone you like who is interested and wants to follow this blog. I am by no means trying to be exclusive in any way.

Grace, love, and power be with you in abundance.