As I prepped to leave the Mountainside Training, I thought I’d send a snapshot and ask what you see……take a good long look at this photo and look at all the details.

Now I’ll tell you what I see. On the left are the couches and a piano against the wall. This is where we began & ended every day in prayer and somedays worship too. Each morning we prayed for the various missionaries around the world who are connected with International Messengers…what a privilege it was to pray for these men and women serving the Lord all over the world and to see how God is at work both here in the US and abroad! Next, the white tables in front of me is where every lunch was spent (and many other meals too), while getting to know the other teachers and students and new friends who would occasionally pop-in after a recent invitation. The stairs to the right of the main doors lead up to our classroom where we spent a few hours each day learning about many things having to do with cross-cultural ministry, studying scripture and learning about discipleship (and much much more). On the table just above the top of my computer is a stack of flip-cards with some Romanian phrases that I’ve been learning in my lessons twice a week. The flowers were picked from the road around the training center….these flowers were blooming everywhere! So. Pretty. The cards are for some of the people who really made an impact on me this Spring–teachers, students, pastors, friends, etc…leaving them with a note & verse, hoping to encourage and thank them. The photos on the fronts of the cards too are meaningful because they are ones I’ve taken during our many hikes around the mountains here.

The last few months have been an incredible time of stealing away to pray, digging into scripture, learning more about the road ahead and how to seek the Lord through every step. It’s going to be a grand adventure, and I’m really thankful for the time I was able to be at this training school. It’s also such a blessing to be part of an organization that really takes care of the missionaries and cares for their well-being, encouraging them to seek the Lord in His leading rather than simply telling us all how to fit into a “cookie-cutter” design.

Still, it is not easy to say goodbye….both to the people I’ve met while at training and to those of you here at home! This weekend now, I’m spending a few days with a few of my siblings and Dad, since I probably won’t see them all together for a long time. It’s good to be here and process all this with them and I’d like to meet up with you too to tell you more about what God is doing, and let you ask questions too. It has been fun to hear how I can be praying for some of you, because in those prayers, we are connected! Keep those requests coming. Please be praying for me too, as I say goodbye and spend this month raising the final support I need to go. Be in prayer about if God would like you to join me financially in this mission. We are all called specifically by God whether in your community at home or in your family or across the sea…..all of us are equally called and strengthened by Him to do the tasks He gives us. Looking forward to seeing where God calls you too!

ALSO–1) If you’re in the Maple Lake area, my aunts are planning a bake sale during the all-city garage sale, so stop on by! I’ll also have some of my cards there too and larger prints for sale. 2) If you’d be interested in getting some of my prints on cards or something else, I’ll have a post about how to do that soon. 🙂