Life Changing

When God lead me to Eastside Christian Church back in 2016, I never would have guessed that just 8 years later I would be getting ready to go on my 7th global compassion trip. Across the years, I have done home visits, worked with schools, delivered bedding, shared solar energy, built homes, VBS, spoke at woman's conferences, held boys and girls conferences, and honored teachers in Nairobi and Turkana, Africa. Baptized our hotel manager, planted mango trees, brought clean water and Christianity to a village, worked at the orphanage, tiled a school in Kae Noi and Pai, Thailand. Meanwhile God has given me the blessing and honor and sponsored 8 children over the years and a baby, saved one from malaria, one from starvation, and one from marriage. I cannot tell you how blessed I am to have worked with such amazing people, made so many friends, and been able to bless so many people. However these trips have also blessed me and my children. For those who don't know I am a United States Marine Corps Veteran. When I went on my first trip in 2017, I was very much struggling with PTSD. I was a single mother to two boys, and struggling inside. I was in the middle of intense therapy when I left for Nairobi, unsure of what my first global trip had in store. On the first trip I was prepared to serve others and give. I didn't realize how much that country and its amazing humble people would give back to me. I shared an encounter with a teacher on a break from home visits, and it was his words during a conversation about our lives that would change my life forever. Through God and that teacher I came back healed, my PTSD no longer controlled my life, the fear from trauma I had experienced years prior no longer held me down. I know why God placed my at Eastside, I know why he placed me in Africa. I have since felt a fire for God to serve across the world, to give back what that first trip gave to me. For those who think, I could never do something like that, don't be fooled, pray on it and if it is part of your story he will provide. Can't wait to see some of you who God may be speaking to, or tugging on your heart to go.