How time flies...

Wow!  How time flies I will never understand... The past couple months have been filled with numerous happenings, from youth events, to work, to so many other exciting things on this journey of life.   

A couple updates:

1) Many of you know that the tour date for my travels with the African Children’s Choir has been changed to September.  (No, I still do not have a solid leave-date yet.)  So far, this has not changed again, and I currently have about 70% financially towards the prospected cost of tour. Thank you so very much to you who have been praying and also to those who have sent financial gifts.  I am so blessed by all of you! God is good!!! On a preparation note, there is not a whole lot going on besides some office paperwork.  I would like to know if you are not receiving my updates by mail/email, however, because we have had some issues with addresses being transferred correctly.  Please let me know, or if there is a new address/email address that I should be using instead.

2) Work adventures have been exciting and new.  While I have been staying busy with various jobs, at the end of February I began working for a private ambulance company based in Oswego, IL. Though I have only been there a short while, I’m learning many new aspects of the job and love getting to know the patients.  This is not only a job, but also another step towards keeping my EMT license and paramedic school (eventually…).  Over the past few weeks God has really shown me that I need to attend medic school to further my medical knowledge and understanding for the purpose of teaching and helping others. As many of you know, I would like to return to Africa to teach music and medical classes to children/youth.  This past week I had a special child patient whom we were transporting, and the experience solidified and furthered my desire to continue in the medical field in order to pursue this goal.

3) Other adventures that I have had recently are quite numerous. The youth that I work with have had major competitions with Bible Quizzing, games, volleyball, and fine arts (an array of categories – music, art, speaking, etc). They all did such a fabulous job in each of their events/competitions!  One of the major highlights during this competition season was judging the National Highschool Summit Piano Competition that I competed in when I was in highschool. Definitely was a learning experience, but also much fun as another of the judges was the same one judged my piano pieces years ago!!!  Spending time with family and friends is also a major part of my life, and with the semester winding down, many friends have had their music recitals that I have been excited to attend. Awana has now ended for the year, and as summer tries to come (if it would only warm up a bit!), softball season has begun – which means that if I’m not working on an ambulance, you can proobably find me on a field umpiring fastpitch again. :) 

Outside of tour preparations and day-to-day life right now, I would appreciate your prayer for the Returning Hearts Celebration in Angola, LA the 15-18 of May. I will be returning to the Louisiana State Penitentiary with a group from IL to meet with hundreds of other volunteers from across the United States through the ministry of Awana Lifeline.  We are coming together to help with the one day of the entire year that the inmates can spend time with their children in a fun atmosphere and setting, instead of behind a glass wall. Many of these children only get this one chance to see their dad, and there are always at least a few who have never even met their father because of when they were born/when he was incarcerated. It is a joyous time seeing these meetings between a father and child!  Currently, they are also in need of more volunteers, as we have over 800 kids signed up to come already!!

Thank you again for all of your prayers and support! Hope you all have a blessed month of May!!!