long time.no post

all right people. i realize it's been entirely too long since i posted last. naturally, lots of things have taken place. here's a quick recap:

went to houston in early may...trevor graduated mid-may and we went to cedar point and st. louis for his senior trip...the first weekend in june i went to new york with a couple of friends from high school, andrea and elise...reunited with several great harding friends at alice-anne and brad's wedding in searcy...celebrated birthdays (mine, stuart's, trevor's and america's) july 4th weekend...and now, here we are.

in case i haven't mentioned it before now, i'm going to be leaving for italy in late august to work with the avanti italia program with one of my besties, emily. we are so pumped! i, personally, have, until now, been a little scared by the whole thing, mainly because i haven't been receiving funding like i had hoped i would. however, over the past week, things have really moved along nicely. by now, i have most of the money i need, my passport will be here in two weeks and hopefully within the month i will be making headway on applying for/receiving my VISA. i can't believe what we've been waiting to do for over a year is finally FINALLY here!!

in four weeks, i will be quitting my job here at the funeral home and getting everything packed up. i'll be living in searcy for a couple weeks for training (the dates of which are aug 10-21) and i'm really looking forward to that. travis and cullen are going to be joining us there (they'll leave for italy in january) and we're going to have a blast.

in regards to keeping everyone updated on our adventures over there, i'm working on formatting my own website that will be entirely dedicated to what i'm up to over there. i will have a blog set up for reporting and will be posting photos there as well.

this blog i hope to keep up for spiritual discussions, which is sort of what i've done with it in my last few posts. but instead of discussing a chapter of a book, etc., i hope to explore ideas, observations and questions that stem from my experiences in the mission field. i can't tell you how greatly i'm anticipating those challenges.

in the meantime, i'm going to ask for prayers that things will continue with the positive momentum they have picked up in the past couple of weeks. i am incredibly thankful for this opportunity to serve and any support you could give through your encouragement would be greatly appreciated.

i'll close with one of my favorite passages that i hope to keep at the forefront of my mind while i'm serving in italy:

"Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into Him who is the head, into Christ from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love." Ephesians 4:15-16

my greatest hope is that i will do all that i am able as a part of the church, which is the body of Christ, and, most importantly, that i will remember to stay driven by grace.