THANKFUL

Hello,

Man oh man, I am still full from Thanksgiving. The mashed potatoes made my heart warm which was wonderful. I truly hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving with friends and family. 

For this week,  I'm going to be doing things a little differently. Instead of telling you all about my week and how everything is coming along for my mission, I've decided to tell you the many things I'm grateful for!

1. My family

They're my biggest fans. My family has supported and loved me all my 18 years (which is kind of a given) but I'm so thankful I have the family that I do. Along with them loving me, they all support my upcoming mission trip. That's a BIG deal. Not in the sense that they wouldn't support me, but in the sense that through this journey I will have their support through all of it. I love you guys!

2. My Grandparents

I seriously have the BEST grandparents in the entire world. They're cool, loving, hip, supportive and such great role models. I'm so very thankful for being blessed with the grandparents I have. 

3. My Friends

It took me till my senior year to finally know who my real friends are and man I have such great friends. They make me laugh, cry (probably from laughter), open up and most importantly be myself. I've learned through my friends (and others) to be who God wants me to be, and I couldn't be thankful for that.

4. Young Life

These people are my people. Everything about Young Life makes me happy, so, so, so happy. The leaders and friends that I've met through Young Life will always hold a special place in my heart. They've truly helped shape who I am today. My leaders (Grace and Lisa) are two of my favorite people in the world because they've been there for me through many hard times I've had since sophomore year. They've taught me how to be a Godly woman and I'll forever be grateful for that. THANK YOU, YOUNG LIFE PEOPLE!

5. My relationship with Christ

I'm so grateful/thankful that I have the God that I do. He's so loving, forgiving and downright awesome. I grew so much in the last few years because I made my relationship with Christ a priority. He has shown me grace and mercy. He has been my best friend when I felt I had none. He's been a guiding light for me. He has made me angry, happy and made me feel love like never before. God has shaped me. God has put me through seasons in my life that made me learn and grow. In every season I've gone through in my 18 years I can see Christ shining through. God has taught me how to love through the hard times. He's taught me how to trust when all trust is broken. He's taught me to put all my worry on him. He's shown me the women I am in Christ. Every day I'm still learning how to be more like him, but I am thankful for what God has shown be through the years. I'm thankful God has opened to door for me to go on my mission trip next year. I can't wait to see how God will be shining through in my next season of my life. 

There are so many other things that I'm thankful for in my life. Those were just a few. I'm EXTREMELY thankful for everyone who supports me going out and doing missions next year. I'm truly thankful for everyone who has prayed, donated and showed me guidance throughout this journey thus far. 

"And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful." Colossians 3:15 

Contact me:

Laurenemoore97@gmail.com

GO Fund Me:

https://www.gofundme.com/fe7ypy77

Etsy page:

https://www.etsy.com/shop/MooreDesignsbyJulie

a week of learning

Hello my Friends and Family,

Well...this week just flew on by. This week has been encouraging at times and discouraging at times. I've received more than $1,000 for my mission and I couldn't be more thankful for all the loving friends and family who have supported me thus far. I'm also very thankful for the not so nice, but nice man at Staples who copied all hundred of my missions letters for free! Which I mean is pretty cool, let me tell you! This man from Staples may have been angry at me and I may have been angry at him, but in the end he truly blessed me in a way. That was one less thing that I needed to spend the money donated to me on. Which is pretty awesome!

This week though has been kind of a letdown. I know I have so much to be grateful for and I've been so blessed the past two week, but I've been distant with God and I REALLY don't want that. I praise God when life is just fabulous and I'm discouraged when things aren't going my way. I feel a lot of us can relate to this. Praising God when life is going how you planned you can feel God with you all the way, but when life isn't going your way you question, where did God go? When writing this I'm slowing noticing my error, I'm discouraged because, this week wasn't in my plans. I wanted more out of this week. I wanted it to be my way and not Gods way. Oh, I was very wrong thinking that way. Maybe God was teaching me this week to be satisfied with the small things. Maybe God was teaching me to trust him and to not be discouraged because He has my back. Wow....It's crazy just how much God has spoken to me in the last few sentences.

One thing I NEED to remember is to trust God with ALL my heart. If this mission trip is in His plans He will provide.

I also wanted to share my favorite verse with all of you today!

"Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven" Mathew 5:16 

If you'd like to donate to my YWAM mission trip you can do it either through Go Fund me or through my mom's Etsy page. She is selling these really cute snowmen that will make you smile. She is selling these to help raise money for my missions.

I hope you all have an awesome week. HAVE A HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!

Lauren Moore

Links
GO FUND ME: https://www.gofundme.com/fe7ypy77
ETSY: https://www.etsy.com/shop/MooreDesignsbyJulie

WHAT A WEEK

Hi Friends and Family,

Wow. This week has been an answer to many prayers. I have raised over $1,000 just this week. God is so good. I realized this week that trusting God without any doubt can bring amazing things. This week God has provided.

I wanted to thank Kari and Seth Damon for their support. They are so willing to do anything possible to help me out in any way. This week they had decided to pay for all my postage stamps and pay for the first letters that I will be sending out. To some, this may seem small, but to me this is HUGE. I love their willingness to support me through postage stamps, donations and prayers.

I'm very excited to see how God works through me in this whole process. Every day closer to the day I get to serve my Lord through YWAM I get all theses butterflies in my stomach and I feel like I'm having heart palpitations (not literally). I'm overwhelmed by this opportunity and how the Lord has blessed me tremendously. Also, I came across this verse today and I wanted to share it with all of you. Hope you're having an amazing Sunday. Talk to you next week!

"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." Philippians 4:13



Be prepared to be getting a "newsletter" in the mail from me! 

Go fund me:  https://www.gofundme.com/fe7ypy77          

If you have any question please feel free to contact me.
Email: Laurenemoore97@gmail.com      

TRUST

Hi,

This past week has been challenging. Challenging because trust is an issue for me. Trusting God is even harder for me. He's this all powerful all mighty God that I can't see and that sometimes I can't hear. I often thought to myself this week...how am I to trust a God that I can't see or hear?

The reason I'm sharing this with you is because, giving all my stress and worry over to God and trusting him that he will provide with funds for my missions is CHALLENGING. So, I ask all of you to be praying for me. Praying that the Lord will provide and that I will be able to fully trust the Lord on this situation. Throughout this week I was also afraid to come to the Lord about money thinking that's a selfish thing. Then I realized this is MISSIONS... this is for my God! I should't be afraid to talk to Him, I should be excited and overjoyed to talk to Him. When I was praying tonight I was also afraid He was going to be upset that I hadn't talked to Him about trust. That I hadn't really been honest with the Lord on how I was feeling. I didn't want God to be upset with me that I put talking to my parents about worry and stress first before coming to God. I really prayed with God tonight, and for the first time in a while I could truly feel God with me.   He was right beside me comforting and calming me of all my stress and worry. God is so good. Another cool thing is I found this verse below that made me feel relieved.

 "So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand." Isaiah 41:10

Thanks for reading,
Lauren Moore

https://www.gofundme.com/fe7ypy77

Introducing me

Hello from my couch,

I'm starting a blog! Who's excited? I know I am. Heres where you can start to get to know me. Lauren Moore. I guess I should introduce myself first though...

My names Lauren Moore. ((hugs)) I'm 18 years old.
I'll be graduating from Hershey High School June 7th. FINALLY.
My favorite color is blue. (Its a calm refreshing color)
Mashed potatoes are my favorite food. (You can do SO much with mashed potatoes)
Christmas is my favorite holiday. (Everyone is just so dang jolly and it makes my heart feel warm)

Many of you who know me know what my plans are when graduating from high school, but if you're just finding out now...HOW EXCITING I'M SO EXCITED TO TELL YOU ALL ABOUT IT! Being a senior in high school is stressful. Figuring out what college you'd like to go to, or what you'd like to do in the future is always on your mind. At least it was for me. I thought that I HAD to go to college right out of high school. I thought I HAD to know what I wanted to be when I grew up, but turns out I don't. Actually it turns out that I didn't HAVE to go to college right out of high school. And you guessed it, I'm not. I'm going to serve my awesome Lord through YWAM (Youth with a mission) in Townsville, Australia. Exciting right?!?! Through YWAM i'll be apart of a  Discipleship Training School (DTS) with many young people learning together, worshiping together and evangelizing together. For the first 12 weeks of my DTS i'll be training and learning in Townsville Australia, then i'll be evangelizing in Papua New Guinea with the many young people i'll meet through DTS.

I can't wait to see how the Lord works through me and many others that are a part of the upcoming DTS.

I hope to use this blog to share with everyone supporting me the steps i'll be taking to Australia and PNG. I also want to use this blog as a weekly journal from here on out. Lastly, I want to use this blog to raise support either through prayer or a donation to my missions.

Thanks for being interested and willing to take part in my journey. I'm SO excited. I'll talk to you all next week!

Lauren