The Dump

Hi,

Things have been really crazy around here! We're having amazing lectures and growing closer as a DTS. Last week were learned about telling Bible stories by memory and we learned the stories by saying them over and over again, but really investing emotions into the stories. It was so awesome. I memorized three Bible stories all because I was practicing telling them with so much enthusiasm like I was actually there watching the story happen. It was SO cool.

Wednesday of last week we had local outreach to a place called the dump and or the city of the lost people. This place was the most eye opening local outreach I've had so far. These families are living out of houses made up of trash or anything they can find. It honestly looked like a dump. While we were driving to the there I thought that I could handle it and that I would be okay, but I was wrong. When we arrived kids were jumping on the car and they were so excited for us to come. I felt so welcomed. The kids ran up to you right away and just wanted to play. We gathered as a team and split into two teams to walk around the dump, meet people and hand them water and a granola bar. Our group had two kids who followed us around the dump the whole time and just hung out with us. Lupita was the little nine year old girl who was following us. She ended up giving her bracelet to my friend Mic. Mic was so excited and so happy but she felt bad because she had nothing to give to Lupita. I realized I was wearing a friendship bracelet Mic and I had and I felt like God wanted me to give that to her. It was such a special moment. I wanted Lupita to know that we will forever be friends and that  I will never forget the beautiful, sweet and loving young girl she is. It felt amazing to do that and be able to pray for the people that we were meeting at the dump. But I was also struggling with talking to strangers when we were there. It's hard for me to go up to a random stranger and try to start a conversation. I just get afraid that it'll be awkward and I won't know what to say, but I talked to a women at the dump and it went really well. I just said a little prayer before I talked to her that God will guide the conversation and he did. I learned that this women was reading the Bible and taking a nice relaxing day off work. What I realized when I was talking to her was that she's human and I don't need to be afraid of talking to strangers. I just need to love like Jesus loves. That changed my perspective on approaching strangers. I just need to love them and allow God to speak through me. The women was the last women we talked to before we has to head back to the vans to play with the kids. Right beside our vans was a building where a lot of the kids were so we went in there and colored with the kids. Lupita and I colored together and I used the little Spanish I know to get to know her. I felt such a strong connection to her. Before my team left she gave me this...

"I love you Lauren." That really played with my emotions. I just wanted to take her home with me and take care of her. I started to cry as we walked out of the building. As a team we had time to debrief and the entire time I was crying because I wanted to do more and I didn't want to leave Lupita. While were were talking, Lupita found me and gave me the biggest hug ever. She kept looking up at me to see if I was still crying and she would give me the biggest smile ever. I truly love this little girl. 

I don't want you to feel sad for this city of the lost people. I want you to love them and pray for them. This isn't a city of lost people these are God's people. They're loved, important, worthy, beautiful, creative and much more. They're not lost. God has adopted them into his family. They're a city of forgiven, loved and important people. It was hard leaving, but I know my God is right there with them. Thank you God for never leaving this place. 

Life on the other side

Hi all,

I just want to talk to you guys about our local outreach this week. This week our leaders had an original plan of where we were going to go for outreach, but the plans fell through. It was our job (as a team) to pray and see if God spoke to any of us on where we were supposed to go for local outreach. A lot of us got an image of the border. Some got pictures of sandwiches, or playing with kids or just evangelizing at the border. I happened to get a picture of bananas. Of course I didn't want to say that because I was thinking, what would bananas have to do with the border? I whispered to my friend Rachael what I got and she decided to say it out loud. I was embarrassed so I justified it by saying, "Its stupid and I have no idea what it means." We prayed again to ask God if the border is where we were supposed to go. Almost everyone got conformation and we started to plan what we were going to do at the border. Our leaders sent two guys to see if we could get sandwiches from the kitchen and others to get chalk, nails polish, etc.. I for one was still doubting that bananas had anything to do with our local outreach. The two guys who were sent to the kitchen to get sandwiches came back with bags of sandwiches and said that there is a crate full of bananas that would could take to the border...I WAS SHOCKED. Everyone looked at me and I just knew what everyone was thinking and it was something like Lauren have more faith. God is actually talking to you! That was a wakeup call. And I started to get really excited about going on our local outreach to the border.

This was my first time going to the border and it was eye opening....

To many Mexicans whats behind this border means the American dream. It means a new beginning and a life that they've been dreaming of for a long time. What broke my heart was that many would do whatever it took to get over this border and make their lives "better." What's behind this border may be more opportunity, more "freedom," and more life but the reality is America is lost too. Yes, Mexico does not have the same opportunities as the United States, but I can tell you one thing Mexico has shown me something America doesn't have much of and thats love. The way a Mexican family can make you apart of theirs in minutes is amazing. The potential here is incredible and my prayer for Mexicans is that they realize how much potential is here. I really pray that Mexicans see how blessed they are and how much they really do have in this country. This is Gods country and He loves Mexico so much. What I also love about Mexico is that when a few of us were walking by the border we asked some people if they'd like prayer and they said yes with no hesitation. They were so excited to get prayer! That's something you don't see often in America. I am thankful for where I come from and I do love my country, but my eyes have been opened to another country. And I love this country of Mexico so much, too. Mexico has made me realize how blessed I've been and the little things that I take for granted. One big thing is being on the American side of the border. I never really thought of the Mexicans on this side of the border, but now that I have my heart wants to show Mexicans that they can make a difference here. Man, my eyes have been opened so wide. I'm thankful God didn't make it possible for me to go to the YWAM in Australia because I don't think I would have had the some opportunities as I have in Mexico. God has shaken me and humbled me. I'm so thankful for that.

If you ever have the opportunity to come to Mexico, do it. It'll open your eyes. It will change you. Let God humble you, its worth it. 

Talk to you soon, 

Lauren  

Fear of the Lord

Hi all,

This week has been a BIG week! I found out that I'll be going to Indonesia for outreach!! How exciting!

I get to experience Indonesia with this amazing team and I can't wait to see how we all grow in unity together and in Christ. 

I also have made pretty amazing friends here. I'll introduce some of them...

First off is an amazing group of God loving, food loving and adventure taking women that I've grown to love to deeply...

I also get to laugh and enjoy life with these ladies....

Seriously....I've never loved life so much...

I also fell in love with a crab I found at the beach and I live by the motto it didn't happen unless you got a picture...so I thought I would share my enjoyment of finding a crab with all of you. Yes, its dead. I'm not that crazy! 

Now that you've seen what I've been up to and met a few of my friends I can start going into a serious mode. Okay, listos (ready)? This week during lecture we talked about the fear of the Lord. Before coming here I thought the fear of the Lord was that I actually had to be afraid of God and that I should be scared of Him. I was wrong. I shouldn't be afraid of God I should be running after Him wanting to know more and more about him. This weeks teaching was great, but I'm going to be honest...I still don't fully understand the fear of the Lord. Yes, I learned a deeper meaning of fearing the Lord, but it hasn't fully clicked with me yet. I've been praying that God reveals something to me that really speaks out to me about fearing the Lord. One thing I did learn about fearing the Lord is that when you do fear him you gain peace and comfort (Acts 9:31), wisdom (Proverbs 9:1), truth (Psalm 86:11) and protection (Psalm 115:11). Now all of that seems great to me. I want God to bring me peace, wisdom and protection. I'm just trying to figure out what fearing the Lord really means to me. Its a process. Another thing that happened in lecture this week was our speaker said she just felt from the Lord that there were a lot of people in our DTS who felt like they weren't good enough. She told us to stand up if we felt that way and we were all to pray and if staff felt like they needed to tell us something that they should. I stood up because I still struggle with my worth and thinking I'm not good enough. Even though I know God loves me and I'm His masterpiece I still struggle with it. But I stood up and my one-on-one came and prayed for me and she spoke words of encouragement and it was awesome. It was really an emotional yet amazing time. That is such a hard thing to do sometimes....To stand up and show people that you don't think you're worth it. I think if someone asked me in high school to stand up if I didn't think I was good enough I would've and I would have felt differently than I did when it happened this week. When I stood up this week and looked around at all the people there that loved me something changed inside of me. I was looking at my new family and I knew in my heart that to them and to God I was good enough. In high school I would not have felt that way. I'm so thankful that God has continually been speaking to me how much He loves me and how much he adores me. He's changing me and I'm loving this confident, God loving Lauren I'm learning to become. 

Thanks for reading,

Lauren 

Hurdles

Hi all,

Hurdles are difficult...yes I'm talking about Track and Field hurdles. I remember trying to do hurdles in high school on the track during gym class. I got myself all pumped up and my heart was beating out of my chest. My face was sweaty and I just started to run towards the hurdle. I was feeling good. I was thinking the whole time (while I was running) that I was Adrian Wilson who cleared a 66 inch hurdle durning football practice. Then reality struck me as I stood centimeters from the hurdle that I couldn't even clear a 39 inch hurdle. I wasn't strong enough. I didn't have confidence to keep going and just try to clear the hurdle. The hurdle just stopped me in my tracks. When this happened I remember just laughing with my friends and moved on. But yesterday that hurdle was something emotional, something stirring inside of me. That hurdle was a bunch of doubt...I'll give you some context. Yesterday we went to downtown Tijuana to go on a prayer walk and give people water bottles. I was SO pumped about it. I was thinking all week long how great I'll be at this and how excited I was. I was still excited yesterday, but my emotions totally flipped once we got out of the van in Tijuana. I was experiencing a culture shock and an overwhelming sense of sadness. I couldn't compare any city in America to Tijuana. It was totally a change for me. As we started walking I just couldn't stop looking around and soaking it all in. The poverty, homelessness and amount of people I saw was unbelievably sad. But I continued on. We split into teams and started on our way. Our group first gave water bottles to three men and we prayed for them. I didn't talk. We then went to give water to two elderly men, once again I didn't talk. I just felt like I couldn't. We continued on. Every time a member of my group started talking to someone I just felt more and more doubt. Doubt that I couldn't be a missionary. I just kept thinking if I can't talk to strangers about Christ, how could I ever be a missionary? Durning the whole prayer walk that was engraved into my head that I couldn't do it. I just kept thinking, what am I going to do now? I want to be a missionary, but I can't do it. I just started to think God didn't have a plan for me anymore. I was stopped by a hurdle. But this time I didn't just laugh it off and move on. I cried. I just felt 2 feet tall and the hurdle of doubt was 6 feet tall. There was no way I could get over that hurdle. Well, thats what I thought for a good portion of the day. But then I remember that the devil will try and stop anyone who tries to spread the word of God. Satan will fill your mind with lies like, "Lauren you cant do this. You aren't strong enough. No one wants to talk to you." Thats so wrong!! With God I'm strong, I'm wise and I'm confident. With God I can be a missionary! I can jumped over that hurdle of doubt and never look back. I can tackle it. The roles will be reversed, satan will feel like 2 feet tall and because my God is so big I'll feel like I'm 6 feet tall. Satan can't jump over me. He can't! Once I got home from Tijuana I looked over my notes that I took from yesterdays lecture and that day we had been talking about hurdles that keep us from hearing God's voice and guess what the first hurdle was....doubt. Ugh, I couldn't hear God encouraging me during the prayer walk to keep going and to tell more and more people about Him because I was full of so much doubt. I allowed the enemy to fill my mind. Don't do that! I'm saying this to myself and you! Satan is a liar and he wants to steals things from you. You can tackle a 66 inch hurdle with God. Choose God.

"Do not fear, for I am with you; Do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God I will strengthen you, surely I will help you, Surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand." Isaiah 41:10

Also! I wanted to tell you all how amazing our speaker is this week! Jen is amazing! She is such a women of God and I stinking LOVE it. The topic this week is Recognizing God's Voice. This is something that confused me as a Christian, but I'm really starting to understand it. Yes, I still have many questions, but Jen made hearing from God so real to me. Ah, I'm so giddy about it! And I can't wait to keep learning about my Creator and sharing it all with you guys!

Talk to you all soon,
Lauren

I had a Revelation

Hi all,

I'm loving YWAM so much. I think I've met my people here....

Honestly, I've never felt more comfortable with friends before until I came to YWAM. All the ladies and gentlemen I've met in my DTS have shown me what real friendships can look like. They have also shown me what a friendship is like when you're all pursing God together. It changes a friendship. I've never been so vulnerable with people before until I met these awesome people. And I feel like I've known my new friends for years and its only been like 2 week. They're family now. 

I also get the pleasure of enjoying the beach and all the awesome things Mexico has to offer. Like Mexican blankets. I mean come on people Mexican blanket are so colorful and awesome.

We also get the pleasure to have AMAZING speakers every week. This week we are talking about the Father Heart of God. Our speaker is crazy good. I can really connect with his way of teaching. He loves to tell us about real life stuff. Like situations he's been through or his friends have been through and he bring it all back to the Father Heart of God. I just can connect with how passionate he is. Anyway, I've been having trouble in  lecture feeling like God wasn't speaking to me. Last week I just felt like God really wasn't speaking a revelation to me but holy moly He did speak a revelation to me today. One part of todays lecture our speaker talked about two things that satan takes away from us the first being our identity and the second being our relationship with God. I wrote that down in my notebook and continued to listen to the speaker. I didn't really process what I had written down until I sat down with my one-on-one. My one-on-one (Sky) asked me what had stood out to my during lecture today and I immediately thought about the two things that satan takes away from us, our identity and our relationship with God. I started talking to Sky and processed that for such a long time I was letting satan rule my life. I allowed satan to take my identity away and I allowed satan to distort how I viewed myself. I have struggled with self esteem since elementary school. Since than I allowed satan to tell me who I am and how beautiful I was. I allowed satan to tell me who I am and I allowed him to rule over my self esteem. As I was saying this to Sky I was also processing all the times I allowed satan to tell me who I was, I was processing how much of my life I've wasted on trying to convince myself that I wasn't beautiful or I wasn't worth it because satan took away my identity. I also allowed satan to take away my relationship with Christ. I always thought there was a God, but when I would really try to think about God I always felt doubt. I always allowed myself to believe what the devil was saying about God rather than trying to combat the devil. Sometimes the devil can be so convincing. I've experienced that for a big chunk of my life. Today, though, I felt God finally grip me and say,"Lauren, you see, you allowed the devil to take Me and your identity away from you. Change. Start new, you're a new creation." What a stinking revelation. After I realized that I'm not going to allow satan to dictate who I am anymore I felt such a relief. Like I can finally start to build my confidence IN CHRIST. I feel new. I also feel like its finally time for me to be baptized because I'm ready for God to take a hold of my life and change me for the better. I'm so thankful for YWAM and that I had the opportunity to finally have a revelation in Christ. THIS IS AWESOME!!

Also just soak in how cute the DTS team is...can't wait to amazing things with these people! 

Talk to you all soon, 

Lauren 

Finally here

Hi guys,

I'm finally here in Mexico and I can't even begin to explain to you how much I love YWAM so far! The campus is absolutely beautiful.

 Pretty cool right and the view from our room is breathtaking....

See...its breathtaking. Honestly every morning so far I've woken up and walked to our door that looks out over the ocean and I get so giddy! It has always been a dream of mine to live at the ocean and here I am! I'm so blessed.

Anyway, the travel here was so tiring. My mom, Kari Damon and I woke up at 4:30 in the morning to catch my flight out of Philly at 7:50. We got to the airport and I'm pretty sure my mom parked about 5 miles away from my terminal. I needed the exercise anyway. I was so excited that the day I've been waiting for finally came! It was so surreal. I also felt like such an adult because I was flying ALL BY MYSELF. Which was a big step for me. I had a layover in Houston and than I was on my way to San Diego to get picked up by someone from YWAM. San Diego is beautiful. From the plane it just looked amazing. It's not as green as Pennsylvania. It's not even close, actually. But it was something new and I LOVED it. When I got off my flight I met Ross from YWAM and instantly felt super comfortable and excited I wasn't nervous, at least not yet. Ross and I went met up with Kari and Mandi who also work for YWAM and they were great! We waited for a few more students to get off their flights and than we were off to Mexico. I think my first friend here was Issac. He was just so sarcastic and funny and we instantly became best friends or at least that's what he said. After a short ride through San Diego and across the border we were finally in Mexico! Honestly, you could tell right away that you crossed the boarder. It was sad. Kind of a culture shock. After about 20 minutes of driving we arrived to our new home. 

That night I got to meet a lot of the girls that I would be rooming with and it was great! But once I got onto campus I started to get nervous. All the excitement shifted into nervousness.  I was afraid no one was going to like me or I wouldn't make any friends. As I was talking to a few of the other girls I realized I wasn't the only one feeling this way. One of the YWAM staff members, Kayla, told us evil will try and tell you lies. Evil will make you feel this way because evil doesn't want you to be here. Satan doesn't want you to become close with God and he will put lies into your head. Which is crazy true and later that night I was reading my devotion and the Bible verse in my devo said, "Satan has asked to sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail." 

Luke 22:31-32  

While I was reading that I just had one of those moments of complete and utter shock. Like YES God, you've got my back and you want me here! And that is just the beginning of the things I've seen God do in these past couple days. But you'll just have to stay tuned for more. I can't wait to keep updating you all on what I'm doing here at YWAM and what I'm learning. Thank you everyone for praying for me. You're great.

Talk to you soon,

Lauren 

  

Anxiety

Hi all,

I would like to talk to you about whats going on in my head right now. I leave in less then two weeks...even typing that gives me anxiety. I'm full of so many emotions at the current moment. Fear, excitement, anxiousness and much more. I thought I would share with you all that is going through my head before I embark on this journey....

I first want to start out by saying I am excited about this mission trip. I'm SO excited, but with that being said its expected to have some nervous about being away from my comfort zone for such a long time. Earlier this year I started taking anxiety medication for social anxiety  (which some of you are probably confused about because I talk to people way too much), but its true. I used to be so afraid to talk to people because I was terrified if they would like me or not. If you asked me about two years ago if I loved going to parties and hanging out with tons of people I would say yes because thats the person I wanted to be not the person I was. I would pretend to be someone else because I convinced myself that if I wasn't that person that people wouldn't like me. My anxiety ate me alive. It controlled who I was. Thankfully I finally came to terms with myself and realized that I had been denying that I had anxiety for years and I finally did something about it. I started with a medication and life seemed to be a little more upbeat. I started to have fun, actual fun. I started to be Lauren because the anxiety didn't control me as much anymore. Day by day the mask of anxiety that I had been wearing around for years started to come off. I talked to God about my anxiety a lot. I was frustrated with Him because I had anxiety. I wondered why it was me. Why could't this anxiety be given to someone else? I had to put anxiety on my list of things that are wrong with me. As the mask of anxiety started to peel off of me so did the outlook I had on it. Instead of blaming God for this, I should thank him. I should thank Him because God gave me something many others have to deal with, but I can be a witness that you can beat anxiety. With God anxiety seems so small. I need to remember that too. God is SO much bigger than my anxiety and He's not going to let me go through this battle alone. Ever.

 I was going to use this blog to express to you about my anxiety I'm having over this mission trip, but when I read and then reread what I typed about that God will never let me go through this battle alone I felt some sort of peace about my mission trip.  All this anxiety I'm feeling about packing, saying goodbye to my family and having to make new friends doesn't seem as big as it did about 20 minutes ago when I was talking to my mom.  I think what I've realized while writing this blog is that I need to just trust God. He's in control. He knows the plans for my life. He's got my back. I don't need to worry.

If you're struggling with anxiety about life or social anxiety just remember God has a purpose for you. Don't dwell on things that are out of your control. Learn to be yourself and don't wear a mask. It's not worth it. Always ask God for help because trust me I know what anxiety can do to you. Hopefully you know your worth in God.

Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 

26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 

27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? 

28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 

29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 

30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 

31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 

32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 

33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 

34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." -Matthew 6:25-34

thanks for reading,

Lauren 

21

Hi all,

Holy guacamole its been a while. I can't even begin to explain to you how busy my summer has been since the day I graduated from high school. Lets just say there were a lot of lives I needed to guard this summer. Everyday was a day by the pool, but not in the pool just guarding the pool, unfortunately. Honestly, this summer has been the best summer I've had in YEARS. Actual years. This summer I really focused on working on myself and learning to love me for who I am. I think I've done pretty well with all of that. I also learned to let go of high school and move on in life. I've made some pretty awesome friends at work this summer. Everyone I work with has basically become family (mainly because we all feel like we see the Hotel Hershey crew more than our own families). This summer is what I've been needing. My mom has always said, "Lauren trust me when I say that the people you meet after high school are going to be different," and she was right... The friends I've made this summer have been the best friends I think I've ever made. They love me for me. They're honest. They love to have fun. They're just great. While I'm sad that the summer is coming to an end and I'll have to say goodbye to my job, what is coming next excites me more than ever before.

Twenty one days. Let that sink in. Less then a month. Only three weeks away. Twenty one days until I embark on my mission trip. Holy crap. Ah! Woohoo! Wow time flies. I remember thinking, Oh my gosh this mission trip is so far away and than I blinked and its only 21 days away. I'm so excited for this new chapter in my life. I'm excited to see what God has in store for me. I'm excited to meet new people and experience life with my new friends. I'm excited to be out of my comfort zone. I think being out of your comfort zones makes you a stronger person. Though I will miss my comfort zone of my family and my puppy,  it'll be an experience I'll never forget.  And I'm SO excited!

Lastly, I would like to thank everyone who has kept me in their prayers. The prayers paid off. I've raised all the money I needed to go on the mission trip!! What an answer to prayers. I have the BEST support system. Thank you again.

Talk to you soon,
Lauren

Blessed

Hi friends,

I wrote this blog about two weeks ago and I can finally share it with you! Enjoy....

It's crazy who God brings into your life.

Prior to Friday I had a discouraging week. I was just not on my A game. I was taking things way too personally. I was very doubtful about my missions trip because one person had said something negative about taking a year off to do something other than going to school. For some reason that affected me way more than it should've. I've had multiple people discourage my missions trip before and its never affected me like this. I've just got to remember I have an army of friends and family encourage my missions trip. I also have a God who has encouraged me to keep trusting and keep going on. So, I kept trusting and went on with my week still a bit discouraged. Little did I know....

Thursday night I was at The Hershey Hotel lifeguarding. I met this really nice couple with the most adorable kid ever. He was so talkative and sweet. I helped him pick out toys and watched him play with the biggest smile on his face. I talked to his mom for a minute and waved hi to the dad. They brightened up my night in seconds. Little did I know...

Friday night I was back at work again. I was really excited when I saw the same family come back to the pool. Again, I helped the same little boy get his pool toys. This time his dad came over with the little boy. The dad complimented me on how good I was with kids. We went on to talk about how my parents are Milton Hershey house parents and that's where I learned all my skills with kids. He mentioned to me that he was looking into opening a home for underprivileged kids. Than he asked what my plans are for after high school and I went on to tell him about my missions trip. He asked if it was a "Jesus Christ" kind of mission trip. When I told him yes, he was so excited for me and super proud of me. We went on talking about trusting God with different things in our lives. He went on to say that he needs to trust God with opening a house for underprivileged kids and I mentioned that I need to trust God with finances for my missions trip. Little did I know...Casey was someone God put into my life to bless me. After talking to Casey about My financial obligation for the mission trip he looked me dead in the eye and said his company would be donating $1,000 to my trip.....Instant tears running down my face. Casey said God has blessed him with finances and it's time to start giving back. Casey surly blessed me that evening.

Going home after work later that night I was so excited to tell my parents what Casey had done. Both my parents couldn't believe it! My mom cried because she just felt like this is what God wants for my life and that when you trust God He will provide. I learned that trusting God pays off. God knows what He's doing and God knew what He was doing when he brought Casey and his family into my life. I felt/feel so blessed with the support I have from family, friends and even strangers. Thank you everyone for supporting me through prayer and finances.

I also want to let you know that so far (all through donations) I've raised $5,500 for my trip! The total cost for the trip is $6,690!! WERE ALMOST THERE!! Again, thank you from the bottom of my heart for all the support. I'm so grateful for you.

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart

and lean not on your own understanding;

in all your ways submit to him,

and he will make your paths straight."

Proverbs 3:5-6

Have a great day,

Lauren Moore

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

YWAM: http://www.ywamsandiegobaja.org/compassioninaction/

Taking a New Course

Hi there,

There is a reason I haven't posted in a week and if you stick around you'll find out.

 Life throws curve balls all the time (I'm sure you've experienced some), but this curve ball is showing me what God REALLY wants for me after I graduate. The original plan was for me to do a Discipleship Training School through YWAM Townsville, Australia, but God has a different plan for me. I will still be doing a Discipleship Training School through YWAM, but this one will be a little closer to home. Starting September 14, 2016 I will be in Mexico training for an awesome outreach somewhere in the world. My options for outreach range from Latin America, Africa and Asia.

Although this is exciting news I was having a hard time coming to terms with telling everyone what the new plan was. I was afraid people would be upset that my original plan changed. I was expressing my concern to good family friends and my parents and they both told me that sometimes God has a plan for you thats bigger than you could imagine. They also expressed that sometimes God speaks through finances and financially I was not going to be able to do the mission trip is Townsville. As I sat down and realized that God was trying to tell me through finances that the YWAM trip in Australia isn't in my future I came across the YWAM in Mexico. I started researching more about the YWAM San Antonio Del Mar and fell in love. Also, I realized that financially I would be able to afford to pay off my tuition with all the money everyone donated to me! How exciting! All I have left to pay is for my outreach which I will not exactly know where I'll be going until 2 weeks into my training. The prices for outreach range from $2500-$3500. I do have the option to go to Nepal, India. How crazy would that be?!  I'm just so ready to be on the mission field learning, serving and evangelizing. I can't wait to take everyone on this new journey God opened up to me. Thank you for supporting me through big changes and thank you for praying for me.

If you'd like to read more about what the Discipleship Training School will be all about here is a link to check it out! http://www.ywamsandiegobaja.org/compassioninaction/

If you'd like to see where I'll be staying for training you can check it out here.... http://www.ywamsandiegobaja.org/locations

Talk to you all soon!


Lauren Moore

Go Fund Me: https://www.gofundme.com/fe7ypy77

FROZEN

Hey, hey, hey!

Wow....what a storm we just had! I hope you all enjoyed how beautiful the snow was. I also hope you went outside and played. I know I did. I had a blast. Playing in the snow makes me feel like I'm a child all over again. And honestly, I'm totally okay with that. If you missed the snow or aren't from around this area, here are some pretty sick pictures I got Friday Night

Oh and that's my brother and his beautiful girlfriend. I love them.

Anyway, these past two weeks have been crazy like I said in my last blog. I was in a car accident last Tuesday (I'm okay). Thankfully that accident was not as bad as it could've been. I'm very thankful for the Lord. He was looking out for me that night. Also, my internship at Drayer Physical Therapy ended. Which was a bummer because I really looked forward to all the awesome people I got to intern with every Monday-Friday. My Drayer team taught me so much about physical therapy and life. They encouraged me to be myself and to fulfill my dreams. Once I talked to the Drayer team about my mission trip this coming summer they were ALL so supportive and were willing to do anything to help. On my second to last day of my internship at Drayer I got a notification that the team had gotten together and raised money for my mission trip! Getting that news was SO, SO, SO exciting! Thank you again Drayer team, I love y'all! With leaving Drayer that meant I had to start a new internship somewhere else. I started an internship at Country Meadows Retirement Home this past Monday. To be honest, I wasn't looking forward to it. This wasn't something I necessarily wanted to do in the future. But momma Moore told me to put on a smiling on my face and enjoy it because I know you will. How come mom's know everything...? I really enjoy giving elders their breakfast and seeing how happy they were to get bacon. Bacon is what the elders needed to be happy. Something so simple, something that will be gobbled up in a minute, but bacon was it. You may ask where I'm going with this other than making you want bacon, but I have a point. I want God to be my bacon. I want to be presented with something that has God written all over it. I want to trust, love and endure God for all he's worth. I want to look at God and be as happy as those elders were to get bacon. I want God to fulfill my hunger and thirst for something more. The only thing is, lately I haven't been feeling like that elderly person getting bacon. I've been feeling blah with my faith. But I really want to be as happy as the elders were. I want God to work in me. But again, I've been struggling and honestly I'm not exactly sure how to love God for all he's worth. I guess this is a struggle most Christians go through. I'm just not understanding how to get out of a "frozen" relationship with God. I have been doing my devotional and learning, but something just isn't clicking. If you could please pray for me and my "frozen" relationship with God, that would be awesome. You could pray that I won't feel stuck anymore and that I will look at God the same way the elders looked at their bacon. Thank you for reading my blog this week. Hopefully, I didn't make you want bacon. 

"I am the bread of life. he who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst." John 6:35 

Talk to you next week,

Lauren Moore 

GO FUND ME: https://www.gofundme.com/fe7ypy77

If you would rather not use the GOFUNDME page to support me, feel free to write a check instead. In doing that, I will receive all the money instead of GOFUNDME taking 5%. You can send checks to 982 Homestead Ln, Hershey, PA 17033. 

Young Life Hype

Hi,


I know I haven't posted in a while and I'm truly sorry. I haven't been on top of things lately. Life has been a little crazy. I wanted to talk to you about this past weekend. I was attending Young Life winter weekend and let me tell you, it was AMAZING. I love Young Life! This past weekend I created new friendships, grew closer to old friends and skied like an Olympian (not really).  Going into this weekend I had lots of things I was struggling with. Things I haven't really talked to anyone about. This weekend I was looking and searching for answers about my mission trip this summer because I've been doubtful about the trip. Ive just been second guessing myself if this trip really is what I need to do. I've been worried that if this trip wasn't for me, what was I going to do with my future? I was depending on this past weekend to give me answers, and I think it did.

During Winter Weekend we have club. Seriously, club is so lit. You get together with TONS of high school students to sing Justin Bieber, dance like you're in the shower and scream like you're trying to talk to a friend that's a thousand miles away.  If you haven't heard of Young Life I HIGHLY suggest you look into it. It has changed my life. Anyway, after singing a speaker will talk about the awesome things Jesus has done for us. Our speaker this year was AWESOME. He connected with the students so well. He spoke about Jesus with such enthusiasm. You could tell he really loves Jesus. He kept speaking about the Good News. The Good News the Jesus has saved us, that He loves us DEEPLY and that he wants us. The speaker also told us that we have all fallen short of the glory of God. That we have turned our backs on God. That sometimes we use God only to our convenience. But the speaker kept referring to the Good News. Again, that Jesus has saved us. Jesus loves us even if we've sinned, Jesus loved us even if we turn our backs on Him. Then it hit me...like a hard smack in the face. I'm to go on this mission trip. I'm to continue to share the Good News. I am suppose to go because I understand what its like to turn away from God but more importantly I understand how to turn my life around to praise God for all He's worth. I can be like the speaker from this weekend and teach kids and teens about the Good News of Christ and how it changes you. After our speaker spoke Sunday night he gave all the students 15 minutes to sit outside and think and look at the beautiful camp. It might have been cold and my butt might have been frozen to a rock, but I couldn't fathom how beautiful the sky lit with stars looked. How the frozen lake with a thin layer of snow looked. It was beautiful to have 15 minutes with the Creator of the stars, snow and the beautiful Young Life camp.  Within the 15 minutes, God told me this mission trip is what I'm ABSOLUTELY supposed to do. This is why this past weekend was the best weekend I've had in a while.

Thanks for reading!

Lauren

Reflection of 2015

Hi friends,

I hope you had a Happy New Year! I know I did! Going into downtown Hershey with my friends is always fun! And this picture really shows how my night went....

My night was spent with my favorite couple. Obviously you can tell I was enjoying myself. I was also surrounded by my awesome friends. 

With the New Year it always calls for a reflection of the previous year. And thats what I want to talk to you all about today. Last year was a year of highs, lows and a lot of in between. I struggled a lot last year with many different things, one being myself. I've always been that girl who's sensitive about everything and always took things way out of proportion. I would cry if someone would look at my in a "hurtful" or "judging" way. I would cry because I assumed people talked about my all the time. I would cry because I didn't love myself. I wasn't confident. I cared WAY too much about what others would say.  I didn't like how my body looked a lot bigger than every other girl in my school. Looking in the mirror everyday and telling myself I was beautiful was often a struggle. I didn't believe myself when I would say it. Little did I know.....

 Now reading through this now I'm upset. I'm disheartened because last year I was missing something in my life that I so desperately needed and it was a relationship with God. Thinking back on in now the start of 2015 God was the last thing I wanted. I had a boyfriend, friends and fun. I didn't want anything in my life that was going to be "hard" because we all know that having a relationship with God can be hard. It can be frustrating at times and I thought I didn't need that in my life. Unfortunately, when the fun stopped, my friends drifted away and my relationship ended life seemed pointless to me. Instead of crying out to God for help I was mad at Himm for allowing my life to turn to turmoil. Little did I know.... 

August-November 2015, was a time where the depth of my loneliness was noticeable. I thought I had no one. Little did I know....

I thought life couldn't get better. Little did I know...

I thought I would never come out of this loneliness. Little did I know...

I thought I was would never love myself. Little did I know...

Little did I know that even though I felt far from God he still loved me. God was working in me through all the hard times I had throughout 2015. I chose to ignore how God was working through me. I prolonged my anger, hurt, loneliness and the way I felt about myself because I didn't cry out for help from the Lord. It took me till November to realize that I needed Gods help to work through my struggles. That's when God has spoken to me about the YWAM missions trip. That I needed to do this mission trip to learn and grow. But little did I know that praying, crying and talking to the Lord would help with the loneliness and my self-worth. Little did I know, that reading my bible taught me how to start loving myself. Little did I know, growing a relationship with God was already changed my life. That start of 2016 has been great. I've cleared the unhealthy thoughts and actions of last year out of my mind. I'm starting fresh and boy that feels good. My confidence in myself boosted! HOLLA to that! My loneliness is little to none. I know that with God and my family I should never feel lonely. Past experiences can hurt. They can actually crush you but, the advise I would give my 2015 self is stay strong in your faith, don't push people away, let family and friends know whats happening. I would've also told myself that in the end it would be okay. With God things were AWESOME. 

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11 

Thanks for reading!

Lauren Moore 

CONTACT ME

laurenemoore97@gmail.com

GO FUND ME - https://www.gofundme.com/fe7ypy77