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

Joy

Hi!

Sorry I didn't update my blog on Sunday.  I was in Pittsburgh enjoying time with family. I hope  you had an awesome Christmas with loved ones. Hopefully, you didn't gain twenty pounds....I know I probably did. Anyway, I wanted to update you on how things are going with my missions trip. Now you might want to hold onto your hats people, I have some exciting news. I"M NEARLY HALFWAY THERE WITH FUNDS FOR MY MISSION TRIP!!!!! I hope you held onto your hat, that was some big stuff! I'm so grateful for all the support that got me to where I am now. Thank you, everyone,  for your prayers. God has truly blessed me over the Christmas season. I really don't know how to put into words how much joy and excitement I'm feeling. I'm speechless (and for me that is rare). Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! We have such an awesome God!

Moving right along....I wanted to also tell you about a New Years resolution I have for myself.....

 I want to be in the Word more!
I've decided that I'm going to do the Bible in a year with the help of a devotional called She Reads Truth. This app has many different devotionals on it. I've done one on She Reads Truth  already and it was awesome! I highly recommend looking into it. I wanted to start doing the Bible in a year so I can be very knowledgeable going into my mission trip. I want to be able to understand what I'll be learning in classes and I feel that me starting a devotional will help me comprehend what I'll be learning. Also, I want to start this because I want to have a better relationship with Christ. I want to have a stronger relationship with Him. I also want God to teach me about myself and who I am supposed to be in Christ. I've always struggled with self-worth, self-appearance and self-confidence. I'm hoping that doing this devotional with help me become more confident in God which will ultimately lead to me becoming more confident in myself.

Thank you for reading my blog! Talk to you soon :)

Lauren Moore

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

a week to remember

Hi,

How has your week been? I hope it has been just as lovely as you are.

OMG ITS ALMOST CHRISTMAS! GET EXCITED!! I know that I am :)

Anyway,  I wanted to share with you some big news.....I PUT MY DOWNPAYMENT ON MY MISSIONS TRIP!! I'm so excited that God had provided that money for me to be able to make this payment so early in the game. I wanted to thank everyone who supports me through this! I'm so excited I really can't put it all in words. I'm so thankful for friends and family and especially God. Trusting God through this process was somewhat difficult, but to know that He was hearing my prayers makes my heart so happy. God is so good.

Sorry for such a short post this week. This was just such a big highlight in my week.

HAVE A MERRY CHRISTMAS FULL OF LAUGHTER AND COOKIES.

Talk to you next week,

Lauren Moore



Contact me
laurenemoore97@gmail.com
GO FUND ME
https://www.gofundme.com/fe7ypy77