Announcements and diving in.

Hello there, friends!

I've been pretty busy these past couple weeks with wrapping up this semester of college and I'm pleased to announce that I am now a senior nursing student at Milligan College! This is so exciting and crazy for me, it appears that real adult life is right around the corner (or 362 days away.. but who's counting, right?). The overwhelming thought is not having any idea where in the world I'll be living a year from now, the exciting part is trusting God with that. I'm always up for a good adventure!

Speaking of adventure, I have a couple other pieces of exciting news. 1. My visa for the Ivory Coast has been received! 2. I have my plane tickets to and from the Ivory Coast! This is getting real, folks. I know now that I'm not only allowed in the country, but I also have a way of getting there (and my mom is pleased that I have tickets home ;) ).

Thank you all for your support, you rock! However, I still have about $1000 to raise, so if you were wondering whether I need your help, the answer is a resounding yes! It's been so awesome for me to see God working through his people to pave the path for me to serve in Africa, and I firmly believe that he will continue to do so.

I was reading in the book of John the other day and a particular part jumped out at me, I had to laugh a little bit at the mental image. In chapter 21 John shares this story of an interaction with the resurrected Christ. We have Peter, John, and a few other disciples that decided they'd like to go fishing (these guys had grown up fisherman so I get the sense that this was an incredibly calming and homey action for them). They fished through the night and didn't catch anything, which is kind of a bummer. Then, they hear this guy yelling at them from the shore, telling them to caste their nets on the other side, the disciples look at each other, shrug, say ok and do what they were told. Then John looks at Peter and says "isn't that the Lord?" and this is were is gets awesome. Peter grabs clothes (obviously he was the kind of guy to take his shirt off while fishin') jumps into the water and starts swimming to Jesus. At this point I imagine the other disciples looking at each other, mumbling something about Peter being crazy as they go about turning the boat to shore. I love how Peter was so excited to see Jesus that he couldn't wait another moment to get back to him. He dives right in, doesn't wait for the comfortable and safe boat to take him back, he just has to get there as fast as possible. The story continues with the boat arriving at shore and Peter jumping back in to help with the fish. I think this man was literally too excited to know what to do with himself and I bet he looked crazy.

I hope my life resembles Peter's in this way, so that my actions of love and desire to be with Christ appear a little insane.