the beginning.

So this is the beginning of a blog, or whatever you want to call it. It isn't that I think people are interested in my life or what I have to say, I just think this may prove to be an easier way to keep the people in my life updated on what is happening.
So to catch everyone up on the past year, 2010: I made some very good friends and met some very special people. The Lord brought every one of these friends into my life to encourage me and motivate me and push me towards God's calling.

I had a two week vacation from my job at Auburn Bank and in May/June I decided to take a trip to Guatemala. I took my roommate at the time, Emily, along with me. We took only a backpack each, nothing more. For one week we worked at Casa Guatemala, which is an orphanage in the jungle on the bank of the Rio Dulce. For the second week, we literally backpacked our way through the country and eventually back to the airport. That was a trip in itself. (Another blog, Another time.) Well other than the errupting volcano, the mudslides and floods that killed hundreds, the rockslides, the sinkhole, Tropical strom Agatha, and all the other catastrophies that occurred in our short two weeks, we had an amazing experience. It was very difficult and challenging work, but it was rewarding and eye-opening.
Shortly after we returned to the States, I felt God prompting me to pray for Guatemala and begin considering this as a place where He may ask me to spend time, long-term. Sure enough, I feel it is His will that I go.

It lines up with His word.
It lines up with the voice of His Spirit in me.
It lines up with the circumstances in my life.

Most of you who know me well, know that it has always been a dream of mine to go overseas as a missionary and to eventually establish a kind of children's home. Well while the in-country director of Casa Guatemala asked me to come as the Director's Assistant, I did not feel that this was what I should do. There was something else...I couldn't quite put my finger on it. I still can't actually. I have the option to partner with Christ Alive Care Ministries and open a branch in Guatemala as the director, and I have the option to just go and figure it out when I get there.
I am not as naive as you probably think. I have counted the cost of doing this. It is nothing compared to what Christ did and I truly have nothing else I care to be doing with my life than simply obeying His word to "go".
I do realize that I don't fully understand the way they live life, I can't fully speak the language yet and do not have a clue how businesses and ministries are run down there...SO I thought that a good idea would be to find an established minsitry and partner with them for a few years until I really get assimilated. So I applied with God's Child Project, more specifically Casa Jackson, and am waiting to hear something back from there. That would be so awesome. If I get accepted I will give you the details.

I just got done reading another one of my multiple biographies on Amy Carmichael. It is called "A Chance to Die". I loved it! Written by none other than another great missionary whom I admire, Elizabeth Elliot. Elizabeth Elliot wrote a biography on Amy Carmichael. Is that amazing to anyone besides me?? I think in my coming days I will write some "blogs" on some of the ways her life and her words have deeply affected and motivated me. The Lord speaks powerfully through her long after she has departed from this world.

Well Christ's love to you all,

Jenna.

Amy Carmichael
Elizabeth Elliot
Casa Guatemala
Casa Jackson
Christ Alive Care Ministries