On the Road again...Just can wait to fly in the sky!!

We have had an awesome experience so far. The presence of God has really been around throughout this whole trip. I love how the favor of God has shown up in every aspect of this trip. From our luggage to my allergies the Lord has continued to teach me faith and patience, that waiting on him is the best thing I could do. As we go into our specific locations (Romania and Berlin), I have huge expectations of what God is going to do through each of us. Jesus loves each of you and Please continue to pray for us as we reach out to these people. Thank you for everything. Romania here we come!! WOOT WOOT!

MELISSA

Day 4

It has been an amazing 3 days. During these 3 days, we have been preparing to depart for our separate countries. We are staying at the Continental Theological Seminary and have learned so much about the European culture that has been amazing. This morning Team Romania got a chance to learn from a student who previously did missions in Romania, did her dissertation on early childhood education. Her paper focused on Reactive Attachment Disorder in which kids have problem relating and the struggle to connect with others. I ask, … WE ask that you pray for these needs with us. Thank You.

P.S. This is Stephanie. I usually for get to include my name. lol. Remember to PRAY!!!!

God's Calling

In the past week, there have been ups, and there have been downs.
There have been moments where i could have had the right to cry out in frustration. Our flight was delayed to Boston, then we found out our flight to Paris was cancelled, that we MIGHT not all fly out (18 people) to Paris together, that they lost our luggage and we had to wait two days before we had it. There have been moments where i had the right to laugh, to smile, to worship. But in the last 24 hours i feel that i know have the right to say, that no matter what will happen on this trip or in my future, now more then ever i know that i have been called.
The one thing that has most impacted me thus far was hearing the president of the seminary briefly talk about God's calling. You see, i've waited all my life (in my Pentecostal upbringing) believeing that i'll confirm my calling when an Evangalist spits, prays and prophecies in my face. Hearing Joesph talk about the great commission and how we read it and hear it as a command "...GO and make disciples..." when in fact in Greek it, in reality says, '...AS you go and make disciples..."
its as we go out on our day to day basis that we fulfill God's calling in our lives. Its as, in this next week i go out and work with these orphans and young mothers, that i'll be fulfilliing God's Calling. sometimes it will be "glamorous", going out of my comfort zone and into a new country. other times it might be going out of my comfort zone at home and on campus to reach out to my peers while walking to class or eating in the cafeteria.
sure i've known that our lives are and should be a shining reflection of who God is, but it hit me today that my "majestic, ministerial calling" isn't as important to fret about as my "living everyday as a Christian" calling.
God is good and i can't wait to see how this will apply as i now go out to Romania tomorrow evening!

Bonjour!

Bonjour from Brussels!

We finally arrived in Brussels late Tuesday night…with no luggage! It was quite a journey. We made it through the Atlanta airport with no trouble and arrived at our gate to take our flight to Boston. Shortly after our arrival at our gate, it was announced that our flight would be delayed by two hours. This was no good, because we needed to catch our flight from Boston to Paris! After spending over an hour at the International Rebooking counter with Miss Margaret, all 18 of us had standby tickets for the flight to Paris. We went over and waited to find out if we would make it on the flight. Everyone stayed in good spirits and just enjoyed our time together. We did end up making it on the flight to Paris. While our bags did not make it, we did! In addition, Air France gave us each a pretty nice toiletry kit and they will reimburse us for up to 100 Euros (~150 dollars) worth of “necessities” – clothes, toiletries, etc. So it wasn’t so bad. After rescheduling our train tickets to Brussels, we finally made it!

Yesterday we enjoyed a day in the city! Belgian waffles are DELISH! It was a lot of fun, and definitely an experience.

Today we visited a castle and a chocolate factory. The castle was amazing…words cannot even describe it. And of course you know I loved the chocolate! AND…our luggage finally arrived today (all except one bag)! It was so nice to put on clean clothes.

Our time on the trip so far has been awesome. We have really gotten a chance to get to know each other. God has definitely been teaching us to rely on Him as our Provider. Having to wear the same clothes for multiple days (or wash them in the sink) can be kind of humbling. And relying on your bags to get from Boston to Brussels definitely took an act of God!

We will spend one more day in Brussels and on Saturday we will leave for Romania and the Berlin team will leave for Germany. Please continue to pray for us on this incredible journey. We know that this is not going to be an easy task. We are going to see and experience a whole new world that we never could have imagined. Pray for our protection, both physically in our travels, and spiritually for the things we will see and experience.

Thank you all SO much for your support! We will continue to update you as we can!

Break my heart for what breaks YOURS

I heard this song today, and some of the lyrics really stuck out to me in reference to our trip!

I see a generation
Rising up to take their place
With selfless faith

Heal my heart and make it clean
Open up my eyes to the things unseen
Show me how to love like you have loved me

Break my heart from what breaks yours
Everything I am for your kingdoms cause
As I go from nothing to
Eternity

May 16th is HERE!! Congratulations Team!!

Are You a Pointer or a Leader?

   Jess and I once spent our anniversary with a homeless guy.  Now, don't think we were trying to be über Christian...it was completely by accident...

   We had tickets to the High Museum of Art for some sort of hoity-toity, artsy, dress-up and eat fancy cheese-type of event.  We put High Museum of Art into the GPS and when it told us "You have arrived at your destination, on...the...right", there was no High Museum there. We parked and walked to where the GPS said it should be and looked around downtown ATL.  It was no where to be found.  One of the horse carriage guys pulled up next to us.  We asked him if he knew where it was and in a bout of half-hearted (and completely clueless) courage pointed us in the direction of a homeless man across the street and said, "He can help you."

   He came over to us and said that he knew where it was and to follow him.  Now, let me pause for a second.  When you are going to an art museum to eat fancy cheese, you are pretty dressed up.  And as a homeless guy is walking me around downtown ATL, I am thinking that we are probably walking right to a band of homeless thugs who are going to jump me and take the wallet of a guy wearing a suit (to be sorely disappointed when they find out I'm a missionary, and thus, am broke.  The tickets were free and the suit was a gift, haha!)

   Back to the story: He leads us for about half a mile.  We talk about Jesus (he is really involved in a ministry for the homeless in ATL).  He talks about life on the streets.  He talks about how 'this ministry comes here and gives food out on this day' and 'that ministry sets up free food there on that day', and without these ministries so many people would be starving.  He then realizes that we are going in the wrong direction...

   We turn around and walk about a mile in another direction, only to find out that he had no clue where the High Museum was.  He asked someone in the barbershop, they didn't know.  At this point, I assumed it was no where near where we were so we started the long journey back to our car.  We talk about God and ministry and life and blessing the entire time.  It was wonderful.

   I think ministry looks a lot like this.  Often times I feel completely clueless where I am going and change my direction often...but I would much rather be the guy walking around clueless with people and talking about God, than the guy that just points people in a direction.  I read this from my devotion book this morning:

A true leader influences others spiritually only because the Spirit works in and through him to a greater degree than in those he leads.  We can lead others only as far along the road as we ourselves have traveled.  Merely pointing the way is not enough.  If we are not walking, then no one can be following, and we are not leading anyone.

Oh, and we found out when we got back in the car and re-GPS'd the High Museum, it was literally 8 miles from where we were...we didn't go.  We had already "arrived at our destination" that night.  We were suppose to forget about fancy clothes and fancy cheese and fancy art and walk around downtown ATL with a homeless guy, talking about Jesus, and learning a whole heck-of-a-lot about leading.  From a "take these people to the proper location quickly" standpoint, my friend failed miserably.  But, the Spirit of God was working through him to teach me a life-lesson I will never forget, so in this regard, he was supremely successful.

   On this trip we are leaving for in just 5 days, we may be completely clueless at times, but we will be walking with those in Berlin.  Are you content with just pointing people towards Jesus (or towards someone else that is leading), or do you want to lead people to Him?  It's time to start walking.  Pointing is easy.  Leading will not be.

Less than a week?!

Last summer, Richard Burke (Director, XA GSU) sent a message to our leadership team telling us about mission trips for the year. I remember Romania being mentioned and I immediately replied asking if this would be working with children. He said yes, and from that moment on my heart was in Romania. There was some talk of not having the trip to Romania, and I was absolutely devastated. I knew this was where I was supposed to go, and I prayed and prayed that it would not be cancelled.

In November(ish) of 2010, I submitted my application to be a part of the ReachEurope team and was accepted. Then began the fundraising. For a college student, $3000 seemed like an outrageous amount of money. I had no idea where it would come from. But God continuously reminded me how faithful he was. (You can read about it here.)

Still, May 16 seemed so far away. I had a crazy semester ahead of me and I thought we'd never make it. Sure, we talked about going. But it seemed like some far off idea, a date that would never arrive. 

Today is May 10. Which means that in SIX days we leave for Romania. 

The girls from the mission team in the
Bahamas (I'm the tall one in the
middle.).

The last time I went out of the country was in the 9th grade. It was also the last time I went on a mission trip. It was to the Bahamas. I'm not even sure that counts as leaving the country! 

I've never been on a plane for more than two hours, let alone across the open ocean. So yes, I'm a little nervous. But there is zero doubt in my mind that God has called me to Romania for these two weeks, and I'm beyond thrilled to see what He has planned for us!! 

Our flight leaves Atlanta at 7:15pm next Monday night (the 16th). Please be in prayer for us as we begin this awesome journey!! 

Thank yous Finally :)

So my name is Rachel Bridges. I know I am really late on the whole thank you blog, but I wanted everyone to know that I sent out personal Thank You cards to every single person/family who helped and supported me to go on this amazing trip. I don't want anyone to think I don't appreciate my family and friends and that since I didn't post on here before that I didn't say "thank you". But I still want to post (now that I figured out how... I am sort of technologically dumb lol). 

I am so excited to go on this trip! I am from Athens, Ga and I go to Gainesville State College. Even though I do not attend, I am a part of the UGA Chi Alpha. There was a group going on this trip from UGA, but unfortunately I was the only one who ended up being able to go. Even though I don't know anyone too well, I am super excited to make new life-long GOD LOVING friends through this experience! I already feel really close from meeting everyone at Collide. I know God is going to do marvelous things through all of us and I can't wait to see everyone in

  12 DAYS!!!!!! 

********

13 DAYS!!

We leave for Europe in THIRTEEN days! So soon!
Please continue to pray for us as we prepare our hearts
as well as our bags for this trip!

Well Hello There

I am a tad bit behind....

My name is Susanna Lacy and I am from Atlanta originally but now living in Columbus. I graduated from Georgia Southern University and moved straight to El Salvador and was on the missions field there for one year. When I got back to the states I did an internship with the International House of Prayer (IHOP) in Atlanta for 3 months and now I am living in Columbus working with kids part time.

Some of my favorite things:
Laughing, chocolate ice cream, missions, reading really good books, kids, and playing volleyball

I can't wait to meet all of you awesome girls in person and experience this trip with each of you.
It's going to mark each of our lives. I am ready!!

Almost there!

                                                                                  Source: flickr.com via Jenna on Pinterest

We have finally reached the month we have been waiting for. May is here! Only 16 more days until we leave. 

Can you believe it? 

A couple of weeks ago I was praying about not knowing what to do, what to expect, how to share the gospel to the people and children of Romania. I was feeling pretty unsure of myself when God just told me to open my bible. So I just turned to a random page and God showed this scripture to me:

I take joy in doing Your will God, for Your instructions are written on my heart. Psalm 40:8

This totally encouraged me. God has placed the instructions on our hearts whether we know it or not. He has prepared us for what we will experience.


I'm continuing to pray for all of us, the children, the country. What visions, scriptures, words has God been laying on your heart this past week? Let's share!

1Thessalonians 3:9-13

How can we thank God enough for Romania in return for all the joy we have in the presence of our God because of Romania? Night and day we pray most earnestly that we may see Romania  again and supply what is lacking in Romania's faith. Now may our God and Father himself and our Lord Jesus clear the way for us to come to Romania. May the Lord make Romania's love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else, just as ours does for Romania. May he strengthen Romania's hearts so that Romania will be blameless and holy in the presence of our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all his holy ones.

Praying! (Week 2)

Thank you ALL, again, for your continued support! As we enter the second week leading up to our trip, we are focusing our prayers on the individuals in our country (Acts16:6-10, Colossians1:9-11). 


There are three main points we are focusing on:
o For God to continue prepare our hearts for this Mission Trip, to open up His Word to us, what He wants to teach us on this trip, over flowing Love for Romania (Continuing last weeks prayers!)
o To give us specific vision of what we will be doing

o Colossians1:9-11 for the missionaries we will be working with and for ourselves


If you are reading this, please just take a few minutes to join with us in prayer for these things. The Georgia Southern ReachEurope team will be meeting Thursday at 7pm to pray -- we would love for you to join us in prayer wherever you are during that time!! 


Thank you all again for your support!

Join us in PRAYER! (Week 1)

To our many wonderful supporters:

Thank you all for your support thus far! We would love for you to continue to support us with your prayers! In these four weeks leading up to our trip, we are praying for specific things. We would love for you to join us in praying for these things! 

During week 1 (which technically ends today, but nonetheless), we have been praying for our specific countries (Romania in our case). 

We have been praying for these specific things and focusing on 1 Thessalonians 3:9-13:

o For God to Prepare our hearts for this Mission Trip

o To Open Up His Word to us

o To give us specific vision of what we will be doing

o To begin to reveal to us what He wants to teach us on this trip

o Our love for Romania would OVERFLOW like Paul’s for Thessalonica (vs.12)

If you're reading this, would you take just a few minutes to pray for each of those things? Thank you! We cannot do this without your prayers!!

Rachel P and the rest of the ReachEurope Team!!