New adventures

Hello sweet friends and family!! It has been over a year since I wrote here. What a year it has been. I wanted to take a moment and update you guys on what Gods been up to! I hope you find encouragement and relatability here. Please stay to the end to hear of some exciting ways you can be praying for me!

First, what's been going on in my heart?

• This past year has been one of my hardest. I think as you grow older with God, you just realize more the weight of your own sin and the war (not against flesh and blood) becomes ever evident around you. The biggest battle I've faced this year is my own flesh. It has weighed me down and I have felt like a complete mess for so long. This is great news because I have been forced to rely on the Lord's goodness, strength, and righteousness above my own.

• I have experienced a long battle with health issues and that has been so hard to deal with. Just not feeling physically great everyday. But God is good in it and it definitely makes me long for heaven more.

• Relationships have been harder for me this year than they've ever been. As most of you personally know me, you know that I am a naturally outgoing and positive person. Friendships have never been particularly hard for me which I am SO grateful for. This year God has just pushed me in so many ways to love in difficult situations. He has revealed to me the many ways I have loved people wrong my whole life. (that was great news to hear ;D) I have realized patterns of "loving" out of selfish, shameful, and bitter motivations. This is some ugly and real stuff that goes on in my heart y'all. Jesus' love is my greatest example and I come nowhere close to being able to love like this. It has been a slow process of Him teaching me His ways but it has been beautiful to practice being a slide line observer of His great ability to love on others.

• This year God has highlighted the importance of being active in Spiritual community. The fall semester I had no regular spiritual community and I felt so alone, like I was drowning. I just went through the same motions of going to work, school where Jesus was a name laughed at, and back again. I was exhausted relationally from gap year and I became completely burnt out just trying to love people and even try and spiritually disciple others when I had absolutely nothing to give. I tried to do it on my own and I was a MESS. It is extremely dangerous to try and mentor other when you are completely empty I don't recommend it. It hurts yourself and the others around you. I started learned to say no. Y'all this is HARD. I realized my need for space and I found sanctuary in alone times with God. I like to call them date times with Jesus - nothing super fancy though, just me and God with me usually sobbing so hard I couldn't speak. It is in HIS PRESENCE we are fully known and fully healed. Thankfully, second semester I got to join a women's Bible study and that regular accountability was very much needed.

• Phew that was a lot. God is so merciful and patient with me. There is endless grace available for His children.

What else has been going on?

Personal life updates:

• My family hosted a young German exchange student this year (16 years old) and that was such a sweet and challenging journey for me. So many blessings.

• This year I finished my associate in Fine Arts degree at my local community college! I met some really cool people in my classes that I never expected to be friends with. I learned how to be proud of my differences by being a daughter of Christ and living differently from the world. I REALLY enjoyed all my classes and I just had so much FUN! School was never enjoyable for me growing up so its such a wild blessing that I just got to take art classes and explore the passions God has given me!! I made some really cool friendships and I am a little sad that season is over:(. I also just loved exploring the downtown of my city more! I've grown in love for my roots and where I was born. North Carolina is so green and my city is so diverse. Thank God for all these sweet blessings!

• I've enjoyed time with my family! Also, I am SUPER grateful for my jobs. I am a volleyball coach and its actually the best thing ever. I am so passionate about that job and genuinely so excited to go to work ever time. Also I have had a lot of fun at my chick-fil-a job:) The people are great!
  

Exploring Charlotte, time in the Word, and creating for school!

Camping in beautiful NC, sweet family times, and SNOWBOARDING!!

Went on several youth retreats volunteering with my church :), middle photo is Paula German exchange student and me and little sis, right photo is some of my photography featuring the fact that I played ping pong every week.

Top photo is when I visited Ecuador with a friend I made at school. She invited me to visit her family and it was the coolest opportunity!! My first time in central America. Second photo is taken on my Nokia flip phone! I challenged myself to a month without a normal cellphone and bought a dumb phone;). It was so rewarding!

Moving forward?

• In August I am moving to Boone, NC! I will be attending Appalachian State University and transferring in as a junior:). I have grown in excitement for this opportunity! I will be living off campus with some sweet family friends who love the Lord. I am studying Fine Art Photography which is SO FUN!! I am excited to get plugged into a local church and invest in the lives of the students around me! Please pray that I would represent Jesus well in that place.

• Even sooner than August however is the fact that I leave for Málaga, Spain TOMORROW. Some of you already know about this awesome opportunity, but I am so blessed to say I am a part of an amazing team of 11 or so people who are going to Spain! We are going to support a local church by hosting an English camp to build connections and relationships! God graciously supplied all the funds I need (thank you for all who joined in this mission with me!) and I am so excited to see what He will do in and through me on this ten day trip. I really need your prayer. That God would prepare my heart for what He has for me, that I would put my desires to the side and honestly desire to love in the name of Jesus, for energy and a clear mind, and for the conversations that will happen - that God would speak!

• After this upcoming season of finishing my school in the US, I plan on prayerfully pursuing full time missions! I dream of joining an organization and doing a two year stint overseas. I have fallen in love with North African or Middle Eastern culture already, but I really just long to live in another country and learn the language and all about the people and culture. I hope to use the technical skills of photography I will learn in school to paint God in a beautiful light and proclaim how good he is! I love telling stories through my artwork and documenting the glory of Jesus our Good Shepherd capturing his sheep. I want to share the beauty of family and culture, make voices heard, share real things like suffering, and use media to point those who are hurt into the only set of arms that can comfort them fully. I desire to continue traveling and meeting people to pour out Gods love on them! We often forget the fact that as believers we have SUPER POWERS. Every time you walk into the room you could be the only person who carries the Spirit with you. And what weight that is!! That the God of the universe chose to dwell within us! Don't think less of that than it is. We can walk in power everyday sharing that light within us.
  

God has so many other exciting opportunities coming for me and I still can't believe I get to live out my dreams of traveling the world and telling people about Him.

Thank you so much for always lifting me up in prayer. It is an AWESOME and very unique feeling to know I have a family of believers behind me. God has blessed me in so many ways through you all and I pray I would go out and be a blessing to the world! I still can't believe this is the life I get to live, God is doing so many good things that I just get to witness!

I hope you enjoyed this long, random, and rambling update. I hope my stories remind you that God is GREAT in our weakness and he absolutely loves to pour out his love on his children. After all, I am not so special, but the One I serve sure is! :))

Please feel free to reach out with any questions, or I would just love to hear from you!

With love,

Megan <3