#igniteclass8

Looooove having @emdabomb here in Texas with me! How sweet is my Jesus to let my #pfm #igniteclass8 mate come here before I go back with PFM! God is good to me! #blessed #kenyabelieveit (at NASA's Johnson Space Center)

By now, you're probably an hour out from Guatemala. An hour away from meeting the people you'll spend the next year of your life getting to know. You're definitely awake right now wondering about everything that's about to happen and you know something? You're so incredibly brave. The Lord is bringing you on an amazing adventure and I'm so blessed to get to see you grow like this. Guatemala's going to blow your mind. Potter's Field is going to blow your mind. The kids there are going to melt your heart and the Lord is going to show Himself to you in an amazingly real way. Dig in deeper. Rest in the Word. Be submissive and flexible. I'm so proud of you and I can't wait to see a picture of you with all of your classmates in a couple days. You're amazing. ¡Te veo en abril! ♥️ #pottersfieldministries #pfm #igniteclass8 #igniteclass12

#throwback to Montana prayer walks up Big Mountain. It was definitely a blessing to see a Montanan fall. 🍂 #igniteclass8 #afterlight #vscocam #fall #bigmountain #Montana (at Big Mountain Lodge)

I missed my big little brothers 😍💕 They're basically adults now. Jeez. #vscocam #afterlight #familybonding #love #igniteclass8

Small tasks done are better than great plans left undone. My mom said that to me and it's been really good advice. It makes me really happy to have a home for my pictures, even if I don't know where to put them yet. ❤️ #gettingthingsdone #dontaskmeabouttherestoftheroom #dontaskGabbyeither 😎 #igniteclass8

So, for the last 10 months I’ve been in a discipleship program with Potter’s Field Ministries. Basically I’ve been a missionary, and my host country was Kenya. The opportunities I’ve had to learn new things and grow in my relationship with God have been incredible, and usually very unexpected. BUT! There’s one thing that really hit me recently that took me this whole time to learn, and that’s freedom. I think during my training the freedom I found in allowing the Holy Spirit to change who I was began the whole process of God showing me what it means to really be saved and living without the bonds of sin tied to you. Half way through my time in Kenya, I had to leave unexpectedly to attend my Uncle John’s funeral. Up until that point, I felt I was doing well. I was getting into the routine of teaching and planning for classes, and I was getting pretty use to sharing a home with other people. I even had a Pinterest Board for art class ideas. That’s how legit things were getting. But I made a mistake upon returning to my home in Kenya. I placed myself under standards of what I thought my team expected of me, and what I expected of myself. I placed shackles on myself with huge weights that I wasn’t meant to carry, and floundered as I tried to be free from them by living up to those standards instead of giving them over to God. As you would expect from setting standards, I didn’t live up to them and was crushed more and more by the weight of the failure I found myself to be. But I’m not meant to live up to a standard, because it’s not humanly possible. That’s why Jesus came to die. But I never understood how His deep grace reached. He didn’t just die so I can go to heaven, He died so that I can be free. Free from who I expect I should be. Free from what other people might think of me. Free from feeling that I’m worthless if I can’t do everything perfectly. Free from my own condemnation, and free from others’. But what hit me harder than anything else… Was this. I don’t know what the truth really is here, but I might have completely screwed up these last 4 months. I barely allowed myself to walk in the grace I should have. I tried to live up to what I thought everyone expected of me without knowing that there were no expectations. According to my own standards, I might have ended the whole last half of my field time horribly. But God. But God doesn’t see things how I see them. God says I’m free. God says that even if I feel like I didn’t live up to my own standards, it doesn’t matter. I haven’t ruined anything because He can use all things, and He HAS used the last 4 months regardless of me to grow my teammates and I. I can be the biggest mess up yet in my own eyes… and still there’s grace enough for me. I’m free. So I’m going to go home from this point on free from the weight and the high standards I thought I needed to reach, and I’m going to allow God to be God… and work in whatever way He wants to in my life. He uses all things.

Fancy20yearoldwhitegirlcoffeeshots #montanacoffeetraders #igniteclass8 #reentry #tooashamedtotagpottersfield #montana #fall #coffee #lookatthatfancyfoamcrap #yes (at Montana Coffee Traders - Whitefish Cafe)

Theres a creeping fog today ☁🌁🍂 #igniteclass8 #montana #vscocam #afterlight #fall #fog #reentry (at The Big Mountain, Whitefish Mt)