Estoy aqui!

Hey friends,

Just a quick update. I have arrived safely with smooth flights and luggage intact to the DR! Thanks so much for your prayers and outpouring of love on my birthday. Mi cumpleano did not go unnoticed here either-- in fact, I am fairly sure that everyone on this trip will forever associate me as the birthday girl. Once we had arrived at the place we are staying in Jarabacoa for the evening, they celebrated in true Dominican style: a delicious cake and cups of water poured over my head.

I have really sensed my "chosenness", if you want to call it that, since being here. I feel like God has been confirming my calling here in minute yet intimate ways in my heart, and that has been wonderful. I had the opportunity to try some Spanish today, and I wasn't too rusty! I have thoroughly enjoyed being back in this country: the smell hit me first. I just love it. So. Much.

Anyways, I am getting along with the team of other interns just fine. They are a pretty great bunch. I will be leaving for my specific site with the two other interns, Landon & Cara, on Thursday afternoon.

Well, gotta go! Please pray for my intentionality in building relationships, especially those cross-cultural.

Talk more soon!

Con mucho amor,

Abby

Threshold

I am finding myself on the brink of a brand-spanking-new adventure. I just read over the contents of this blog (started over 3 years ago...I can hardly believe it!) and I am in awe of how faithful God has been to me. He sees the big picture, when all I could see at various points of time throughout these years were my hardships or struggles, looming bigger than I.

I don't know what these next 6 weeks hold. I have fluctuated between pure excitement, bubbling over and threatening to spill over into the lives of others - - - and my own insecurities, haunting me and weighing me down.

I am so often the one who holds myself back. I don't want to give in to the lies anymore. I am sick of listening to those voices. God says differently, and I desperately want His truth to lodge itself deep in the recesses of my heart.

No. Matter. What.

I am excited to be the living hands and feet of Jesus this summer. I don't know the challenges it holds. There is a degree of seriousness with which I find myself approaching this summer. I am tentative about it, because I feel the heavy weight of the ways in which these 6 weeks could drastically change my life and my future.

I am hoping for that. To gain a sense of direction in regards to the next steps God has for me. I was telling a friend the other day that my future seems murky: there is something there, but either the waters have not yet stilled enough for me to make out the image under the surface, or I am not sufficiently close enough to it yet. I am okay with this. Let me not forget: the image is still there. It exists. I don't know its intricacies and details, coloring and patterns quite yet. But I know it will all come together soon: the snatched glances and blurry outlines. He always gives me a clear vision and sure footing. I have always had a keen sense of when He has made the way smooth and clear for me- whether it be in a speaking engagement, project, or decision.

This trip, this internship has been that way for sure. Smooth sailing from day one. Steady growth and now I am but waiting to throw all my stuff in a suitcase, board a plane, make my connecting flights, and step foot onto the sandy terrain of La República Dominicana as I simultaneously step into what He has graciously prepared for me this summer.

I invite you to join me on the journey, friends.