Adventure Awaits: When God Calls You Somewhere New

In February, when I came to Guatemala to visit the family, I was struggling so much with why God has called me to live so far away from the family. I began poring out my heart to God and praying for understanding. In that moment I felt Him remind me of the specific things he had called me to... First was to care for children with disabilities and second was to go to Uganda "until I call you somewhere new." I always assumed that those two would go hand in hand for years to come, but I felt as though God was telling me that things were maybe going to change very soon. Naturally my first thought and hope was "Guatemala!!!" and even though I am here right now.... He had a different idea starting in 2018. That night I started to pray that if He had something else planed for me that he would show my dad, so I would know that it was not from my own desires but His. Three days after I began praying about this, my dad asked if my mom and I could go to his office with him to talk for a few minutes. He proceeded to tell me of an opportunity in Liberia where I could oversee the opening of a community of homes for children with special needs. Over the next few weeks we all prayed and talked about it a lot, and we all feel at peace and that this is what the next step is for me. I do not know how long I will be in Liberia, I will be heading there in January of 2018 and will be there for at least a couple years, I am going to go and we will figure it out one step at a time. I may be there for 2 years, then back in Guatemala, or head back to Uganda, or somewhere else, or maybe I will be in Liberia for 15 years... I don't know, but God has called and I am walking.

The plan is to have a large property that we will build individual homes on. In each home there will be a mama or a married couple who looks after 5 or 6 kids. There will also be a community center on the property that will consist of space for everyone to come together for some meals and a therapy area. For all of this Hope for Home Liberia will be teaming up with two other existing ministries in Liberia to further the kingdom of God. My dad will be doing his own blog post before too long explaining the logistics of the ministries and some of the details a bit more, so stay posted for that.

My life in Liberia will be very different from any experience I have had. All things considered I have lived a fairly comfortable missionary life. In Uganda I experienced comfortable living situations but was on my own and had to figure everything out myself. In Liberia I will be joining existing projects so they will be able to show me around and help me navigate life there, but my living situation will be a stretch for me... I will be living in more of a village setting (as opposed to city or small town) and I will be living in a house that has no electricity and no water. This will be super new to me and will be a huge adjustment but I am following the call.

Below is a picture of my new prayer card. On my next blog update I will add a PDF for anyone who would like to print of my prayer card.

Prayer requests:

1. That God will continue to have his hand on the ministry that I am presently doing here in Guatemala.
2. That this time here will be a way to even better prepare for Liberia.
3. That He will help me as the move approaches... It is still months away, but this will be a huge change for me and will need extra help as those changes get closer.

Thank you to everyone who is praying for me and supporting me financially, I need you all now more than ever. God bless.

Sudden move to Guatemala and all the insanity that comes with it...

I am so sorry that I did not get this done earlier, the past couple weeks have been insane. As many of you know, I am now living in Guatemala (again). Before I get into the details of the last 2 ½ weeks I want to take a moment to explain that this move is not me ignoring Gods call on my life. I always said that I was going to live in Uganda until God called me somewhere else, I imagined (and lived as if) that would be for years and years, but back in February, well…. He called me somewhere else (more on that coming very soon). So temporarily, I am in Guatemala to help with my parent’s ministry.

So, here is the breakdown of the past couple weeks….

Because of the orphan crisis going on in Guatemala, Hogar de la Esperanza received permission to open up a second home under the first home’s license. So on March 19^th my parents asked Taryn and I if we would consider heading back to Guatemala earlier than expected to help get the second home started up (because of my experience with the first home, I am ready to jump right, if someone else were to open the home they would require extensive training). We spend the next 20 or so hours praying about it and we felt like that is where God wanted us, so we started preparations. Mom changed our tickets and we got busy with selling stuff, packing everything else, frantic goodbyes…. Lots of insanity. 8 days later (the 28^th) we were on a plane. We landed in DC the following day and spent 2 days with my grandparents (the trip from Uganda to Guatemala can be around 50 hours, so being able to break it up a bit is super helpful), but then on the 31^st we were back on a plane heading to Guatemala. We got here that evening and hit the ground running. We have spent the past few days unpacking and doing any other preparations on the home that can be done. 

Monday, the 27th, the ministry received the key to our new house. While we were doing last minute things in Uganda and traveling home, everyone in the ministry was kicking butt and getting all kinds of work done on the house.... it looks amazing! Here are some pictures of what it is looking like now, doors and windows will be installed (hopefully) today, plumbing was finished yesterday and a fridge was installed. Once the doors are installed will begin setting up the rooms a little better, getting everything in place. Now, we are only waiting to receive kids... Until then, we are continuing to make little changes and adjustments to the house to make transition as smooth as possible. 

Courtyard/ ministry parking

Kitchen (a.k.a my favorite room in the house)

Living room

This will be the dining room and (on the other side of the curtain)
 the changing room/laundry room 

From our roof you can see Hogar de la Esperanza (#1) and on the
other side of our house is Brittney and Joel's place

Mine and Taryn's bedroom

Intern room that is being used as storage right now

Boy's bedroom

Play room

Girl's bedroom

Bathroom

So this is where we are do far, working hard and getting stuff done. Hoping and praying that we will revived kids in the next couple days before the insanity of Semana Santa (Holy week) sets it.


For all my supporters, I know that I am not where I had planed, but I am still doing the work that was planned. If you would be willing to continue supporting me, that would be greatly appreciated. This role that I am taking on is not a paid position so I could really use the continued support. As always, I still need lots of prayer and emotional support, thank you to everyone who is continuing to stand by me as a prayer partner, financial partner, or both. God bless.