Hi Everyone!

This past week we had our last meetings in North Carolina at a church called Trinity Friends. Sunday morning we had our usual services and then we had a potluck lunch before having a youth event in the afternoon. Me and most of the team spent around 2-3 hours playing soccer and football with some of the youth of the church. It was so gorgeous! I got a tiny patch of a sunburn on my arm and a lot of the team members had bright red foreheads. :) Almost every service we had throughout the week we saw at least 1 team member from the past (this is Encounter's stomping ground and the place where almost all alumni live). One of the church members this past week video taped every song that we sung so if you would like to you can check some of them out on Youtube! 

Monday morning we had our speeches, which had been delayed for 3 weeks because of snow when we were supposed to have done them and then the next two weeks of no classes while we were at the two schools. The church itself this past week was such a blessing. The congregation was so excited and had looked forward to the week for so long that it was totally refreshing. We had a couple of days that were in the 70's - which was just incredible! 

In the mornings of the weekdays we always have team devotions at 9 and three of the days the devos were led by three of the team guys. The first one was on prayer. Norris was talking about how often we limit our prayers and keep some things to ourselves for reasons of our own, but how through doing that you are limiting God. That led me to ask the question "Why do I limit God?" I mean, He's proven Himself trustworthy how many times? He's proven Himself bigger than my problems how many times? And yet how often do I not come to Him in prayer because I think that I can handle it on my own. One quote from Norris from that day is this: "God isn't offended by your biggest dreams or your boldest prayers. He is offended by anything LESS." 

The secnd devotion that stuck out to me and seemed to be exactly what I needed to hear was on trials.  The main structure of the lesson was the contrast between MY viewpoint of the trial versus GOD'S viewpoint. Our reactions to trials aren't always the best, at least I know mine aren't, but God is always looking at the end result. God has plans for every trial we go through. He doesn't just let us go through hard things to see how we deal with it. He has a specific goal for that trial and your life.  So whether your trial is for the strengthening and growth of your walk with Christ, a change in your character, a learning opportunity or whatever else - there IS a purpose to it. Something that we as Christians seem to forget is that everybody has something that is either happening right now in their lives or has happened in the past that they are dealing with. Personally, I tend to be selfish and just absorb myself with self-pity thinking that my situations and my experiences are somehow worse than anyone elses. How wrong I was!  My trials seem small, insignificent even, compared to others. I need to make sure that I am there for the people that need someone. That I am considering others as more important than myself. I challenge you to do the same. Do what you wish someone would've done for you.

And the last lesson that really stuck out to me this week was on our call to faithfulness. As an Encounter team member I have a cause that I am supposed to be loyal and true to-faithful to.  The commission of the church in 2 Timothy 4 is to preach the Gospel to all nations. The commisssion of us as team members is the same thing. Every time we sing on stage we are preaching a  message. We are fulfilling our "commission". Ardy always tells us that we preach a longer message than he does-and it's true.  Our songs are messages that we are preaching and we as a team need to be faithful in singing them like a pastor would preach. With passion. Whatever your cause is, we all have the same commission as Christians. To preach the Gospel-no matter where we are or what we are doing. 

This current week we are in Asbury, West Virginia enjoying the mountains once again. Please continue to pray for the team as we come closer and closer to our trip to Zambia, and as we continue to raie support. Thank you all for your prayers and for your support! 

In Christ, Anna