Kenya: A Journey Begins

Dear loved ones and fellow bloggers,

Two years ago in a high school classroom, God put Kenya on my heart. In my Environmental Science class, we learned about various heartbreaking issues in the country, and how they tangle together. Many Kenyans suffer due to these issues, especially the women. God began planting in me ideas and dreams and an aching need to serve Kenya.

Since then, I’ve been called to take a gap year dedicated to missions. God has used this year to grant me my dream. I’ll be spending February 26 – March 7 in Kenya!! I will be going with a group from Southeastern University, and we’ll be working with the organization 410 Bridge.  410 Bridge is an awesome organization that is devoted to teaching struggling communities how to sustain themselves. Rather than doing all of the work and creating dependency culture, they work with village leaders to recognize a need, develop a game plan, and help the community carry it out. My team and I will be going to a remote village to help a new school get stabilized, and to encourage and spend time with the community! In this next month, we will eagerly prepare ourselves for whatever we may face.

As I’ve prepared for trips in the past, and continue to prepare to serve where God leads me, I am constantly reminded of the importance of community in God’s design for us. In short, I can’t do this alone. I need the prayers and support of the people in my life to prepare me spiritually, emotionally, and financially.

A prayer I’ll greatly need for any missions trip I go on is for emotional health. I’m an emotional person, I feel things deeply, and I’ll be seeing incredible suffering. I know I’ve been called to be heartbroken for the greater good, please just pray for God’s strength in that. Please also pray for the health of my entire team. We’ll be exposed to many new and unfamiliar things, in climates and conditions we are unaccustomed to.

 God is moving in Kenya. He’s moving in me and every member of my team. There will be plenty of reason for the kingdom of Heaven to rejoice, and also plenty of reason for the devil to fight back. My team has faced our fair share of spiritual warfare already, and I’m sure in this next month and a half we will see a great deal more. Please pray for the fortification of faith in each of my team members, and also that God prepares the spiritual grounds of the people of Kenya. 

My financial needs are simple:  I need money. If you are not in a position to support me financially, I more than 100% understand. If you feel led to donate, you can make a tax deductible donation at https://www.seu.edu/giving/.  Click the “missions” option under “Giving Type” and select “Kenya-B” under “Trip Name.” If you prefer to donate by check, make the check out to Southeastern University and write “Angela Roberts – Kenya B” on the info line. Send these to:

Southeastern University
1000 Longfellow Blvd.
Lakeland, FL  33801

If you’ve made it this far into the letter, thank you. I am so thankful for your time, love, and support. If you have any further questions, I absolutely love talking about these trips, so don’t hesitate to contact me.

Blessings,
Angela Roberts ---->

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“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.”

Dr. Seuss

ITALY : Check!

       I spent December 1-21 in Italy! I was awakened to the grimmer realities of Italy. Along with its famed romance, tourism, and history, Italy is also full of poverty, awful violence and corruption, and the shocking tragedies of human trafficking and prostitution. I participated in various kinds of community outreaches, and spent a lot of time under the wing of Mission of Light’s director. I learned so much in my three weeks there, and made some lifelong friends.

“Being confident of this very thing, that he who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Jesus Christ.”

Philippians 1:6

 

 



“Take pride that even though the rest of the world may disagree, you still believe it to be a beautiful place.”

Kurt Vonnegut

 

 

 

 

 

I graduated from high school on June 18, 2014.

 

 

“To speak evil of no man, not to be contentious, to be gentle, showing all meekness toward all men. For we also once were foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another. But when the kindness of God our Savior and his love toward man, appeared, not by works done in righteousness, which we did ourselves, but according to his mercy he saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, which he poured out upon us richly, through Jesus Christ our Savior; that, being justified by his grace, we might be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”

Titus 3:2-7

 

“I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom; Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.”

2 Timothy 4:1-2

 

Seeking God, and getting distracted.

A quick question to my fellow easily distracted Christ-seekers: How have you handled your deficits in attention affecting your relationship with God?

Here are some of my issues. I get distracted when I pray. I HATE getting distracted when I pray. Granted, this is generally only a problem when I pray silently, so maybe the answer is to try praying aloud more often. But I think we can all agree that there are some circumstances where praying aloud just isn't an option. But, here's the greater depth in the dilemma. Private prayer is a one-on-one conversation with the Creator of the universe - God the almighty and all powerful, Ruler of angels and hearts of men and of the mountains and grass of the earth and of animals and rain storms and sunshine - who happens to also be a personal friend of mine. How on earth do I get distracted? It is such an incredible thing that we can do. To just talk to someone like Him, whenever we want. I want to be so present in that conversation. But I always get distracted. I could be pouring my heart out to God, then all of a sudden find myself daydreaming about a conversation I may or may not have with a friend 10 years from now. That is totally not an exaggeration at all. It actually happens all the time. Prayer is so real and God is so present. It's like going on a car ride with God, just to talk.

           My friends and I have this little beach off the bay we like to go to just to talk. Sometimes we get out and sit on the swings, or take our shoes off and walk up to where the water meets the sand when it's warm, but most of the time we just sit in the car with the headlights on the water and talk. I like to think of praying like little beach conversations with God. Yea of course I get distracted when I talk to my friends. But when I lose my train of thought in those conversations, it just leads the conversation elsewhere. In fact it usually leads it into even deeper conversation, just onto a topic different than originally intended. I think prayer like that is awesome. When we pray without boundaries and let ourselves go off on tangents with God, we can end up laying down before Him doubts, praises, and baggage we hadn't before. Which is pretty much what I do with my friends at the beach. Sometimes prayer does happen like that for me. But my issue is that quite often I get distracted in a way that's not like I'm talking to my Friend, but like I'm talking to myself. It makes me so upset because I know that I'm not talking to myself. I am so not alone. God is so very much with me, all the time and when I pray. Sometimes I think I just need a deeper relationship with God, (which is true of all of us, no matter where we stand) and that when I get a deeper understanding of how great He is, it will be impossible for me to get distracted while I pray. That may or may not be true, but in the meantime, I'm still struggling.

And that kinda sorta brings me to my next point. I want very badly to have a deeper relationship with God, but have yet to find a system of bible reading and quiet time that I can stick to. Yes, I'm young, and have lots of time to figure these things out. But considering I have only 18 (almost 19!) years to speak of, I've spent many of them seeking God. (Not only that, but with as little life as any of us have here, I'd hate to waste any of it.) I've tried a million and 5 different approaches to bible reading. But no study book, topic series, or book of the bible seems to change the fact that I forget to read it. All the time. In terms of quiet time/devotions, early this past summer, a good friend of mine suggested journaling to God. It was genius. I loved it and it worked well. I'd arrive at my summer camp job 5 or 10 minutes early (which, if you know me at all, you know is a miracle only possible by the power of God), I'd journal, then I'd clock in. As wonderful as it was, there were two problems.
1) There is absolutely no way 5 or 10 minutes could possibly ever be enough time to spend with God.
2) Summer camp ended.
That journal has been in my trunk ever since. God has been teaching me so much just through living life every day, and through awesome new experiences. But I want to know His Word and to have it to answer questions and address doubts and to guide me as I attempt to figure life out. But I only really have it if I read it.

If you refer back to the top of this post, you'll see that I said I had a "quick" question to ask. That was a lie. This was not quick, and actually much longer than intended. So I'll close with this; I know that God was very intentional with the way that He made me. As He was with all of us. He didn't accidentally make me distracted and absent minded. I know each of my traits has a purpose, and a way to bring God glory. Because of this, I also know that each trait that we think is a flaw is, in fact, not. And rather than trying to fix them or work against them, there are ways to use them to our advantage and to God's glory. I'm just kind of at a loss with this one. But I know I'm not the only who struggles to focus; and there are some of you who are like me, except you've overcome a lot of this already. So I have written this blog post, to call together all (or some) of us squirrelly-brained searchers with a passion for God and some struggles in life. So please contemplate, comment, and continue searching.

With Love,
Angela ---->