Help Support Missions and Look CUTE!

A dear friend of mine makes the most adorable purses.  I remember complementing the one she was wearing and was shocked to find out that she both designed and put it together herself, and even more surprised when I learned that it was made completely out of recycled bike tire tubes and other refurbished materials! See for yourself how cute Flat Tire Purses are by clicking here! 

The greatest part of her business is that 10% of the profits go towards missions. This year, she has chosen to support my ministry to students in the Dominican Republic through Flat Tire! So please check out www.flattire.us and share it with your friends and family!

3 Weeks left in the U.S.!

While I still have 3 weeks in the states, I will be leaving my home in Vegas in 2 weeks to spend a couple of days saying goodbye to friends and family in Phoenix, then it’s off to Chicago for briefing where our team of five will unite for the first time.

For those of you who are keeping up with my support goal updates, you’ll be glad to know that as of today I am at 79%! My one time gifts goal is overflowing (praise God!), but I still need $600 in monthly support. If you know ANYONE who might be able to meet this need by pledging some amount in the next two weeks, let me know how I can reach them at Jessica.Wright@uscm.org.

On another note, I’m appreciating how God is spiritually preparing me for this trip. He showed me something encouraging today in Acts 15:1-21 about when Paul approached Peter, James, and John, requesting an alignment of belief that the message of the gospel was for both the Gentiles and the Jews. Clearly, Christ intended these “pillars of the church” to minister to the Jews. But the Spirit had other plans for Paul. A previous persecutor of those in the faith, God redirected Paul’s passionate hatred into a passionate messenger of the gospel—specifically to the Gentiles. To me, this so illustrates the body of Christ and how each of us was uniquely designed to minister to people and bring God glory. In the past, God has chosen me to be a witness to freshmen women at Arizona State University. Now, God has equipped and called me to minister to students in the Dominican Republic.

What are your unique gifts and how is God calling you to use them in carrying out His second greatest command: “Love your neighbor as yourself?”

Ask and You Shall Receive

A week ago I was at 27% of my support goal. Today I am now at 43%!!! And that’s just counting received support, not pledges! I learned a great lesson this week. As I was making my calls to everyone and anyone I knew to share my ministry and invite them to be a part of my support team, TWO of them said they’d give simply because I’d asked. One person had been looking for a church to call home for the last several months and in the meantime had held on to her tithe. She was excited to hear about what I was doing and glad to be able to contribute in a big way to help send me to the Dominican Republic—simply because I’d asked for her help! So even though it feels awkward and can be draining, I will boldly continue to ask others for their help and let God do the providing.

Changing Focus

I know it’s been a long time since my last post, but I realized that I need to get back in the habit of blogging to keep my friends and family updated throughout the year. This means I will be changing the focus of this blog (which was previously just about a bunch of random things that happened in my life) to what God is doing through my journey of ministry in the Dominican Republic with Campus Crusade for Christ.

If you haven’t heard much about my ministry, you can read more about it here. God began to lead me towards doing a year long missions trip to the DR last November at Crossroads conference where Campus Crusade staff members showed us options for ministry post graduation and what living out our faith outside of college would look like. There, I heard some students share what happened when they went on the first summer project to the DR and was inspired by how God is moving in the hearts of students in Santo Domingo. In the four weeks they were there, they saw 60 people come to know Christ! The soil is ready to be tilled. Meanwhile, I was looking into teaching abroad—in a Spanish speaking country, which I was really passionate about—and considered teaching math at a missionary kids school in Spain. I began to wonder, “I hope I am able to disciple some of my students and be a part of their spiritual lives…” That’s when I realized that my passion lied more in sharing the Good News than in sharing the quadratic equation :)

So currently on my journey, I am in the process of raising support—yes, I have to raise my entire year’s worth of funding before I can go—and am in Colorado for the leaders’ training. So far, raising support has really challenged me to learn how to articulate the vision for this ministry and to be bold in asking others to support me financially. And God has been faithful! Not only by providing me with donors towards my financial goals, but with encouraging conversations with potential partners as I am sharing this ministry. My favorite story so far is while one of my dear family friends was over at our house for game night, she became distracted and shared with me how God was speaking to her heart to trust him with her finances. She also said that God had been laying on her heart a very specific—and large—amount that seemed crazy! But in her obedience, she gave and prayed over my ministry and the team that would be coming with me. On top of that, she has been working towards gathering some of her contacts together for a night where they can come together creatively and hear about my ministry, which leads to more opportunities to gain partners! It was just really cool picture of what a “ministry partner” looks like, and that they truly are for me and are a huge part of God’s work.

Like I said, I’m currently in Fort Collins, Colorado and it’s my first time in Colorado ever! It’s gorgeous. We had a BBQ by these mountains and a reservoir which was beautiful and are going to get more outdoors experiences later this week! Yay for nature! 

Where Have I Been? Where am I Going???

It's been a while since I've posted here, but it's about time for an update! List of exciting things to come in the near future:

Within the next...

1 Week: Finish student teaching!!!
2 Weeks: Graduating from ASU!
3 Weeks: Going to Maui with Lindsay and staying (for FREE)with Bobby and Sarah!
5 Weeks: Europe with my Daddy!
2 Months: Raising support for...
3 Months: Dominican Republic!
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The most recent and significant news is that I am officially going to spend a year (August to August) in the Dominican Republic as an intern with Campus Crusade for Christ. While I'm not basking in the Caribbean sun (and humidity), I'll be at Universidad Autonoma de Santo Domingo, reaching students for Christ! I'll be a part of the very first team to spend a year there and can't wait to share with the students the unending treasures available to them in Christ. The best part is that I won't be alone. I am being sent with a team of others who God has also laid this passion to serve on their hearts. The even more exciting part is that I get to bring part of my ASU family with me...Rob, whom I've been doing ministry with for the last year and a half has also been called to go! Lots of things to look forward to; lots of things to be trusting God with.
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For God has not given me a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power and love and self-discipline. 2 Timothy 1:3

The last spring break

I'm about to leave for my last spring break (as a student anyways). It's a weird feeling. Couldn't it also be that picking up my maroon cap and gown sparked my nostalgia? I nearly broke out in tears when I walked out of the bookstore carrying that thing. Admittedly, what kept me from crying was looking around at all the other people walking to class and not carrying a cap and gown. I didn't really envy them :)
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One thing I'll always treasure though from my college experience is the bonds I've made with my roommates. I've been blessed that whatever place served as home, whether it was Hassayampa dorm, lakeside condo, or crummy apartment, it has always been a sanctuary, a place where I could retreat. Spending time with Lindsay, Jen, and Bekah has been so refreshing. Tough day in class? I don't mind doing it all over again after I've baked something tasty and taken crazy pictures with Lin. Frustrating day student teaching? My smile finds its way back to my face after laughing with Jen (and occasionally treating ourselves to shopping). Feeling like I'm all alone in this world? I can count on Bekah to be spontaneous and get out of the apartment. I thank you Lord for answering my prayers to be loved and cared for in such a cool way.

These are a few of my favorite things...

One of my favorite things about the weekend is that I actually have time in the morning to sit down and enjoy my cup of coffee (with vanilla creamer of course). Instead of having to use my travel mug (which is pretty cute), I get to use one of my amazing coffee mugs! All of them have been given to me by someone else and they are all different. I never want to have a set of matching coffee mugs. That takes the fun out of life. It may sound weird, but I get really excited about choosing which one I'm going to use in the morning.

Getting Organized

I am going to attempt making some meals ahead of time and freezing them. Call me a mom, but it will make my life a lot easier. Since I know absolutely nothing about how to freeze foods, this website helped a lot: http://busycooks.about.com/library/lessons/blfreezer.htm
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Oh the places you'll go...

To add to a previous post...
You know you're a college student when you choose places to eat based on what coupons you have. For example, you really want ice cream. So your roommates decide to make a night out of it and take advantage of buy one get one free scoops on Mill Ave. But when you're almost there, you realize no one remembered to actually bring the coupon, so instead of wasting gas to go back to the apartment to get it, you just go to the source (ASU) to get another coupon book. Easy right? After fifteen minutes of driving Jen's car through Forest Mall, dodging bicyclists, students, and campus security, we finally had another coupon book. And ice cream never tasted better :)

You know you're a college student when...

...you're too cheap to get a haircut and end up doing it yourself.

Thank goodness I was paying attention to my hairdresser back in the day.