My heart is about to get stretched farther...

 

The past couple of weeks my heart has been attentively listening to a sweet, gently voice of my Savior who has been laying opportunities, truths and wisdom in it.  One was the opportunity to speak at elementary chapel and the lesson that He taught me through the message He gave me to share {there's a blog post about it here}. And the one I am most excited about right now is the deep desire He placed on my heart to go on a short-term mission trip with high schoolers from my school.
{My school is dedicating one school week for our first ever Week Without Walls. This where our students will learn what's outside the boundary of a.classroom through different service projects.} Yes, I am an elementary teacher, but the awesome thing about teaching at a small Christian school is that you are all in one building and you get lots of opportunities to interact with both “schools”. And then one benefit of having five students this year is that it is easier to find someone to watch my little ones for a week. And I know that they will be in good hands! J

So the end of February through the beginning of March you will find me in Nairobi, Kenya having the opportunity to share the love of Jesus to those God places near me.  I can’t even contend my excitement right now. I am smiling from ear to ear as I write. I am believing in God that this trip will be the beginning of something new in my life.

During this trip my team and I will provide reading glasses and share the Lord in the Ngando Slum, tutor children and help with some cleaning projects at the New Hope Initiative which runs an elementary-middle school in the Kiberia slums and we will just love on all those who we come across. It is going to be  ahard trip seeing so much injustice but this is what God has called us to do to bring His love and justice. Micah 6:8 says "And what does the Lord require of you, but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with you God..."  {This is the verse God lay on my heart for my 23 year of life and it is coming more into practice now through this trip! Wow, God you are so GOOD!}  I can’t wait to see God do a mighty work in the lives of the students I am taking as well as my own and those we love on.

 

This trip does come with a cost of about $2100/person and I am trusting that God will provide faithfully for each member on our team. I am praying right now that the minute we go to buy our tickets the prices will drop tremendously as this is our biggest cost right now! Boo! More specifically one member of the team has a deep desire to go, but financially it is totally out of the question. As I was talking with her I felt the Lord tell me to tell her that we need to faithfully believe that He will provide for both us to go. I promised her I would do whatever I could to help her go. I believe that if God has clearly laid it on your heart to go somewhere that He always knows how it will financially be paid for even when it seems so crazy and so out of reach. We have a God who does the impossible {my second graders always remind me of this during bible time}! This student is one of the high school girls that I have the privilege of mentoring and coaching  in soccer. She has a huge heart for others, but mostly important our God. She is from Africa and has the desire to serve in her "home".  I am so excited and feel so privilege to be able to go on this trip with her and see how God uses her to reach His people.

So, would you like to partner with this student and I as we believe and pray that God will faithfully provide?!

Here are some ways you can partner and support us:

1)     Pray for the country of Kenya and missionaries already there working to bring God’s love to this nation.  Pray that our team unites and has our eyes focus on what God’s desire is for us during this whole trip. Pray that we would look to God and courageously follow where He leads. Pray that finances would not hold us back from experiencing God in a different way and that we would take a step of faith in trusting Him.

2)     Give: If you feel God laying it on your heart to support this student (I have told you about) or myself you may give by sending a monetary donations. There are three options for you to choose from to give whatever the Lord is laying on your heart!

1.  You can write a check out to ICS made payable to ICS Kenya Trip.

2.  You can wire money to:
NAVY FEDERAL CREDIT UNION -
CHECKING ACCOUNT # 7018297239
ROUTING NUMBER #256074974
ACCOUNT NAME: INTERNATIONAL CHRISTIAN SCHOOL – PYEONGTAEK

3.  You can go online and make a donation.
(www.gofundme.com/ICSPKenya)
 

3)     Pray and Give! :)

Thank you for considering and prayerfully asking the Lord how you can partner with us. Your support any way you can mean so much and will be much appreciated. Please let me know if you have any questions or want to know more about this opportunity. I would be more than happy  to talk (skype), email or facebook with you!

And of course check out the blog periodically to check for updates on fundraising, the trip and reflection once we are back. I just CAN’T wait. Africa has always be in my blood (thanks, dad)! May God receive all the glory from this opportunity in our lives!

Love, Daniella

 

This is my prayer as I prepare for this opportunity...

 

 

Fight for You

 

My prayer this year as I continue to teach at ICS-P!

A couple of weeks ago I had the privilege of speaking at our elementary chapel. As always I get so nervous and pray over and over again that God would use me even though I feel so inadequate. And every time God uses my chapel messages to speak to my heart in amazing ways. {my prayer is that God also speaks deeply to my audience hearts as well and I know He does because He is always working in our hearts}.   

The message that God laid on my heart was speaking about Jehovah Maginennu which means The Lord my Defence and how words can hurt us so badly.  God promises to defend His people in all situations as long as we put our trust in Him even when people say hurtful things to us or awful things happen, but God DEFENDS. It may not be right away. It may not be in the way we thought or we may not know until we reach heaven, but God says “I will defend you-put your trust in me.”

This message gave me peace. It gives me something to hold onto. Something to cling to and pray each day as I teach at ICS-P. My heart gets hurt a lot by hurtful words, or actions and our greatest accuser, Satan but I am choosing to cling to my Savior who speaks so gently to my heart to just be and He will take care of it all. My Jehovah Maginennu will defend me!

Love, Daniella

 

P.S Be on the lookout for another blog post this week with some awesome goodness in it that I want you to know about!  

Embrace the New. Reflect on the Old.

As we say good-bye to 2014 and hello to 2015 my mind has been on reflection mode; thanking God for all the goodness of the year, processing through the hardships and anticipating what 2015 will look like. And yes, this is about a month late, but who’s counting?! 2014 ended with a bang and 2015 started out awesome because I surprised my family for Christmas and spent 2 lovely weeks with my sweet sweet family who embraced me with their deep love and encouragement.

HIGHLIGHTS FROM 2014

GREATEST LESSON LEARNED: That Jesus is all I need. This world may be grand. This world may be tough. This world may be always learning, but one thing is constant and that is my Savior!

HARDEST THING OF THE YEAR: Leaving family, but knowing God has me in my community for a reason.  

FAVORITE MEMORIES: Coaching high school girls’ soccer. Teaching 2^nd grade. Surprising my family for Christmas. Being in two of my friends’ beautiful weddings. Taylor reunion with the Ladies Lounge. Weekend at J-Fanky’s home. Running with Kristin this summer. Indy adventure with Kat. Swinging in the park with Laura and Brooklyn! Lots of skype dates.  High school lock-in. Book Club. Adventures with Emma. Seoul conquest. 22^nd Birthday. “Christmas Morning” with the Houser's family. Acting out the nativity scene. Many “dates” with Evelyn and Caleb. Women’s ministry events. Bubble Tea with Dereck and Christy one last time. Days alone. Bubble Tea with Nicole. Running ½ marathon in Korea. New apartment. Staff Retreat in the mountains. Christmas market. Going to IKEA in Korea. And so so so many more that I know I am forgetting at the moment, but they will come back to me another time! J

WHAT I LOVED MOST ABOUT 2014: the memories. the growings. the moments of soaking in God’s incredible love for me. the joys among stretching moments.

LOOK FORWARD TO 2015

WANT TO LEARN: how to pray through spiritual battles and not let the things of this world consume my mind, but instead soak in God’s truth always.

WANT TO GET BETTER AT: I so desperately want to get better at resting, relaxing and taking care of myself. I spend so much time taking care of others that I forget about me and drain my body until it screams at me with no energy and headaches. Sabbath days are being strived for this year.

BIGGEST GOAL: Working on praying constantly through-out my day. I want to have that deep imitate relational relationship with my Savior throughout  my whole day.  There is nothing in this world that I can do alone and without HIM!

I am pressing into and holding onto the promises that 2015 will be awesome. There are many unknowns in this year, but I so trust my Savior that He knows the desires of my heart and that following Him is the best thing I can do this year! Happy New Year!

Love, Daniella

One of my favorite holidays snuck up on me this year, Thanksgiving and Christmas is quickly approaching my other favorite holiday. It feels like the days are just flying by with craziness so much to do with so little time. I don’t like this feeling I have decided. I am slowly learning what it means to really enjoy the small moments of day and to not crowd my schedule so much. Of course there can always be more that I can do and want to do, but filling my schedule packed full is not helping me be all that I am supposed to be instead it stretches me thinner. It overwhelms. It makes me anxious. It causes me to wake up at 4:30am. It drains me. It makes my body tell me it is done being busy.

 It is so hard for me to say “no” to people because I tell myself it is being selfish, but God has really been working on this area in my heart. He has placed awesome people in my life to be great examples to me of living a life of less busy. They have given me wonderful wisdom on how to live a life full, but a “different” kind of full. Not a full of busy and things to do all the time, but more of creating space and being more intentional. As the year of 2014 is coming to end and we look forward to what 2015 has I want to be more aware and intentional with what I fill my schedule up with. I want to be able to have the peace and assurance that it is not always selfish to say no and that when I do have those thoughts I need to seek God for what the intentions of my heart are. I don’t have to do everything. Creating space is good. Being intentional is better than accomplishing more things. Loving people around me deeply is more important. Doing what God has called me to rather than building up my resume of what I can do is more important. To be less of me and more of pointing to my Savior is what my soul longs for and is important. I pray that I won’t get in the way of God using me. I pray that I would be less of me and more of Him in my everyday life. This journey of life is a messy, but beautiful one. Always learning, always discovery, always seeking…

My life has gotten too busy doing instead of investing and enjoying so I am. I am going to practice saying “no”. I have a feeling that it is going to be hard and there may be many tears on my end, but I am willing to surrender and allow God to work through this process that He is calling me to. He has been whispering to me for many years… “Daniella, Daniella, [Martha, Martha] you are anxious and trouble about many things, but one thing is necessary.” (Luke 10: 38-42). It is time to surrender to saying “no” and saying “yes” only to my Savior.

Christmas is one my favorite times of the year filled with so many wonderful memories. As we go through each day of this Christmas season let’s not let the busy of the season get in the way of what Christmas is truly about. Let’s allow the schedules to be less and worshipping our Savior to be more. Let's remember to come to Jesus who promises to give us rest. He just ask that we would come to Him. Just come. I am coming, Christ. I am coming.  Happy Christmas!

Love, Daniella

Giving Thanks

“I will give thanks to my Lord

with my whole heart,

I will recount

all your wonderful deeds

Psalms 9:1

 

Giving thanks and having a thankful heart is something that my heart strives for each and every day. I have written many blogs post about this topic and God has continually shown different ways to look at this topic of gratitude.

Gratitude- is a word that fills my heart and makes me feel so warm and excited inside. This year I am so thankful for my Savior. I would not be the person I am today without Him. I still have so much to grow in and figure out, but God is overwhelming my soul with Him. I am so thankful for His grace and love each and every day. I am so thankful for His guidance. I am so thankful that He desires me. He does not need me, but He wants me. He loves me. He likes me and He calls me His own.

Ephesians 2:4-6 says “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespass, made us alive together with Christ- by grace you have been saved- and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.”

These verses speak so boldly to my heart; capturing it and reminding me how much I need my Savior and how much He truly loves me. I am so thankful for my Savior. I can’t say it enough. I am so thankful. He carries me through all circumstances and there is nothing that I can do well without Him (John 15:5). Thank you, Jesus- there are not enough words to express how grateful I am for you and what you have done for me on the cross. You paid my debt with your amazing love. THANK YOU!

My life is full of big and little things that I am SO thankful for. Sometimes I unfortunately take advantage of all that I have, but I am ever so gently humbled by my Savior in those moments.

Thankful for… my family, the Houser’s, friends, my roommates, journaling & blogging, teaching, my students, reading, book club, prayer, shereadstruth.com, thankful list, bible reading, the season of fall, church community, earl grey tea & bubble tea, changing of my heart, homemade granola, sweet notes of encouragement, mail, being creative in the kitchen, connections, running, facetime, small group, and so many things….

Thanksgiving is a wonderful time to remember all that you are thankful for, but I challenge us to take this heart of gratitude each and every day. To live out truly in every circumstances…

Living a life of gratitude is what my soul loves.
 

Love, Daniella 

Half-way

Half-way. I am half way through my new committed time to Korea. Whoa that’s crazy to think about. But that’s not the half-way I am really thinking about these days. These days I am thinking about being half-way through living out the book Seven by Jen Hatmaker. This book has racially changed my life. It has challenged me to really think through how we do some things, how we consume so much and how much we waste and desire a lot. It is reckoning my life for the good.

In this book, Jen picked seven areas that she felt were areas of excess and made seven simple choices to fight back against the modern-day disease of greed, materialism, and overindulgence. She documented her true feelings throughout each month. I love the way she writes- it’s so convicting at the sometime you are smiling and laughing. I love it! Anyways, I have taken these seven things and have arranged them a little differently in my life to fit my schedule and everyday life. So far I have completed almost three months out of the seven and have I learned so much!!!

Month number one I practiced giving away seven things every day. Yes, you read that correctly- seven things every day. That’s 210 items, folks. It was great in the beginning, very freeing and felt so good to be getting rid of the clutter. It was a challenge at times because I don’t have that much stuff since I did move to Korea with just 2 suitcases, but it is amazing how much stuff you do collect over time. This month really helped me to put into perspective to think twice before I buy things. As the month continue on and I had fewer things to get rid of I started getting rid of time by myself (spending it with people), and writing notes of encouragement. It was just a different way to think of “getting rid of”.  The month ended well.  I have tried to continue to live out the lessons that I did learn from this practice of being careful of what I buy and getting rid of things that I just don’t need or use anymore.

Month number two I did my very best to not use seven types of media (tv/movies, facebook, pinterest, Pandora, intsgram, texting*, and using the internet.  *I did text some friends & family to keep update to on some things.

Surprising this month was not as hard I was anticipating. Not using these different types of media allowed for more space to be created for moments of quiet (which are much needed, but I rarely do it), moments of intentional time with people face to face and more time with my Savior. I have gotten into some pretty bad habits of checking facebook often, wasting time on pinterest and posting too much on instgram. Facebook is a great tool of communication, but also a very destructive tool for jealousy and comparing to others. It was hard to not be on facebook in the community that I am living in because so many rely on it for communication, but it was a beautiful month of not comparing me to others. I am still trying to figure out how to use facebook with more caution and not allow the lies of jealousy to feed me while I am on it.  The use of media is still definitely a weakness of mine and something that I need to continue to practice using in moderation…

Month number three has found me wearing a certain amount of the some clothes all month. Confession- Jen (the author) only wore seven pieces of clothing all month, but I just couldn’t do it with my currently lifestyle of being a teacher, running and such. So I picked out 15 pieces of clothing that I have been wearing throughout the month. It hit me this weekend that I am starting to get sick of my clothes, but I have learned a lot through this practice. (I only have one more week to go… yay!) One, nobody even noticed. I asked my roommates- they didn’t. I asked the Houser’s- they didn’t. And these are people that I see almost daily! Oh, my! It has helped me to realize that people really don’t pay attention to what you wear. People don’t really think “huh, didn’t you just wear that last week?” Moral of the month: you don’t really need a lot of clothes to live each day of your life.  I have decided that the money I spend on clothes can very well go to something else that is much more need in someone else life. This month has taught me a lot about being less selfish and more about being humble.

There are four months to go in this journey of learning what it means to conquer excess, greed, materialism, and overindulgence. I am both excited and anxious about the different practices I will be learning from! J  What a beautiful journey it is taking me of looking deeper into my heart and allowing God to show me areas that I need to work and change!

A challenge for you… read the book Seven by Jen Hatmaker! It is a great read!

                                                                                                                        Love, Daniella

the decision

The long awaited decision of what’s next in my life has been made. Through countless hours of prayer, seeking wisdom from others, stressing (I tried not to, but was not very successful), reading God’s word and learning oh, so much I now know where I will be in a year from now. It is such a relief. Through this whole process I have learned so much: 1. I am a horrible decision maker and I need to work on getting better at this… 2. I have learned more about what it means to follow God’s will (my perspective has changed in this area for the better). 3. God loves me and has the perfect plan for me. He does care about the desires on my heart. I just have to trust Him with them. I need to surrender- all of me. 4. Joy in all circumstances is a must. 5. I live by emotions and feelings which isn’t always bad, but isn’t always a good thing either. 6. Seeking wisdom is great and needed, but seeking God and His word is way more important and much needed. 7. God’s true word is so powerful. 8. There are not going to be signs of confirmations painted across the sky like I would love instead it’s trusting and walking in faith. 9. Fighting what God wants is never the easy or right thing to do and once you bind your knees your life is filled with JOY and PEACE. 10. Praising God in all things is so worth it even when your heart is overwhelmed and you can’t hear God’s voice. In those moments you cling to truth that He has given you an anchor to hold onto during these times and He will love you no matter what. I am His and He does have a purpose for me in all things.

Walking in peace in what God has for me this next year...

It has been a beautiful messy journey in making a decision of what’s next, but my journey is not finished yet God is still working in me and I will continue on in this journey of faith. Are you ready to know the decision??!! Drum roll please…. This next year you will find me in South Korea teaching and loving on the students that God places into my life. Yes, you read it right I have decided to stay in Korea another year for round 3.(Three always a charm, right?!)  I just don’t think my time here is over yet.  I don’t want to leave with regret or unfinished work. Am I anxious about this decision- a little bit for a few reasons, but I know with all my heart that God knows the desire on my heart and I can trust Him in them. Am I excited about this decision- yes, I am! There were many amazing options that I was seeking out, but as I was pursuing them I just didn’t feel peace about them. Some of them I would love to do someday so I have definitely tucked them inside in my heart for another season in life maybe?! How did I finally make this decision? Peace. I was fighting the idea of staying in Korea for a number of reasons, but as soon as I allowed the idea to sink in I was overwhelmed with a peace that only comes from God. The smile and joy that I had been missing from my life this last month came flooding back.  Joy in all circumstances is what I am learning these days and I am sure I will need a lot of it throughout this next year.  My prayer is to not allow the circumstances in my life take away from the deep love and joy that my Savior overflows me with daily. To not allow myself or this world to get in the way of God’s will.

Romans 12:2 says “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

Truth. I don't need this world. I need Him. My Savior

 

Well, there you have it. I will be in Korea another year! I will not be in the states for Christmas, but I will be home with my family this summer! J Thank you so much for all your prayers. They were much needed and I felt so much support from those around me. Thank you!

Love, Daniella