Adjusted Support Letter

Here is an adjusted version of my support letter. Please understand that these minor changes have been made to be Internet-smart and not give out dates, names, etc.

Chaplain Ministries International

Mission Project— Peru 2013

Dear Blog Friends,

Beginning my junior year in high school has made some big changes in my life. After turning 16, and now nearly 17 years old, the future seems pressingly closer and God has given me wisdom on an excellent career to pursue: becoming a wife and mother after God's heart. As my eyes and ears are being awakened more and more to the Bible, Jesus' command to be his hands and feet, given 2,000 years ago, has become significant and a calling to me specifically these last few years of my life. My calling as a woman to be a helper/companion and nurture the next generation has taken wing, and God has graciously provided many opportunities to use my gifts in various places such as volunteering at Bible camp, vacation Bible school, writing children's books, and babysitting.

After my 12-year-old brother Trent died on a skiing accident in 2010, God has awakened me to the reality of eternity and the closeness of it. Separately added after this post is a more detailed story about this great event in my life. One of the chances that God has given me to be a witness to the gospel of my Savior, Jesus Christ, is a short-term mission trip to Peru coming up next summer organized by Chaplain Ministries. The plan is to act as ambassadors of our God to victims of an earthquake in 2007, which left devastation still unchecked today. Our team of six seeks to glorify God by being a light to the world, and in so doing cause his children to grow closer to him and trust him more, as well as strengthen our own faith. Possibilities of specific work we will be doing in Peru will be helping in orphanages, building and fixing structures, and volunteering in vacation Bible school. Only after much prayer and consideration did I commit to join this mission team, and it is still amazing to me how God worked out the details for me to join even through the slim chances!

The needs my team and I have are two specifically: prayer! We need faithful prayer partners from God who will commit to praying for us at least once a week, asking God to work in the lives of the people we will be witnessing to, each of the members of the team for growth in faith and help to minister to others, and the long-term missionaries in Peru. And our other need: financial partners. I am trusting God to provide my financial needs of $3,000. As Paul encouraged in Philippians 4:15-17, he hoped for others to give to further the gospel for their sake of rich Heavenly rewards from God their Father. I look forward to both the prayer and financial partners whom God will provide to further his kingdom, assist me in bringing the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ abroad, and receive blessings in the next life themselves! Would you prayerfully consider partnering with me for the sake of God's eternal glory?

For God's glory,

Alexis

To Peru and Back

One of the few things I nearly promised myself while writing the first post in my blog was that I would not mention anything about my planned first short-term mission trip.

To back up a bit, I want to confess: I have half wanted to start up a blog for years now, but the real push came when my Mom suggested I start a missions blog to keep my prayer and financial partners updated. She suggested I call it, "To Peru and Back," but because of the reason I am about to explain, the name of this post is all I can offer. Though this is the reason I pressured myself to start a blog, God impressed on me that the purpose of this blog is to record God's greatness and the little services he has granted and chosen me to do.

So now that that is cleared up, I want to share with you about the project. I was sitting in cookie time at my church with my friends, talking about all sorts of things. Then another friend sat by us and started telling me about this mission trip a few of the kids her youth group was going on. She was animated and more excited than I have ever seen her -- save when we were seven and I told her our apple trees carried super sour green apples -- and going on and on about the opportunities to serve in Peru with children, churches, women my age, etc. I was thrilled. Not the "oh, that's good for you" thrilled, but I was seriously interested in joining the team. When she told me, "Lexi, you should come with us!" I was just about ready to grab a sweatshirt and fly to another continent with her.

Of course, being under 18 years old and needing my parents' permission to go on an airplane and be with people I didn't know presents a great opportunity to remind me that God is in control of my future, and he is my Master and the Lord of my life, not me. The time that my friend mentioned this trip was a week before the deadline of signing up to be part of the team, and presented only a matter of days to make a life-changing decision.

While I was nearly mentally packed and boarding the plane (even though the mission trip is next summer), my parents bothered to breathe again and shared a few concerns. Lexi, traveling is expensive, this would require all your money from now until then and more. Lexi, your friend's youth group is a few hours' drive away, and attending meetings would be difficult. Lexi, have you prayed about this?

So we all prayed: my Dad, my Mom, and me. Together, separate, and in between. I asked God a for two specific signs to show whether or not he wants me to go. #1: That my friend herself would be going, because at the time her parents were still indefinite. #2: That I would read in the Bible about missionaries in the book I was currently reading, John. Well, during that week I read several passages in John along my daily Bible reading about Jesus sending out missionaries, and a verse specifically where he is telling his disciples to pray that the Lord of the harvest will send out workers (missionaries in the context). That next Sunday, on the deadline, my friend told me her parents were letting her go and her paperwork was in.

Because I just got the paperwork and needed help from my youth pastor, I ran later than the deadline and didn't get my paperwork on time. Hoping they would accept it late, I finished it a few weeks later due to crazy business, forgetting to email, and well, life. But how great of God! Because our team is small, the window of opportunity to sign up was a little wider than first intended, and somehow, God chose me to be a part of the Peru Mission Project in summer 2013, and made a narrow way for me to get in!

I will write more details later, but for now, this is the current mission project I am looking at. What is yours?

 

Meet This Princess

My name is Alexis, and I am nearing my 17th birthday in December. You might ask a person like me why I claim to be a princess after seeing I am not wearing designer clothes, dainty tiaras, or scores of silken yards. I am the princess of a kingdom that this world does not know, and I myself did not know until King Jesus himself saved me from the kingdom of sin and wrath I used to dwell in. My Father's kingdom is not here, and neither are my treasures. For today, I am a pilgrim princess passing through the enemy's territory, on my way home. This place used to be what I called home, where sin runs rampant and hearts are turned away from God, but now I belong to a new kingdom, a new Father, and the God of this universe.

A few of my favorite occupations are attending Sunday school, fictional writing (which I plan to post about later), journaling, playing and composing music, drawing, and drinking tea on cold and quiet days.

Our family consists of two parents who are still in love after twenty odd years, three brothers, and one little sister. Having a big family is very difficult at times and involves a lot of work and energy, both emotionally and physically. But there is not a day in my life that I would ever trade my big family for a small family. The homespun, joyful memories of family and hobby-farming are dear to my heart.

This blog is named Princess Missions because, as God's own daughter, I wish to record all the different missions he has called me to. My ultimate mission is to glorify God in a womanly way by becoming a wife and a stay-at-home-mother and so influence the next generation for my Savior.

But after my graduation, and before I meet my prince, if that is God's plan for me, I want to waste no time in glorifying God through singleness: going on short term missions projects in the act of a sprint before God calls me elsewhere. A few of the specific organizations I am presently considering are WYAM, Operation Christmas Child, and different Bible camps. While many high school graduates are headed off to a college, sometimes without a second thought, I desire to invest my life in learning and studying at home between missions for my dream job: a wife and a mother. Not very common? Not on the list of colleges or job opportunities? You should see some of the reactions I get at presenting this idea!

Still, this will all be worth it in the kingdom and life to come. Like a worker striving at his job because he knows the rewards, I seek to invest much in the next life by sacrificing much in this life. Will you join me?