A year ago I was celebrating my birthday in Brooklyn with dear old friends along with very dear new ones. I had made it halfway through a “Youthworks” summer and was falling in love with New York more and more every day. But more than falling in love with the city my heart was stolen by the people that I had the honor of meeting over the summer months. Going into that summer I had no idea what to expect. There was no way to predict that I would acquire a bubble tea addiction, that I would learn to parallel park a mini van, that I would learn to shop for 70 + people or that I would end up not being able to eat sloppy joe’s for months. There was no way to know that I would meet one of my best friends and that we would laugh harder than I knew was possible. There was no way to prepare myself for falling in love with the kids in the park or the gut retching feeling of having to leave them at the end of the summer. 
God so very intentionally sent me to New York and the heart that he gave me connected with it in a very unique way and part of it stayed there.
Yesterday I celebrated another birthday, this time with a similar mix of friends in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Yet again, God intentionally pulled me here for the summer and it has been a sweet summer full of surprises. God has given me a wonderful living situation as I prepare to move to Cambodia in August. And as I reflect previous summer’s I have great hope for this coming year. I know that God has hand picked our team and I am so excited to walk through the next two years with them. I know that we are going to face challenges but I know that Christ can help us overcome. There is no way to really prepare for what is waiting for me in Cambodia. I am expecting a lot of laugher and a lot of tears. I am expecting overwhelming joy and overwhelming heart break. I am expecting to encounter deep beauty and deep evilness. I am expecting to fall in love with the people and yet be heartbroken by them at the same time. I expect God to use me in my weakness and grow me more into the woman he wants me to be.This is going to be a year of learning and exploration. 22 is going to be a good year…
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