40something days to go...

I thought I would get our "blogging" started by sharing a few things with all of you, and I am hopeful you will commit to sharing back to the group through our blog as well.  The purpose of this blog is to give us all a place to share our excitement, anxieties, ask each other questions, pray, give thoughts and words of encouragement and whatever else we want.  It is simply a way for us to come together as a team as the Lord prepares our hearts and we attempt to prepare ourselves for what lies ahead.  It's a way for us to share this experience with friends and family that can't accompany us physically, but are with us in spirit and in prayer, as we get ready here at home by raising money, securing items to take and give to the local people and YL Africa staff, having our shots, getting our passports and paperwork in order and whatever else it is we are doing in advance.  and it's also the way we can share our journey day by day as it unfolds with family and friends once we are actually in Africa.  Your comments can be as short or as long as you like, I just encourage you to share where you are.

For those that don't know me, my name is Anne Genevieve Gallivan (I go by the whole thing - Anne Genevieve - not Anne and definitely not Angie, although AG or AGG or pretty much anything else is fine if that's easier for you.  I am named for both grandmothers and I would hate to leave one out...)  I am a volunteer YL leader at Woodward Academy and I am so excited that the Lord cleared the way and the paved the road that has made this trip a reality for me.

I am blown away by what I hear from the Lord when I slow down long enough to listen, what He reveals to me when I open my eyes to see and what He teaches me when I am a child that is willing to learn.  He breaks me in ways I never knew I needed to be broken, and then He builds me back up IN Him.  Time and time again He proves He knows my heart better than I do, and in every way possible, in ways I could never imagine, He lets me know just how BIG He is, and it is just awesome.

I am stoked for this trip. I can't wait to see what He does in my heart, in your hearts, in the hearts of friends and family who share in this journey with us from home, and of course, what He does in the hearts of the people we meet.  I am praying for huge things from Him. I praying He will put us in the paths of the people He wants us to meet.  I am praying He fills our hearts, minds and mouths with only the words He wants us to speak.  I pray that He will fill each of us with his never ending bountiful love and that we will share that love with everyone we meet.  I pray He will break down the barriers we may face in ways that only He can and that He will not allow us to limit Him - that we will remain ever mindful that HE IS GOD.  I pray that His grace, peace, love, forgiveness, hope and joy will burn so brightly within each of us that it radiates from us, that we will be on fire with the love of Jesus Christ and that His love will be impossible to deny or ignore.

Keep praying - the Lord is BIG, He is HUGE; He has plans for us.  As we are told in Jeremiah 29: 11-14, "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me and I will listen to you.  You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all of your heart." 

Let's call upon Him together, pray to Him together, seek Him together, find Him together and allow Him to use us according to His plan so that we, and all His people, may prosper. 

God Bless,

Anne Genevieve