1/3/15 Prayer Requests

Happy New Year! Praying that your 2015 is a year of deeper intimacy with the Lord.

Just wanted to send out a quick update. As always, thanks for traveling this road with me.

– FUNDRAISING: As some of you know, my goal is to meet with at least 100 different people. As of today, I’ve met with 26 people! It’s been an encouraging time so far. I’ve enjoyed re-connecting with people – family friends, UCLA friends, church friends, etc. I took off the past 1.5 weeks to meet with people in the Bay. I also rejoined Facebook! You can pray for my meetings… that God gives me favor with people and that I am funded quickly! Currently, I’m at a whopping 6.7% … but still have lots of people to follow up with. I’ve received $1,700 in one-time gifts, which is enough to buy my plane ticket to Manila! (New staff training is taking place in Manila in June 2015.)

– WORK: Not only will things be crazy because I was out of the office for so long, but on top of that, we moved into a new building and everything will be in boxes. I am feeling pretty anxious about Monday morning. I’m also not sure when I should transition to two days off per week (currently I’m taking Fridays off). I need to think and pray about this… keep me accountable!

2014 in Review

  • Applied and got accepted to Servant Partners!
    >> Went to Nicaragua in mid-September to mid-October with the new interns
    >> Started fundraising in earnest in November
    >> Began mentoring two women (interns)
  • Attended 7 concerts… Jason Mraz + Raining Jane, David Crowder, and Audrey Assad really exceeded my expectations and were magical experiences.
  • Increased work responsibilities – I traveled for work for the first time! Felt very professional.
    • Went “part time” in November (aka. I’m only working four days a week now)
  • Experienced my first (and hopefully last) hangover
  • Turned 27 years old
  • Started fasting once a week – praying for family dynamics
  • Traveled to Orlando (Harry Potter!) and Portland (foodie and hiking paradise!)
  • Went on 6 first dates

11/26/14 Prayer Requests

‘Twas the night before Thanksgiving… oh yeah! Hope you all have a fantastic holiday.

Here are some pressing prayer requests:

– I’m getting sick! 😦 Feels like it might be from the enemy because I have a key fundraising meeting this weekend [meeting with my home church to ask for their support]. Please pray that I recover quickly.

– The last time I saw my dad’s side of the family, I encountered a lot of push back about SP. Please pray for my conversations with them – that I would have favor with them. I am going to be sharing a photo slideshow of Nicaragua.

– Things at work have been very intense. I feel like the fate of the company is on my shoulders, and I feel super guilty for taking time off to fundraise. Please pray that the load at work lightens and that I am able to clearly see what my responsibilities are.

11/14/14 Prayer Request

– I didn’t work today! In my previous post, I mentioned that I was going part time in November. Well, that hasn’t really happened yet because work has been crazy. However, I took today off! I will probably take off Fridays for now. I’m grateful that my work is letting me take time off and that I had the self-control to pull away from work. I’m also grateful that a new person was added to my department (an answer to prayer). The more stable the department is, the easier it will be for me to leave.

Please pray that my department gets to a point where it is running smoothly so that I feel free to take off two days a week.

– I started mentoring two of the interns, Priscilla and Megan! I’m looking forward to my times with them.

Please pray for our times together – that God would use me to speak love and truth.

– In the past couple of weeks, I’ve met with five potential donors. The meetings have been encouraging and helpful (one IV staff gave me pointers). My boss is letting me use his iPad for my donor presentations, which is AWESOME. I got my first $100/ month donor! My goal is to meet with one hundred different people. Also, I will be meeting with my home church over Thanksgiving! And I just bought business cards! Apologies for my scattered thoughts – there is just a lot to say and lots that I’m excited about.

Please pray for upcoming donor meetings, especially the one with my home church. Pray that people would be excited about the vision of Servant Partners and would desire to give generously!

Nica Reflection

Takeaways from Nicaragua:

  • Theme of being humbled and lifted up – learning humility by serving at Brittany’s house and being lifted up by my tutoring family and the church in Nicaragua
  • Theme of the church as one body – united with the church in Nicaragua and also the SP staff in Nicaragua; we are received and sent; really cool to read Paul’s letters as we ourselves were visiting a church; themes of unity in reading Ephesians/ Philippians/ Colossians; the image that all of God’s people will bow at His feet in the end
  • Renewed desire for simplicity – Over the weekend, I donated stuff and streamlined my room so that it’s less cluttered
  • I want to keep practicing Spanish… need to figure out how to do this

Praises:

  • Keo’s parents are my first official donors! Grateful that they initiated with me – I didn’t ask at all
  • I’m going part time in November to focus on fundraising!!! Some of you may know that I requested to go part time, but I wasn’t getting a straight answer from my boss. Today he asked, “Oh, so when are you going part time?” as though it was MY decision to make! Also, during this conversation, my supervisor reminded me that I would have to figure out my own health insurance, since I have to work 30 hours to qualify for my work’s insurance. My boss told my supervisor to figure out a way for me to stay covered by the work’s insurance… we’ll see! Grateful for my boss looking out for me.

You can pray for my work – I came back to a hurricane of responsibilities, deadlines, and emails. Feeling pretty anxious and stressed.

9/15/14 Prayer Request

1) One of my main goals is to learn and practice Spanish. It’ll be super useful when I come back to South LA, and I want to model language learning to the interns. However, I fear failure, and though I’ve grown a lot over the past few years, it still lingers. There’s also this voice in my head telling me that I suck at languages and will never be able to master another language. Please pray that I am bold, willing to look foolish, and willing to make mistakes. You can also pray that God gives me the gift of Spanish. 🙂

2) Please pray that I would give myself fully in Nicaragua and not hold back. In reflecting about my orientation in Manila in 2010, it wasn’t a joyful and life-giving time for me, like it was for most of my teammates. Like I mentioned, I think my fear of failure held me back, and I also didn’t bond much with the locals (I also didn’t know how to relate to kids/ youth, period). I’m afraid that Nicaragua will be Manila 2.0 – that I’ll feel stuck, shy, and guarded. I think I have to cling to truth – that I’ve grown in relating to kids (3 years of kid’s ministry under my belt!) and that I’ve faced my fear of failure many times (biking, cooking, etc.).