Praise Report

In the last 10 days we have raised over $3000 towards our trip.  All praise goes to God because I could never have imagined something that big happening and definitely could not have done it on our own will.

Thank you to everyone who has prayed for us, supported us, and just had an encouraging word for us over these past two weeks.  It has meant everything to us.

We are still only about half way to where we need to be so please keep helping spread the word about what we are trying to do.  We appreciate it so much.  A great way is to share this blog with friends and family and have them follow us.

Can't wait to update you again on all the amazing things that God is doing in our lives to make this dream of missions a reality for us.

Meet the Segners!

I realized that some who are reading this might not really know us very well so I wanted to introduce you to my family.

Jason and I have been married for 9yrs, this past Oct 13th.  He is my best friend and I can't imagine being bold enough to do something like a mission trip to Africa without him.  I thank God everyday for having him in my life.

Our oldest daughter, Faith, is with her heavenly father and we can't wait until the day when we get to see her again.

Karson is our Halloween baby and will be 6 this year.  He is such an incredible helper and big brother and seems to be wise beyond his years!

Next is Everett, who just turned 4.  He shares a middle name with my dad and it is so appropriate because he is as silly or sillier than my dad was.  They would have had a blast together if they had been able to meet.  I'll let the pictures speak for themselves!  In one, he is telling his new baby cousin, Isaac, all about what he will teach him.....get ready Heather!

Next is Hadlee, our tomboy princess!  I never knew how much I wanted a girl until we were blessed with her.  I think of her as my little SweetTart because she is the perfect combination of sweet and sassy and probably our toughest kid!  She is also my little mini-me and loves to follow me and do everything I do. (I never realized how much I used my pointer finger in disciplining until I saw her always pointing at her brothers and sending them to their room.  Oops!)

And last, but certainly not least, is our sweet, sweet Pierce, who will be one in Feb.  He is an unbelievably happy baby and proof that God never gives us more than we can handle.  He was our little surprise, even after we thought our hands were as full as they could get for the moment, but we can't imagine life without his sweet, always present, smile.

Standing in the way of Him

We are currently reading Francis Chan's Crazy Love for our home group right now.  A book that I HIGHLY recommend if you have not had a chance to check it out yet.  Anyway, in one chapter he talks about how seldom we think of actually being in the presence of God when we pray, even though that is exactly what we are doing, going before Him.

To help with this recently, before my prayer time I close my eyes and have been trying to get a mental picture of actually going before what I think God might look like.  In my mind, I picture entering a doorway to this HUGE room.  So large in fact that there really isn't walls.  God in my mind is almost like looking at the sun.  Just this large brightness that you just instantly kneel down before.  I picture angels standing behind Him.  Now, I never claimed to know anything close to what this moment would really look like for us.  I just wanted to give you a picture of what it is in my mind.

This morning though, when I was imagining all of this before praying, something happened.  I couldn't get the image of so many people crowding behind me, waiting for their turn to go through the doors.  I kept seeing myself standing in the doorway and, being a rather tall person, all of God's light and glory was being blocked to those standing behind me.  However, when I bowed down before Him, His light and the full impact of who He was, was able to shine past me to the people waiting.  Only then could they truly see Him.......when I got out of the way.

I kept trying to get these people out of my mind and get back to the praying that I was trying to do, but there they were.

Finally I realized what I was supposed to be seeing here.  What a great reminder of how we can get in the way of others truly seeing God's glory and all that it is.  We so often get full of ourselves, or don't live our lives as He has called us to live and others may only receive small glimpses of His kingdom.  It is only when we bow down, humbly before him that His light can shine through us.

Fundraising Update!!!!

I have something HUGE to report, our amazing church, Brazos Fellowship, has offered to match every dollar we raise between now and the end of October (up to $500).  Dollar for Dollar!!!  This is amazing news.  Your $10 will become $20, or $50 will become $100, etc, you get the point!  This couldn't have come at a better time for us because we still need to raise about $2700 by October 28th to purchase our tickets to Uganda.  I pray that you will help support us on this mission to serve God's children in Africa.  Also, please share this blog with your friends.  We would love to share our hearts and why we feel called to serve God in this way.


Thank You SO very much for your prayers and support!!!!

Why do I ever doubt how big God is??????

Huge praise report........ When we found out we were going to Uganda, Jason and I decided that we wanted to do a little more and find out what sort of medical supplies the clinics at the orphanages needed.  Honestly, I was thinking band aid, gauze, maybe a few syringes.  Well we got back a pretty lengthy list ranging from those first aid products to a dental chair.  Yes, a dental chair.  I thought, how in the world would I get a dental chair and if I did, how would I get it there?  I couldn't even begin to imagine what shipping something like that would cost me and we already had quite a bit of money to raise.

Well, I decided it couldn't hurt to check around and since my sister does work for a large dental chain, I thought I would start there.  My loving sis gave me the link to a form that I would need to fill out.  I got a reply....... the answer was no :(  They said that they do help out with charitable contributions, but they like to keep it to where they have practices set up and they didn't have any in TN currently.  I promptly emailed back and said that the organization I was traveling with was based out of TN, but that I lived in College Station where there was an office and my sister worked there (thanks Heather for letting me drop your name like a celeb!).  They emailed back and said someone would call me to talk about it.  5 days later and still no call so I figured that was it, better luck next time.  WELL tonight I got an email stating that they would love to help me out and thought what we were doing was great and they had not one....not two.....but SIXTEEN dental benches for me.  They will be ready in 6weeks and they said they could ship them to a central location for us to disperse as needed once we were there.  WOW, never doubt what can happen.  Our God is a BIG God.

UPDATE:  We are having issues getting the chairs to Uganda.  The dental company that donated them said that they are willing to ship them anywhere we need stateside, but not to Africa.  I still believe how BIG God is and that we can get a dental chair to the clinic.  Please continue praying for this matter and that we are able to provide this need for them.  Thank you!

Satan's Bag of Tricks.

This past week or two has been full of some incredible spiritual highs and some low blows from the enemy.  Jason and I knew they would be coming, just had no clue the form they would appear in.  HOWEVER, one thing Satan can't control is how we react to these attempts of discouragement.  We want to rejoice in the Lord always and not let thoughts of "are we making a big mistake" "is there any possible way we can raise such large amounts in such a short amount of time" "is this really God's will" creep into our heads.  YES, we truly believe this is God's will and plan for our lives and we have such a peace that passes understanding that the funds will come in, in HIS timing. (as long as it is in the next two weeks, haha, just a little joke!)

What an experience we have had so far though in feeling such a presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives.  Even this morning when I sat down for my quite time with God.  I have to admit that the mission trip has pretty much been consuming my every thought in some way or another.  However, this morning I really felt like I needed to focus on taking God's word into account for my life to make sure that I am being the person that I need to be.  I wanted to focus on Proverbs 31 to remind myself what the characteristics of a noble wife are (and mother and servant of God, etc).  BUT wouldn't you know it, even trying my hardest not to think about the trip, God was awesome in communicating with me and what I feel was reassuring me yet again that we are supposed to go on this trip.  Here are two of the verses that I read in Proverbs 31

vs 8-9" Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute.  Speak up and judge fairly, defend the rights of the poor and needy."
vs 20 "She opens her arms to the poor and extends her hands to the needy."

Thank you God for giving us the strength that we need to seek your will and for speaking to us when we are willing to listen.

Our trip

I realized in the midst of things, I haven't actually explained what we are doing.  Jason and I will be going to Uganda at the end of December for a short trip with Visiting Orphans.  We hope that while on this trip, more of God's will for our lives will be revealed.  We feel strongly that He is leading us to work in the mission field and we hope that the what, when and where may be answered on this short trip.  Please be praying for us to raise the money that we need.  God is BIG and can do BIG things so I want to go even further than just what we need and raise money and medical supplies to help the orphanages that we will be visiting.  They have an extensive list of things they really need and I hope that the body of Christ can help me in providing these things for them.  From bandages and gauze to a scale that they can weigh kids on to make sure that they are receiving the correct doses of medicine.  If you think you can be of any help in this area, or know someone who might, PLEASE have them contact me.  Pray also for our children.  I know they will be loved on so much while we are gone, but it will be an adjustment for them and us both.  For info on the trip you can visit http://www.visitingorphans.org/ or see me on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1348985801

What to do with Fear?

I know people will have doubts about our trip, especially if this trip leads to a long term trip.  Even people very close to us will have their concerns, doubts and fears.  I can't be upset with them about this because Jason and I have had our own share of fear, doubts and concerns.  When we started this process I think we maybe thought OK, we are willing to serve you God, but please make sure we can still have this, this and this.  It wasn't truly until this last month that I can admit that I was willing to let go of all the fears and totally trust in God and his will for our lives.  So I can't just expect everyone else to be totally on board with this.  I am sure their fears are "what if something happened to both of you when you are in Africa?  What would become of your kids?  There is so much disease, what if you get very sick?  Etc, etc.  And with the possibility of long term service comes so many more questions.  All I can answer that with is that no one can keep themselves, or their children, safe at all times.  We cannot determine that for ourselves.  In Luke 12 it tells us to not be afraid of those that kill the body and after that can do no more.  But rather fear him, who has power to throw you in hell.  I know that sounds harsh, but it is the truth.  It is God's word.  Most of the time it is SO hard for us to think eternally instead of the here and now, but that is what we have to do.  I can't let fear of earthly things prevent me from doing what God has called us to do....share his love with others.  I can rely on His word though and take comfort in that..

John 14: 1 "Do not let your hearts be troubled.  Trust in God, trust also in me."

In the beginning.....

I guess I should get this blog going.  I started this because I feel that God has revealed so much to me in the last few weeks and I need a place to get it all down and to look back on what I truly feel is going to become an unbelievable journey.  To be honest though, this journey didn't start a few weeks ago.  I could try to trick myself and say that it started about a year ago when Jason and I first started throwing the word 'mission' around.  Being truly honest though (and anyone that might actually be reading this) I know that it started 17yrs ago.  It started at the end of the most amazing summer I have lived still to today.  After I spent a summer in Mozambique, Africa with Teen Missions Int'l.  After experiencing what I did and seeing what I saw I knew, without a doubt, that God intended my life to be different from the norm.  I knew that God was calling me to a life of mission work.  Even going back home and trying to be a normal teenager was difficult.  It was hard to get interested in things like high school and prom when you had just seen the poverty that we saw.

Now though, 17yrs later, you might be wondering why I am just now continuing the calling that I clearly received so long ago.  It is because over the years, I let myself become numb to what I saw.  I just let myself get wrapped up in achieving the cookie cutter life everyone seems to so desire.  I kept coming up with excuses as to why I couldn't serve God just yet.  I will after I graduate college, or after I get married, or after I am done having kids, because who wants to have kids in Africa?  Finally I realized that if I let it, these excuses could become endless.  Each time I read about other missionaries and all the need for help that is still in the world I would just keep looking over both shoulders, assuming that God must be talking to someone else about it, surely not me.  Such a tragic story of all the orphans that die each day of starvation, but surely someone else would deal with that.  I feel like God has finally slapped me in the face and yelled, "Yes, YOU!!  It is YOU I am talking to and have been for so many years".

Do I have fears, yes.  Do I have a crystal clear picture of what God wants us to do, no.  The thing is though that finally, after such a long time, I am no longer making excuses of why it shouldn't be me.  I can no longer act like all the verses in the bible that talk about taking care of orphans surely were just put there for someone else's purpose.

I no longer feel like I am entitled to certain things just because I was born in America, or that my kids are entitled to certain things.  I have been so extremely blessed. I realize this.  I also realize that I should take those blessings and use them to bless those who aren't as fortunate.  God has given me so much in my life to be thankful for.  He gave me the most amazing husband, even during a time that I wasn't even close to trying to follow His will for my life.  He has blessed me with four healthy children and family that I am so thankful for.

I am ready now, and Jason is ready, to follow what God has called us to do and take our gifts and serve Him.    To be better examples of God's love.  This is what we want our children to see in us, to know about their parents.  In heaven it won't matter whose children had the best primary education or had the best coach for football or whose parent was the most active in PTO.  What we did for His kingdom will matter and this is what we want to show our kids.

Jason and I are not perfect and I know we will make mistakes in this journey.  We have so much to learn, to discover and so much growing to do, but it is an unbelievable feeling to quit fighting it and to finally, TRULY turn our lives over to Him and to follow His will, not our own.