...to a small Kansas community.

Welcome to my blog! This is the first post I have done and it is all because God is soooo good!

Your probably wondering about the title of this blog and the title of this post. Well when I created this blog I was in the corner of a coffee shop. A coffee shop where I spend a great deal of time. Although not all of my post will come from this small coffee shop, I am sure a great deal will.

Now to the meat and potatoes of this blog post! I dubbed this post, "From the corner of a coffee shop...to a small Kansas community." I did this because tonight was the last night of Vacation Bible school at my home church in Ulysses, KS. All this week during the "missions" portion of VBS the kids have been learning about China and about the trip I am going on. You see on August 1st I leave for about 2 weeks to go work with beautiful little orphans in China. Well of course a trip like this cost a good deal of money and I was responsible for coming up with most of that money. So I have been fundraising since about March.

My home church decided that they would donate the offering that always goes to Missions towards my missions trip. First off, I was totally surprised and humbled when I found this out. God has really been teaching me about trust, as I was kind of over whelmed by the amount of money I was going to have to come up with in a short amount of time. This was just the first time that I felt God say, "See what happens when you trust me?"

Over the last couple of months I have been working and holding different fundraisers to come up with the money that I needed. My friends have had a huge part in supporting me for my trip. I had a fundraiser at my fraternity at K-State and all of my friends and fraternity brothers supported me through showing up, praying and donating. Than I had several different fundraisers in my hometown and at my home church. The members of my church have overwhelmed me with support! Through a garage sale in which they donated TONS of stuff and offerings that they have taken up for me, I have seen how God has worked through my church family.

But back to the VBS, like I said, tonight was the last night of VBS and they counted up the total that all the kids from my community back home had raised. Not only did they reach their goal of $500 dollars, they raised ever last penny that I needed for my trip! Over $1200! If that doesn't scream that God is in control, I don't know what does.

I cannot praise Him enough for showing me time and time again that He is able to be trusted! God has brought me through a lot this last semester, and I have constantly been stubborn in the lessons He is teaching me, but God is still worthy to be praised! He has shown me so much love! I am overwhelmed with His love!

I cannot thank my community and church enough for the love and support they have shown me. I know that it is all through Christ, but I am so glad He was able to do what He did through those back home.

As I continue to prepare for my trip I am constantly reminded who God is and it is so evident that he is ALREADY working out things for His glory regarding this trip. I can hardly wait 3 more weeks to see what God is going to do in China and through our team! Praise the Good Lord Jesus!

Kyle