A Weekend in Blacksburg, VA

 This weekend the CCP team met in Blacksburg, VA for some more team bonding and support updating!
We arrived around 7pm on Friday night and had dinner at the Stutzman's. Kait Rose made the whole team a delicious Baked Ziti supper with salad and garlic bread. We spent the evening hanging out with the Stutzman's and meeting individually with Doug to go over how we were doing in the support raising process. We were supposed to watch a documentary about South Africa, but the Rose's were unable to locate the DVD before our meeting. I'm pretty sure that was the Lord's provision, because we had an amazing time hanging out with Jen & Jake Stutzman! This couple is absolutely precious and their story of adoption is humbling!  They have 5 chilren (2 biological & 3 adopted siblings from Ethiopia). It was such a gift getting to hang out with them all evening and spend time with the CCP family.
  After dinner, we slept over at the respective VTech guy/girl staff houses and met at 9 am for a delicious pancake and egg breakfast at the Rose's the next morning. After breakfast we had a meeting and PB&J lunch at a ministry house near Virginia Tech's campus. At this meeting we spent time in the Word and discussed 1 Peter 4:1-2. " Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking, for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin." - 1 Peter 4:18
Some Scriptures that were helpful and will be used as a constant reminder of the way Christ thinks about suffering and the world include:
John 4
John 6:63
John 12:24-25
John 18:36
Matthew 5:11-12
John 15:18-20
Matthew 16:24
Matthew 26:39
Romans 8:15-17
John 17- the way Christ even prayed represented what He was thinking.

This time was great and refreshing, the Lord really used it to show me that so far in this process I have been thinking about me and have left Him out of doing the work, proving my lack of faith and trust in the Lord's promises to provide.

In Judges 7:1-2 Gideon's army is shrunken down to less than 1% of what he started with and he goes to battle against this huge army (the Mideonites) and in the Lord's time Gideon and his army are delivered out what seemed impossible! The Lord brings us to a place where we are fully aware of our weaknesses so that in the end He gets ALL of the glory! God is able to take little and make it much!

Currently, I am going through a very tough season of  having to trust the Lord to make much out of little regarding the amount of time I have. This requires a faith that can stand the test! May I be a woman who puts my complete faith in Christ and is faithful to the specific tasks that He has called me to.

After, our brief meeting and PB & J lunch our group went on a 7 miles hike in Roanoke, VA.

 We finally made it all the way to McAfee knob after about 2 hours of hiking and then hiked another 1 hour or so back down the mountain. This hike was extremely exhausting but the view was worth it, not that I would do it again or anything! Haha!  We finished our trip off with a fantastic dinner at a local hotspot called "The Homeplace". Our team/family departed after dinner and I arrived late last night around 11pm.

I still have a long way to go in my support raising journey, but am trusting God to provide every penny and more for our team! The time that our CCP family spent together this weekend was so rewarding and I am so thankful for the way God is knitting our team together. Please keep our team in your prayers and be praying for Doug as he is in South Africa this week working on figuring out a lot of logistical stuff.

Things you can be praying for this week include:
-housing
-cars/transportation
-partnership details with COJ staff team
-partnership details with campus leaders
-schedule for summer
-mercy ministry opportunity


In His Glorious Name, 
-L