Let's go back in time a few months as I prepare to go on this trip… I remember one conversation I had with a very good friend of mine, Shelby Hurst. I remember her telling me how this trip was going to change my life. How this trip was going to save my life. I also remember sitting there thinking to myself, "Yeah, sure. I've done this kind of acting before, remember? Just get through it, see some awesome sights, and make a few friends." Yet, here I am with just two weeks left and I can already see a visible change in myself. This is not bragging about anything I'VE done, far from it actually. I could not have even taken a baby step without God's goodness and grace.

Growing up, my mom was in love with a band called Point of Grace. In one of their songs that I happen to have on my iPod they sing, "When the sun starts to rise and I open my eyes, you are good. So good… When the world has gone gray and the rain's here to stay, you are still good." Simple concept, but still so hard for most of us to grasp. But, wait! Look at me! Well, not ME… more like, look at what God's done and still doing in me! He brought me from a place of depression, sexual immorality, and all the evil lies Satan had me trapped under. I was like those springs waiting, trapped in those annoying practical joke peanut cans just waiting to be let free. Just as I was about to give up and resign myself to a life of feeling trapped, God comes along and lifts the lid of my oppressive can-hell. Now, we all know how these jokes go… person recieving the can opens it and BOING! springs fly into their face leaving them slightly annoyed but a good sport about the harmless practical joke. So, all of the sudden God lift the lid, and BOING! I fly out and into the wonderful, endless freedom in Christ! God was good when I was trapped, God was good when He lifted off the lid, and God continues to be so good to me as I learn what true freedom and love feels like.

Oh, God, I might be on top of the world or faltering and scraping my knees on the pavement, "but I trust in your unfailing love. I will rejoice because you have rescued me. I will sing to the Lord because He has been so good to me."- Psalm 13:5-6