When I grow up I want to be...

Kaselehlie or hello my blog family! I hope you are all doing wonderfully. This week has been full of lesson planning and cleaning out my classroom for me. I just wanted to share some thoughts that have been on my mind.

When I was little I had two dream jobs when I grew up. I wanted to be a cashier and I wanted to be a teacher. I took these goals seriously. Every time we brought groceries home I would take them out of the bag, scan them on my fake cash register, and bag them again. (Thanks for letting me do this mom!)

 I recently realized that I got both of my wishes and God used them together. Last summer I got a job at a clothing store. This was my first "real" job and I absolutely loved it. I saved up my money and left it sitting in my bank account for the school year. I then got the call to be a student missionary and that led me to teaching. How do these two things go together you might wonder? That money that I had made from my previous summer helped me buy school supplies for my future students that I had no idea about at the time. I love God's bigger picture.

I really haven't done too much other than prepare for the school year this week. I did make some delicious banana bread with some friends. Found my first cockroach in the bathroom(I knew that day would come), went running on the banged up track, and caught a frog.

Thank you for reading! I'll be sure to put up some more pictures and stories soon.

Love you all!

Alas we meet!

Hello family and friends and anyone else that might be reading this little blog of mine. I hope all is well in the States! I made it to Pohnpei so lets get this blog going!

Yesterday I left Hawaii at 6:30a.m and we stopped on two islands before landing on Pohnpei. Let me tell you Pohnpei is HUGE compared to Majuro and Kwajalein. Flying into to Pohnpei was the prettiest sight I have seen. We landed and were greeted with pretty head lei's made by the local ladies from our school.

When we arrived on campus we chose our apartments. I walked around the campus a bit and saw my second grade classroom. oh boy I am excited to get in there and teach! Everything is greener than you can imagine and wetter than you probably want to imagine. The humidity just does a whole body slam with you.

View from my apartment

The school provided us with a delicious dinner of fish, rice, curries, and all the fruit you can think of. YUM. After that we quickly loaded up the two school trucks to go jump in a river and cool off. Let me pause here and talk about these trucks. They are so much fun! They have long tailgates so pretty much everyone sits in the back. Imagine the breeze blowing through your hair, you are bouncing around from the rough roads, and the green trees with vibrant colors of flowers are being passed by. I wish you all could experience this! (one of them is also a yellow stick shift so I won't miss my truck back home too terribly).

I love this baby!

The river had a gorgeous, powerful waterfall. You know the infomercials with that small pool that sends out water and keeps you swimming in place? well thats what this reminded me of. The waterfall was so strong that you really had to swim hard to get up under it. But I did and it was kinda awesome.

I so wish you all could see Pohnpei in person! It is just a beautiful island with beautiful people living on it. I cannot believe this is where I will be living for the next 10 months! God has blessed me in so many ways already. I am anxious to start teaching and meet all of the kids. Thank you for your prayers and stop in to say hello if you wish :)


Much love.

Aloha from Hawaii!

Hello everyone!


I have made it to Hawaii and let me tell you these last two days have been exciting and exhausting. I have much to tell already, but I'll save that for the long plane ride tomorrow. For now, here is some pictures from Hawaii!

Waikiki Beach

p.s- Internet is slow so I'll load more later

The Jonah inside of me.

It was in God's plan for me to be a student missionary. I know this with my whole heart. I, like Jonah, tried to get out of it, push it away, and think of more "practical" things I could do. God didn't have to have a fish swallow me. Thank goodness. My Life & Teachings of Jesus class was more of my fish. I was studying about Christ's mission on Earth and I yearned to be a missionary as well. I am thrilled to be used as a tool for God's plan. But, as it gets closer I am realizing that this isn't going to be the easiest, most comforting year I have lived. I don't want it to be either. I truly believe God challenges us to make us stronger and I love that. He loves us enough to change us and in the process I get to be a witness of Christ to others. Somehow I think they will end up being more of a witness of Him to me. 

Anywho, I feel so blessed to have this opportunity. People have been so supportive of me and it means the world to me! I came across the verse below tonight and I had to share it. It's comforting to know God has it figured out and He knows His plans for us WAY before we do. So my being a second grade teacher on the island of Pohnpei was not some random choice that I made. It is where God intended me to be at this time of my life. 

Much love to you all. 

 "For we are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." Ephesians 2:10

I am most certainly uncertain.

I am certain of many things that this next year will bring me. On the other hand, I have so many things that I am uncertain of. Lets get to the list!!

Things I know:

 I know that while my other friends are heading back off to college, I will be teaching on an island. I know that I will be far away from things that make me comfortable. I know that I have many friends where I am going even though I don't even know their names yet. I know that challenges will meet me, but I also know that rewards will too. I know that I will be a second grade teacher. I know that I will fall in love with them. I know that this will change who I am and what my future holds. I know that God is with me always.

Things I don't know:

I don't know how homesick I'll be. I don't know if I am packing the right things. I don't know what challenges I'll be faced with. I don't know if I'll be missing out on anything that my friends are doing at Southern. I don't know what extreme amounts of heat and humidity feel like together. I don't know what God will teach me this year.

I guess all the uncertainties are part of the adventure. I am anxiously counting down the days to my departure, but I am tucking away each special moment that I make with my family and friends right now so that I can pull them out on Pohnpei. 

I hope you are all well and blogs will start getting more interesting beginning on July 29th! I am happy to have you part of the adventure of my year but I also would love to know what happens in your year as well!!

Much love.  

Where is Pohnpei?

Hello friends, 

Many of you may be wondering, "Where in the world is Pohnpei?". To save y'all from the Google search(thank you Google for making life a little easier) I put up a picture of the itsy bitsy island I will be living on for the next 10 months. 

Yep, its where the red arrow is pointing!

I have one more month folks! I have been busy planning behavior management and gathering teaching supplies. Also, hanging out with the family and celebrating Thanksmas. Thanksgiving and Christmas. Clever I know, thought of it myself ;) 

Please keep me in your prayers and thanks again for all the support! 

"As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world." John 17: 18

My "cha chinggg" realization

Hello fellow friends, family, and anyone else who might be reading this little blog of mine. While I did get this blog specifically to let y’all know my upcoming adventures, I also thought it would be a cool thing to look back on and see how God has molded me. This being said, this post might be more for me, but I still hope you enjoy it!

Today I came to a realization. You know the ones where a thought crosses your mind of out the blue and you hear a little “cha chingggg” in your head? Well this was one of those precious moments. This realization was simply that I am not supposed to fit into this world. In fact, it might even be a good thing that sometimes I feel so utterly misplaced. God didn’t intend His messengers to live a life blended into a crowd that we can relate too. We are called to love. Sometimes loving can cause a person to stand out of the sea of people who are stuck in their worldly ways. Simple idea, but boy is it an important lesson!

“ My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.” John 15: 12

Blessings:)