This month, I will be 24 years young!  That's right, I am turning 24 on April 24th….and man, do I feel good!    Technically in India I will be 25, because they do age differently here but….let's just pretend I'm still in America haha

Never in a million years would I expect to be living in India as a 24 year old single woman preparing to plant *houses in the most --  place in the world by learning a language that is (quite literally) too cool for school (Not sure about you, but I was never offered the choice of learning Telugu in American public school or boarding school haha)

             (These are the cool cats I live with here in India...this picture just so happens to look like our first band photo and is one of my favorites! Brant was the only one that had this thought prior to the picture being taken which is why he has the "lead singer" face on)

I can't even begin to express the joy that fills my heart every morning when I wake up, pray and remember where I am.  I'm here! I'm in India! The calling I received in 10th grade, the promise God made me as a 15 year old kid…is unfolding right before my eyes.

 As you could imagine, living in India has it's own share of adjustments and difficulties  but these pale in comparison to the fact that I am confidently standing where God wants me to stand, right behind his son and next to my brothers and sisters, supporters and prayer warriors that carry the same vision he has tattooed on my own heart. 

Leading up to this birthday month, I had the opportunity to do something really cool. This past week I returned from a "Visa Run" to Nepal where I was blessed to spend 5 days trekking through the himalayas .  Two friends and I had been planning the trip since November and have been looking forward to it ever since.  When I originally prayed back in November about going, I remember God telling me that he would use it as a time of refinement for my future with him; and just like he promised I had quite a bit of refining happen!   We trekked for 5 days and most of that time for me was spent talking to God, trekking in silence and waiting to to hear him speak.  My two friends usually walked ahead of me a dozen yards or so on the trail, which might usually bother me simply because I'm an extreme extrovert haha but God gave me overwhelming peace and a desire to actually stay a short distance behind them so as to really focus on him and him alone, which admittedly I don't take the opportunity to do a lot…and am learning the importance of making this a priority in my life. 

                                               (before we left Hyderabad, excited for new adventure!) 

As we hiked up from 5,000 ft in elevation to 14, 700 ft in elevation over the first 2 days, the air got thinner and with each steep step my ability to hear my father grew stronger and stronger.  It was a sweet time. The Lord and I talked about everything from debriefing my first 2 months in India, revisiting my year on the World Race, praying for my future husband (still unsure who that is…sorry, Grandma), discussing who God knows me to be and who I know him to be, etc. ALL the things.  

(At the top! Day 3 of the Trek (14,700 ft))

 One hard realization I came to during this trek was that as much as I had not wanted to let this happen, I had allowed for my relationships with others to again, compete with my relationship with him.  As an exhorter, one of my major struggles is wanting to be with people more than wanting to be with God and while hiking up the trail he gently reminded me to be weary of walking down that path to destruction again.  (If you are a new reader, I battled a bad bout of people pleasing on the race and it was no bueno….I definitely need to be reminded not to go down that road again every once in a a while).  Thankfully, my relationship with God is down to earth and just real…he knows everything about me and knows the best ways to break hard news to me without tearing me down so even though I felt convicted by my tendency to put others before the Lord in some situations, I also felt thankful that I was now in a healthy enough place spiritually that I am able to look back and see the signs of potential sin before I got so caught up in it again. 

Continued one on one time with God, conversations with him and check ins with my covenant friend are things I've implemented since returning that I pray will keep me on track and away from making the same mistake again. I've set these things in place for my own peace and accountability but trust that this is something in which God has set me free and I am no longer bound by!  Thank you Jesus!

In addition to the many tender moments with Jesus on the hike, it was also just awesome to climb my first 14,000+ ft mountain.   The trail we took up to Mardhi Himal Base Camp was insanely gorgeous and as someone who just loves to marvel in God's creation/nature it was so good for my heart to be able to just sit in awe of such beauty for a few days. 

(Last photo of the hike...we made it! yay!)

After the trek,  we returned to Kathmandu for a day and a half, celebrated Holi (color festival and holiday here) and got ready to fly back  to Hyderabad. I am writing a separate blog that I will post soon about my return flight from Kathmandu to Dehli, where I sat next to Bhasker Solanki, a BBC video journalist…it was an amazing, once in a lifetime opportunity filled with incredible conversation and encouragement....get excited about that one!

(celebrating Holi in Kathmandu!)

Possibly, my favorite thing though from my time in Nepal was the desire in my heart to get back to India. I so enjoyed my time there and obviously learned so much, but I also missed my new home and was eager to return to continue the work of language learning and building community that God is doing through me here. 

So as this month begins, and the thought of saying goodbye to 23 looms in my mind a certain T.S Eliot quote continue to come to mind...

"“For last year's words belong to last year's language
And next year's words await another voice.
And to make an end is to make a beginning."

I love this quote because i've never really viewed January 1st as my new year.  As an April Baby its always made sense to me that as the seasons change, school ends and summer begins that my year is made new when I transition into a year older...this past year I spent finishing the World Race, training in Georgia, moving to India and beginning a new language.  It was an awesome year...a difficult but awesome year. However, it's coming to a close and I have no interest in holding on to the past.  In my 24th year, I want to enter into it with a new plan with a new voice...one where I don't make any plans at all but wake up every day and follow Jesus in step, word and speech.

As my supporters, my readers, my friends I would LOVE if you could pray this over me as this new year begins in my life.  The speicific word I've received from God for this upcoming year is "worship"

            Worship- to honor with extravagant love and extreme            submission (Webster's Dictionary,1828).

Please pray that this year I would fall even more deeply in love with Jesus, that I would learn the true meaning of worship in a tangible way because Im living it out on the daily instead of just talking about it and that I would be led by God's spirit living inside of me every day of my new 24 year old life!