"Follow Me"

Daddy and me...notice the toy tools :)

Happy Father's Day (belated)!! I just want to say that I love my dad. He is amazing. I've never known someone like him, and he is such a great example of following Christ with all the gifts that he's been given. I am grateful for the support, teaching, encouragement, and love that he and my mom have given us kids all these years, even though we aren't always perfect. :) Thanks, Daddy!!

There is like a black hole that is sucking time away...seriously, it's just disappearing! At times when I was working in the school district I would get tired and flustered and say, “I wish it was Friday already!” Mr. Larry, our school custodian (who by the way is one of the sweetest men alive), would say, “Now don't you go wishin' your life away!” Hm, he was right! We've only got one, and it goes by fast enough!

This last week I went to visit some friends in Texas for just a couple days, which was nice. We chilled out at their land, did some fishing, played some horse shoes, and I shot a shot gun for the first time. That skeet didn't stand a chance! ;) The day I got back I spent a good amount of time doing assignments for orientation...stuff about families of origin, TCKs, and personality profiles. All good stuff! I'm just a terrible procrastinator...always have been. But it worked out alright! The next day I went to Tulsa to pick up a couple of buddies from high school who randomly decided to come out to visit me from Cali for the weekend. It was the first time they had ever been to the “south,” and luckily the rodeo was in town, so that was a high light for them! We also did some hiking at a lovely state park. It was fun to hang out and share with them what life is like in this neck of the woods. I was definitely wiped out by the time I got back from taking them to the airport, though! I fell asleep at 5:30pm haha.

Yellowrock Trail outlook, Devil's Den State Park

This weekend I'll be heading up to Minneapolis for a week of TeachBeyond orientation. I'm so excited to get to meet everyone!! It's going to be awesome and make this all start to feel even more real! Check out this cool video about BFA by clicking here. So exciting! Right after orientation is over I'll be going to Alabama with my family to visit some dear friends of ours who we've known since I was 2. They are basically our 2^nd family. I'm pumped about spending the 4^th of July with them! So lots of traveling in the next couple weeks! Please pray for traveling mercies for me, my family, and all the other TeachBeyond members going to orientation. Thanks!

I'm spending this week getting more things in the mail, doing paperwork, spending time with loved ones, and getting a bit of rest. It's amazing how many things there are to do and to think about! I've really been grateful for the time that I set aside for just sitting still and being with the Lord. It's always a good thing to do, obviously, but it seems even more crucial during this time. There is so much faith and trust that we need to put in the Lord at all times of our lives and in every area, but this experience of preparation to go on the mission field has deepened my understanding of what it means to really trust Him. It's a hard but beautiful thing. You know how sometimes you hear a recurring topic in all kinds of places and it's just like, “Ok, God...I'm listening”? Well this thing about trusting God has come up all over the place for me lately, from my devotions, to church sermons, to the daily verse on my Bible app, to comments made by other people. Sometimes I get discouraged and think, “Am I doing the right thing? What if I got confused?” And then a soft but clear voice speaks to me and says, “Follow me.” Peter struggled with questions, too, but Jesus' command was clear: “Follow me.” Yes, Lord.

In Other News...

Hola amigos!

Yes, I am moving to Germany, no I don't speak German, yes I do speak Spanish. Make sense? Haha. One of my friends picked up a book in Germany when she was there a few years ago, and I've decided that I am going to use it as my source of German language-learning. See picture ;)

Well the dessert at my friend's house on June 2 was good. We had German Chocolate Cake, Black Forest Pie, and German-made chocolate and cookies from Aldi...yummo! Good time of talking about Germany and having fellowship. I'm grateful for the interest and prayers! The day after that I had the first real day of working the coffee bar at church, which was a little hectic but great! I love getting to talk to folks and greeting them with a smile and a hot cup of coffee. I also got to talk to Sunday School classes for a couple minutes during a brunch and let them know a little more about what I'll be doing at BFA. My apologies for the shortness of breath when I speak in front of people...it's just one of those silly physiological reactions to public speaking...I promise I'm fine and don't need a medic. ;) Please continue to pray for partners in the ministry with me. I am so very thankful for the generosity that has been shown so far and am excited to share this experience and work with you! I need to be at 90% of monthly support in order to leave for the field in August, so every little bit helps! Please contact me if you are interested in partnering with me in this. You can comment below, send me an email at mpeters@teachbeyond.org, send me a facebook message, call me, skype me, etc! I would be more than happy to answer any questions you may have and tell you more about the ministry.

Lots of travel plans for this summer! I'll be in Texas and Minnesota this month and then Alabama, California, and Colorado in July. And then on to Germany in August! Lots of places to be and things to do! I'm excited about seeing loads of people, though, before I leave. It will be a good time of visiting and sharing! Orientation for TeachBeyond is in Minneapolis at the end of this month, and I'm really looking forward to meeting the other new members of the mission. I've gotten to know a few other girls that are going to work at BFA through emails, and that has been a blessing! I actually met another girl at church yesterday who is going to be an RA at BFA as well...she was visiting the church with a friend and came over by the coffee bar, and we made the connection! Fun! I think God's putting together a great team!

Buffalo River, right in front of our campsite

Camping friends, about to hit the trail

This last weekend I had the opportunity to go backpacking and camping with a few friends. It was awesome! I've been camping and hiking many times, but never together like that...hiking into the Buffalo River Valley with all our stuff on our backs, camping right next to the river, and then hiking out with everything the next day. Some little critter kept running off with some of our stuff, but we eventually found some of it in the brush. At night when I was trying to sleep there were many strange animal sounds, some of them extremely close to my head (as in if I turned my head and looked out the screen I would have been eye-to-eye with Mr. Opossum...which is why I didn't turn my head and look out the screen!!), but thanks to an amazing sleeping pad that a friend let me borrow I had one of the best sleeps I've ever had while camping! It was so nice to get out of town, enjoy the beautiful scenery, have sweet time with 

friends, and just breathe a little. God is so good!

Romans 8:35, 37

“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? [...] No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.”