An Unexpected Blessing (Back from the Jungle - Part Two)

Proverbs 16:9 says "The mind of man plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps."

This second part of my update will be a little bit more personal than most of my posts, because I have something pretty important to share with all of you as my friends, prayer supporters, and financial partners. I've known at each point in this journey toward missions that God is the only one who could bring together the details or provide the resources and strength for a simple girl from Ohio to be part of His work of reaching people groups in remote locations with His gospel!

He has opened one door after another, all along the way, giving direction and clear leading. I remain as passionate as I have ever been about going to an unreached people group, and I am continuing to head in that direction.

However, God has surprised and blessed me in an incredible way by changing one aspect of my plans. 

Specifically, He brought Joshua Evan Miller into my life. 

Josh and I are both in the same missionary training class and developed a close friendship over the past year. Earlier this year, he asked me if I'd be willing to pray and seek God will together about beginning a relationship with the intent of heading toward marriage. 

I can say without reserve that I did not expect God to lead me in this direction when I started into this training last August! As most of you know, I was content heading to the mission field as a single women, trusting God to provide in the areas where my singleness would bring about greater challenges. 

However, I'm in awe of God's goodness in bringing into my life a man who is surrendered to God and passionate about serving Him. We share a burden for the people who have never had access to the gospel and desire to be used by God to take the gospel and plant a church among one of these people groups. 

You might think that it is unusual for someone to send out a newsletter about a relationship, and you are right! :-) However, since many of you are supporting me through prayers and with financial support, I wanted to be intentional in answering your questions, rather than allowing you to simply wonder after seeing Josh's and my facebook pictures together.

I'd love to hear from you with any questions you have about how this affects my future plans. I am going back to school in August to start my final semester at Emanate, the missionary training center. After graduating in December, Josh and I will be seeking God's leading for what is next, as we hope to continue heading toward the mission field.

Thank you for praying for us as we seek God's leading in our lives. We desire to follow His timing in each step of our relationship!

Since this is not just a relationship announcement, here are some additional jungle camp pictures (many of which include Josh, since I couldn't put those in the last update). Since we are in the same class at the training center, we had the chance to go through jungle camp together, which was a special time for us as a couple.

We had the opportunity to lead worship together while in jungle camp.

Since I had never used an axe before, Josh was willing to give me a lesson on how to chop wood without chopping my leg as well. :-)

I got to use a machete for the first time during my first building week, and it ended up being a regular part of living and working in jungle camp!

Our door was a success mostly because of my talented boyfriend's guidance and help in constructing it. This was one of the only parts of the construction process where we were allowed to have help, so I was very thankful for his assistance!

Our entire class had hair cutting lessons, and Josh got to trim my hair. 

We enjoyed visiting together with friends in Josh's sitting nook.

Follow me on Facebook to get more regular updates, prayer requests, and pictures of my everyday life here at the training center.

Click HERE to see a summary of who I am and what I'm doing.

Back from the Jungle! - Part One

After 4 weeks of living off the grid, I'm back in "civilization" and excited to update you on what God has been doing.

(This is part one of my jungle camp updates, so keep an eye out for part two, where I'll be sharing some pretty big news about how God has been directing and re-directing me during the past several months!)

So, how was jungle camp?

Great. Challenging. Difficult. Enjoyable. Relaxing. Stressful. Hot. Rainy. Encouraging.

The adjectives could just keep coming. Overall though, it was a wonderful learning experience, and I can honestly say I enjoyed doing so many news things that I had never done before. What kind of things? Well, let me take you on a tour of Jungle Camp as I answer some of the FAQ I've heard since getting back!

WHAT WAS THE BEST PART OF JUNGLE CAMP?

I loved living together in community with all of my classmates and two staff families who were with us in camp. There was a closeness that is totally unique and different from our normal North American life together.

Our Jungle Camp Family!

In the evenings, I could sit in my house and hear one family singing the doxology together before supper, another family reading through "The Hobbit," someone playing guitar down the hill, and laughter filtering through the trees from the ladies across camp. There in the isolation, we were together!

WHAT WAS THE HARDEST PART OF JUNGLE CAMP?

Building my house was the most difficult part of jungle camp for me. Putting in two weeks of 15+ hours work days, and facing things every single hour that I had never done before was exhausting and overwhelming at times. However, it was also a really good time of growing and trusting God for guidance and strength as I desired to persevere and finish well.

Endless digging of holes!

Putting up the sides of our house

Rafters are done and we are ready for the roof plastic!

Putting on the roof plastic! We definitely had a love-hate relationship with this piece of plastic. Loved when it worked and hated when it leaked!!

Corner support posts - Gotta love duct tape!!

Working on our stove was a daily project as layers and layers of clay had to be added to the inside and outside so they could dry and harden. 

Planning and leveling out counter top frame

Installing our counter top supports

Staples, staples, and more staples!!

Yes, I am sitting in a hole in the mud!

Measure, mark, and measure again!

HOW WAS LIVING IN YOUR HOUSE?

Two weeks of building produced this house!   

It isn't fancy and definitely wasn't perfectly executed, but it represents so much work, a lot of learning, and quite a bit of fun as well.

While building our house was definitely challenging for me, I loved living in it. Sure, there were inconveniences, bugs, leaks, and frustrations that came along with living in a plastic and duct tape house in the woods, but I learned so much from building and living in it, including: how to wire a simple DC circuit for our lights, how to bake and cook in a clay oven/stove that we built, how to disassemble a sink to fix leaks (I was marginally successful), how to kill spiders as big as my hand (seriously, I'm not kidding!!), how to chop wood, how to build a fire and get it hot enough to actually bake, and so many other things.

Move-in day was both exciting and very tiring! 

Lots of unpacking, organizing, and sorting to do before our house started to feel like a home.

My bedroom: the bed is covered with a mosquito net that protected me from both mosquitoes and spiders! 

My mattress was layers of cardboard and styrofoam glued together and then foam on top. It was far more comfortable than I expected. 

The back half of our house was our bedrooms and living space, which could be divided up by curtains we pulled down the center and across from the sides. 

Our kitchen was very functional, and for once, I got to work at a counter top designed from a 5'7'' person! :-) 

Chopping fire wood was a new adventure for me! And believe me, you use plenty of fire wood when boiling water takes 45+ minutes. 

WERE THE ISOLATION AND LACK OF ELECTRONICS DIFFICULT?

Time passed so quickly because everything took longer in Jungle camp. Every day is filled with just living life, and because we lived in a community there, I'm really thankful that I didn't struggle too much with the isolation.

Hammock time with friends took the place of facebook time.

That being said, I was certainly excited to get to check facebook and catch up with friends when I got out. I definitely missed my laptop though when I had to write a paper by hand...haven't done that since middle school!

WHAT DID YOU EAT?

We hiked in all of our supplies, including our food, so we had a lot of canned meat and vegetables with basic starches like rice or potatoes. I successfully made bread in our jungle camp oven, which was exciting! Overall, we ate similarly to normal, but had fewer fresh fruits, veggies, and dairy.

The food we canned: pears, peaches, applesauce, chicken, beef stew, and chicken soup.

We also brought store-bought canned food, and didn't even get close to using up all of our food. 

DESCRIBE A TYPICAL DAY IN JUNGLE CAMP? 

Living in Jungle Camp involved many of the same tasks as regular life...they just took a lot longer. Our typical days involved building a fire, cooking breakfast, working around the camp on clean-up or building projects we were assigned, cooking lunch, washing laundry, studying/writing letters/journaling, taking a nap in the hammock, helping watch some of the kids in camp, cooking supper, and visiting together in the evenings.

Our laundry station: tubs of water, a plunger, and a ringer produced (mostly) clean clothing.

Laundry was always more fun if there were cute little helpers available to pitch in! 

WHAT WERE NON-TYPICAL THINGS THAT YOU DID?

We had a lot of first-time experiences and had a lot of fun together in between just living life and working hard!

During our first week, we butchered chickens.

Then we enjoyed a big community chicken potluck!

We celebrated Canada Day, with festivities that included a flag-making contest,

face painting,

and a slip-n-slide made from left over plastic from our roofs.

We enjoyed lots of time singing together,

playing games,

celebrating birthdays,

worshiping together,

working on building projects,

and just living life together in camp!!

WHY DID YOU DO THIS?

If you are curious about the purpose behind jungle camp, check out my last blog post where I answer that question in depth.

WHAT IS NEXT?

Stay tuned for part two of my jungle camp update, where I'll share with you some new ways that God is directing me, blessing me, and growing me as I prepare for what is coming up in the future!

Hope you enjoyed your tour of jungle camp! I'd love to answer any other questions you have about my time in jungle camp, or my training up to this point. Visit my blog and leave a comment on this post with your questions!


Follow me on Facebook to get more regular updates, prayer requests, and pictures of my everyday life here at the training center.

Click HERE to see a summary of who I am and what I'm doing.

Click HERE to find out more about financial partnership.

Click HERE to download a pdf bulletin insert of this update.