5 8 The trip is getting close and I am so excited!!! I praise God for what I know He's going to do, and am readily awaiting the unexpected blessings as well! I discovered at the last minute that we had not budgeted in and planned in Maria Fernandez, who will be joining us in El Salvador. She found me online after helping with Orphan Helpers in the past. She regularly attended the "Hungry" Bible study that I hosted in person and online via webcam through Google Hangouts. By not budgeting her in, it caused over 300$ in unforeseen additional expenses. A generous long-time supporter provided this entire expense. He has been such a blessing to my life and ministry in the many years that I've known him. I also remembered that there would be a baggage fee, and asked another supporter who had pledged money to give 100$. He did so. It is so wonderful to have people who have supported me in the past who I can count on. Though I was only able to raise pledges for around half of what I needed to go to the Harvest School of Missions in Africa for a few months in the summer, prohibiting me from going unless I had accepted my parents' willingness to cover the rest (which I determined was not a sustainable approach to long term missions), it was a tremendous blessing that friends and family gave me enough money in addition to those African pledges to go to El Salvador. Even if I could only go on one mission trip in my life, it would all be worth it. God has blessed me so much with the privilege of going on more. I believe this was the 6th team that I led on a mission trip with Orphan Helpers out of over a dozen total trips with Orphan Helpers. Missions has been one of the greatest blessings of my life.
Even before Orphan Helpers existed, I loved missions, wanting to be a missionary since I was four and a half, feeling called to be one. By the grace of God, I went on my first trip to Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Nepal when I was 11 with a missionary friend of my dad's Tim Blanarik, based out of Singapore.
While I know that full time missions isn't ahead of me in the near future, since the inability to go for just a summer due to funding is indicative of the fact that I can't do it longer term either right now, short term missions is an absolute blessing in the meantime. It is also a blessing to know that I live in a country where there is so much more opportunity for me to make money to help supplement support raising. The number one reason why missionaries never reach the field is costs, but I have been given the resources to work, and hope to do that for decades so that I can build up the assets where passive income could supplement support raising in the future. I am and will be forever grateful for those who have supported me in the past, since my first mission trip, for those who support me today, and for those who will support me in the future. With their help, I won't have to work for nearly as long before getting onto the field long term.
Even before Orphan Helpers existed, I loved missions, wanting to be a missionary since I was four and a half, feeling called to be one. By the grace of God, I went on my first trip to Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Nepal when I was 11 with a missionary friend of my dad's Tim Blanarik, based out of Singapore. 
