"Who am I?"

"I am a granddaughter, the spitting image of my father and when the day is done my momma's still my biggest fan. Sometimes I'm clueless and I'm clumsy. But I've got friends who love me and they know just where I stand. It's all a part of me and that's who I am".

Those are the words of Jessica Andrews and they are so true to all of us. Except she is forgetting something. I am a child of God and I am who I am because of him.

It has been quite awhile since I have updated this blog. In the time between my last update and now my life has been eternally changed. I have had friendships change, relationships fall apart then come together in a better way and of course spent a semester in the Middle East. Specifically in Syria, Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, Jordan, Italy, Greece and Egypt for my free travel. This trip changed my life and I cannot begin to explain the things I experienced, the languages I learned, the people I encountered and the relationships I built up not only with my group, but also with some fantastic people from all the varying places. I had the chance to hike the Jesus trail, be rebaptized in the Sea Of Galilee, walk the Via Dolorosa and spend time in Rome and the Vatican. The memories I have will be carried with me forever. I am now fully prepared to take off into the world and do what I want to. Achieve my life goals. See the world and the beautiful people God created. I am going to do mission work. I am a social work and peacebuilding major with minors in pre-law, sociology and religious studies. Yeah I'm a little insane, but even that is not enough for me! I want to learn and learn everything possible! I'm so motivated right now to get up and study about varying places in the world, learn the languages and go teach the people. I'm not sure what I will actually do with my majors. It's more of what I will do with the things I learn from the classes I have to take. My goals right now are to:

1) do a second cross cultural to Pakistan next summer for 3 weeks. I am working one full time job and have 2-3 other little jobs trying to make money for this. I'm going to do what it takes to get there. And I am pumped!

2) I have applied for Eastern Mennonite Missions for next summer. I will hopefully be a missionary for 3-4 months during the summer somewhere in Africa or southeast Asia. That is my dream. I want to go to the people. Learn their culture and do whatever it takes to help others. It's going to take some serious fund raising to get there, but if God wants me there it will happen. If not. Oh well.  It just means God doesn't like the idea. Never mind. The hardest part about the idea of traveling to help others is leaving my friends and especially my family. My family means the world to me. Especially my mom who is my hero. She is who has supported me through my restoring my faith and my mission work. I missed her so much when I left last semester, but I know she is so happy for me no matter what it takes. Sometimes it's just hard to not feel guilty about leaving home.

There is just so much I want to do and so many people I want to help. If I had the power to help everyone and all the money in the world I would use it to travel both in and outside of the country and help others. I can't help it. It's all I want and I feel as if that is how God wants to use me. So I am prepared to do what he wants me to do. I have been inspired by my mom, Mother Teresa, St. Agnes and St. Therese. I live a life of simplicity and devote my time to prayer, helping others and serving God.

"Here I am to worship.  Here I am to bow down.  Here I am to say that you're my God. You're altogether lovely, altogether worthy, altogether wonderful to me."

I am here for God to use and I pray that he keeps my heart open and ready for whatever comes my way.

My goals for the summer:
Read a lot
Pray
Continue my baking kick (I have been baking like crazy so if you're around be prepared for some goodies because I don't eat anything myself. It's for others)
Work on personal building

I'm reading:
"To Babylon by Bus"
"Sailing Acts"
"Blood Brothers"
"Mother Teresa-In My Own Words"
The Bible- I'm going to read through the whole thing this summer!!

Blessings to you!!
And if you need prayers for anything please don't hesitate to facebook message me or email me at mariah.elliott@emu.edu