Dream Big.

Our Dream.....
(By LindsEy)

Have you ever had a dream that became a reality? Have you ever planned out something in your life, only to not have it work out because it was what YOU wanted and not what GOD wanted for you at that time? God's timing is not our timing, and His timing is something that i have learned to wait for and embrace. there have been things i have wanted and not wanted, and they happened just the same, but in the end i realize how necessary they have been in my life to where i am today. A learning experience, or a moment of joy i will never forget, or my heart breaking and seeing the world in a different light for the rest of my life because of that. it's all God's timing. Well, God has called myself and Lindsay Ebels on a journey of HIS timing, and we are taking it and have realized why we are taking this opportunity now, and why our plans of going wouldn't have been as great because they were ours.

We have both been wanting to travel to Africa for as long as I can remember, and we both have similar hearts, we have a passion and emotion for people and helping people and building relationships with people. Africa has been on our hearts for a VERY long time. We have both individually attempted to go previous to this, but things never worked out for us, and we now realize why! We are supposed to go now, we are supposed to go together. And what is amazing to us is that we will be traveling to Beautiful Gate in Lesotho, Africa, which is a place that our home church, Haven CRC has been supporting for a few years, and we know a lot about them and their mission. Watching videos from families and people in church that volunteered at Beautiful Gate, i would get a tug in my heart and tears in my eyes EVERY time. I wanted to go! i wanted to go with one of the groups that went, but it was my timing and i was so frustrated when it didn't work out, but i have learned patience through this process, and now the timing is perfect. Just perfect! I am going with a good friend who shares a similar passion with me, and we are meeting our friend Christina Terpstra there because she will be serving for 6 months and we are going to be there for a part of it. It's perfect!

Please join us on this journey! Join us by reading this blog, praying for us and supporting us. Your prayers are coveted more than anything! Thank you for the support that has already been given to us, and that will be given. we are looking forward to seeing where God is going to take us Lindsaeys through this life's journey! We will be updating everyone through this blog, so "hello" and "welcome," and we Praise God from whom all blessings flow!

Lindsey Miles :)



How it all started.....
(By LindsAy)

I remember a couple years back when a family from my church had the opportunity to serve in Africa for six months. After watching their video in church I knew it was something I wanted to do as well, but I had to be patient and wait for the right time to go. Late one Thursday night in September, Lindsey and I Facebook chatted (no lie :)) about what we were going to do with our lives after college. This idea of serving in Africa together almost started out as a joke.…We both had the same “crazy” dream to serve in Africa and began to talk about how we should just turn this dream into reality, why not? So, after much needed prayer and communication with the Beautiful Gate staff, WE WILL BE GOING TO LESOTHO!!

Lesotho is a small country surrounded by South Africa. Lesotho, with a population of only 1.8 million people is very challenged as a nation. The impact of the high rate of HIV/AIDS, and a population of whom 56% live on under $2 a day is struggling. The Poverty and AIDS pandemic led to a new phenomenon of abandoned babies. Beautiful Gate Lesotho is an organization that has cared for over 170 babies since June, 2001. Currently, there are 35 children aged between 0 – 4 years in Beautiful Gate’s care.

The one necessity of our trip in order to move forward was our plane tickets and we have them! We were both nervous when we found out that the prices of tickets were significantly higher because of the World Cup in South Africa. Fortunately, we have an amazing travel agent who found tickets that were about $600 cheaper than we thought we would have to spend. God is good! We are still in the process of fund raising but have been extremely blessed with the financial support we have received thus far. We will be leaving on May 26 and returning July 3. Now that we have plane tickets reality is sinking in and I think I can speak for Lindsey when I say that we are both getting excited!

The tragedy of life doesn’t lie in not reaching your goal. The tragedy lies in having no goal to reach. It isn’t a calamity to die with dreams unfilled, but it is a calamity not to dream. It is not a disgrace not to reach the stars, but it is a disgrace to have no stars to reach for. Not failure, but low aim is a sin.
Marian Wright Edelman

More to come soon :)

~Lindsay Ebels