Hello everyone!

I have been very excited to write this blog post. July 10th-July 17th I was in Gainesville, GA for missions training. We woke up by 6:30 am every morning. We went to bed after 11 pm every night. Every single day was filled to the brim with something.

The most exciting thing was that I FINALLY got to meet everyone on my missions team in person! I get to live life with them over the next year. We are going to be a BIG family. I am so thankful for this week. I got to get to know many of them on a deeper level. I got to hear some of their stories. I absolutely LOVE getting to hear how God has redeemed others' lives. We learned a lot together. We went through a lot of team-building exercises and we were put onto teams of 5-6 people. These are the people I will be around the high majority of the time. The entire squad of 30+ people is all traveling to the same countries. We will just be with the teams of 5-6 people the high majority of the time. I will be traveling to Gainesville, GA again on August 6th. We will all be meeting there again as we have final preparations before we leave for Hartsfield Jackson International Airport in Atlanta, GA on August 12th.

The people in my team are John, Reynaldo, Bailey, and Savanah. I'll attach a picture of my entire "squad" below too!

I'm excited that we all get to be a light to a world that NEEDS hope. We get to be a light TOGETHER. To the parts of the world where there is great suffering, and it seems like there is no hope to be found. I'm excited that people will get to hear that Jesus is that hope! That is there is more to this life and that Jesus IS WORTH IT and that HE WILL ALWAYS BE WORTH IT. I'm excited to build relationships with the people we meet. I'm excited to be a part of what God doing in this world to reach His children in unreached places. This year I kneeled on the ground crying out to God saying "I want to give You everything God. My life, my comfortability, my desires, my will." There are 3 ways I can describe what I felt at that moment. 1.) Overwhelming Peace, 2.) Overwhelming Joy, 3.) I have never felt freer than I did the moment I laid down everything at the feet of Jesus and said do what you will with my life. Since then, God has continually and clearly made a way for me to pursue this path. He is the ultimate provider for our lives. God is SO GOOD! EVEN AMIDST SUFFERING AND HARDSHIP. I KNOW WE WILL GO THROUGH THAT. BUT HE IS STILL GOOD! HE ALWAYS HAS BEEN! HE ALWAYS WILL BE! Thank you to everyone that has believed in me! Thank you to everyone for your prayers! Prayers are SO extremely important and God ALWAYS hears us when we come to Him!

We found out our first stop is ROMANIA. I'm excited to continue to update everyone during my time overseas!

PRAYER REQUESTS:

1.) Prayer for the last part of my fundraising to come in.

2.) Prayer for my entire squad. Pray for our safe travels.

3.) Please pray for wisdom for me too. I desire to be an encouragement and light to my team as well. We are all in this together. We are there to pick each other up when the other is down. 

I am reminded of a verse in the Gospel of John: "I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing." (John 15:5, ESV). 

I know I can't truly love others without Jesus or bear spiritual fruit without Jesus. I know that apart from Him I can do nothing. This has been such an important verse in my life when I need a reminder and heart check in my life.

Thank you all so much for your support in every single way. 

In the loving name of Jesus Christ,

-Lee Heiner