IDAHO - PT 4 - THE ROSSER'S

One thing I'll remember forever is the people.

Yes, the mountains and forests make me ache so hard, like a homesickness because I can never have enough of them, and the places I've seen far exceeded every expectation I tried to have for their beauty.

But the people I met in America, who took me to those places so beautiful I still can't believe they exist, who paid my way, who opened their homes to me, fed me, clothed me, prayed with me, and loved me - they are more memorable to me.

Thankfully, while in Idaho, I got to photograph some of those beautiful people. Christina had to work on my last day in Hailey, so I hung out with her friends while they baked cookies and I made photos.
Bekah and Gabriel, who was born a week before I got there! :)
Benaiah, Justus, and Caleb in the background - guitar surfing! (They all had Angry Birds tattoos :))
When the cookies were ready to eat the boys snuggled on the couch with grandma :) Such a sweet moment.

YOUTH WITH A MISSION

Hello everyone!

This is a very personal message and not really easy for me to write. I've been putting it off for a while because it scares me so much, but... I need your help.

This year I applied for a Discipleship Training School (DTS) in Kona, Hawaii called Awaken. It is a 3 month lecture phase starting on the 4th of April followed by a 3 month outreach phase (location revealed in the lecture phase). For more information visit http://www.uofnkona.edu/or http://www.awakendts.com. I was accepted, but never really let it in because I didn't believe that I could go through with it. I wanted to, but the money wasn't there.

The closer it got to the starting date, the more I felt it pulling on my heart. I couldn't ignore it's call. Then an online slap-in-the-face/get-your-act-together-girl from a friend made me finally say it to myself.

Okay. I'm going.

I don't have all the money. And I have even less time. But I believe in miracles.

So I'm reaching out to whoever might see this and feel to financially support me on this next leg of my journey. There are a couple of ways you might be able to help me. Either a lump sum payment or a weekly/monthly commitment of finances. If you are unable, then I would appreciate it immensely if you could spread the word to others who may be in a position to help me out.

Feel free to contact me with any questions you have through this page, email me at annie@annie-kennedy.com, or call/text me on 0434 143 942. Donations can also be made through the following link - https://apply.uofn.edu/OnlineAppDocs/OnlinePayment.cfm.

From the bottom of my heart, thank you.

***
(Photo by the lovely Sarah of Sarah Nicole Photography.)

IDAHO - PT 3 - THE RIDE

Words fail me. My writer is hibernating. I can't adequately describe this day. The pictures won't even do it justice.

I don't have the vocabulary to explain what the wind felt like as I held on for dear life on the back of a quad bike up the side of a mountain. It had too many layers of cold and ice and the smell of the forest. For how deep my heart seemed to beat, how wild and alive I felt, how frozen my feet were, or how many jackets I wore that did not keep me warm, for the endless sky and mountains stretched further than my eyes could see, how small I felt, how grateful to my new friends for taking me on this adventure... more words, fancier words - they'd just get in the way.

Maybe I can't share my experience with you. What happened inside me on this day, maybe it was meant for only me. I can only hope and pray that you all at some point experience the humbling calling and stirring of something so much bigger than you, in depths of your heart you didn't know existed.

And since my own words are falling short, these are from C S. Lewis- words I always loved but now mean more to me because of that day on the mountain.

"I have come home at last! This is my real country! I belong here. This is the land I have been looking for all my life, though I never knew it till now... Come further up, come further in!"