ALSO, here is my latest support letter for ZIMBABWE! :D

April 23, 2012

Hi there!

My name is Haley Jacobs, and in the past year, the Lord has turned my world upside down. In August of 2011 I began attending Tennessee Tech University. I visited the BCM (Baptist Collegiate Ministry) that first week, and was shown a video about a trip to South Africa. On that trip, students would be working with orphaned babies living at a place called “The Door of Hope.” Many would be sick and/or dying from AIDS. My walk with the Lord was in a pretty rocky place at that point, but I distinctly heard Him say to me, “I need you to GO.” My first thought was, “I am not at all in the right place to be spending a month doing things in the Lord's name.” Regardless, I went back to my dorm and wrote in my journal about everything that had happened that day. At the very bottom of the page I wrote, “Oh and by the way, I'm going to Africa this summer. I don't know how or why, but I have to go.” For the next few weeks I thought I was crazy for even considering the trip, but time after time the Lord confirmed for me that I needed to be going. As the months went on, I grew in my faith tremendously, and the Lord gave me such incredible joy. I knew that it had definitely been the Lord telling me to go, and I also knew that my relationship with Christ was finally in the right place. In December, I turned in my application, and my deposit. It was official, I would be spending a month of my summer in Soweto, South Africa! I began to pray about it a lot, and I also asked many other people to be praying for everything surrounding the trip. This was the prayer list that I gave to many of my friends and family:

Haley needs your
support through prayer

• 1.Be praying that there will be open opportunities to share the gospel.
• 2.Be praying that God will provide the $3,600, in his timing.
• 3.Be praying for the babies.
• 4.Be praying that the Lord provides young men to volunteer & work on the outer wall.
• 5.Be praying that this will be an opportunity for her to grow in her faith,
  & that it will be necessary to trust in the Lord always.

This part of my journey began in December. Since then, crazy things have been happening! All of these things have done nothing but strengthen my belief in the power of prayer. I guess I'll start with prayer request number 1. I had a growing fear of a lack of witnessing opportunities. I would be spending my summer being the hands and feet of Christ, but with women who were already saved, and babies not old enough to understand. I knew it was where the Lord had called me, but was praying that the Lord would provide unexpected opportunities to share Him with those who did not yet know the truth. To my great surprise, a very large change was made concerning our trip just this April. Somehow, the Door of Hope had received TOO MANY volunteers, and there had been a miscommunication between the missionaries. I will now be spending June 16^th through July 18^th in a village in Zimbabwe, called Bulawayo. I won't be working with infants, but older school aged orphans who can actually understand the things that are being done for them. We will get to provide them with notebooks(something that is very rare/special/needed) whose covers tell a cultural story that teaches the salvation message. The books also have the message of True Love Waits. These notebooks will open the door for countless opportunities to share the Gospel. Volunteers can visit the schools and share testimonies, conduct True Love Waits Rallies, and distribute the exercise books. Normally, this sudden change of plans would have thrown me into a fit of anxiety, but I felt the strangest sense of peace regarding the change. I began to see prayer request number 5 being answered. I was tested in my faith, and forced to be flexible. Although I was a tiny bit nervous, I trusted that the Lord had a plan for my month in Zimbabwe! I also definitely saw number 3 be answered, because those babies have TOO MANY people to love on them this summer. How incredible is that!? Number 4 was shortly answered as well, and we had a guy step up and decide to serve the month with us! Considering the fact that we previously had only four girls going, him deciding to go was a much needed answer to prayer.

Seeing how faithful God has been in answering these prayers gives me complete confidence that number 2 will be answered as well. I have to buy my plane tickets this week, and so far the Lord has provided EXACTLY the amount that is needed to pay for them. I still have around $1,600 left to raise before I am able to go, but I trust that the Lord will provide it in His timing. I am so excited and ready to be in Bulawayo, eating Sadza for every meal, surrounded by the Shona and Ndebele languages. God has big plans for this trip; not only for the children we will be serving, but also for the five of us college students going. My heart is already bursting with love, and breaking for their stories.. and I haven't even met them yet. I can't even BEGIN to imagine the crazy works that the Lord is going to do through this trip. Habakkuk 1:5 says:

“Look at the nations and watch- and be utterly amazed.

For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe,

even if you were told.”

I already can't believe what He is doing, and I've watched it all happen! How much more incredible and unbelievable then are the things I have not yet seen Him do? God is so good. I'm so excited to have all of you as a part of my prayer support team, and thank you for absolutely any form of support you are able to give in helping me follow the call to GO! I pray that this letter finds you and your families doing well, and that you can be as encouraged as I am by the Lord's faithfulness.

Much Love,

Haley

PS-As of May 30, I only have $400 left to raise, so praise be to God! Only 4 days left of fundraising, and 18 days left until I climb onto that plane headed for ZIMBABWE!!!!!!
So excited! :D