Five Days and a Whole Lot of Emotions

Five Days I've wanted to write another blog for awhile now, but each time I sit down to write, a million emotions run through my head. At one moment I'm excited, and then the next moment I'm scared, and then next I feel unworthy. Last Friday, I had to say goodbye to the Twin Cities as I moved home to Green Bay to stay with my parents for a week. My heart still aches when thinking about leaving Jon for a year. I know that God has called me to Panama but sometimes it hurts so bad knowing that following God means leaving the person you love the most behind, even if it is only for a year. I wish so badly that we could be experiencing this together. But at the same time I know that God is blessing both of us with great opportunities to share His love with others - Jon in Minnesota and myself in Panama. Even though it is a struggle, it's such a blessing to learn how to rely completely on God. Oh, man, I'm crying just thinking of the pain I felt saying goodbye...I must really be in love. It was also hard to say goodbye to all the kids I worked with at the YMCA. All of the kids hold a special place in my heart. This week in Green Bay has been wonderful. Actully when I got home midnight on Friday, I went to bed (it felt wonderful being able to stretch out on a bed again after sleeping 3 1/2 weeks on Rachel's couch...curse my long legs) and woke up to leave for Chicago with my family on Saturday. Saturday night and Sunday morning I was able to give a presentation ablout Panama at the congregation I interned at in Chicago. It was wonderful seeing friends that I haven't seen in over a year. My friend Rachel even drove with her fiance 2 1/2 hours just to see me. I love that girl. It's also great spending time with my family. Yesterday I had a girls day with my cousin Amber where we went out for lunch, coffee drinks, shopping, and my first manicure ever. I'm going to have another girls day this Saturday, but this time with my mom...I'm looking forward to that. As I said earlier, trusting God is sometimes a struggle for me. A couple weeks ago I was told that I may have to postpone my departure date due to the lack of funds in my account for LCMS World Mission. I was a nervous wreck. I knew that since God called me to Panama, He would provide, but being patient was so hard. Even though I still have to do quite a bit of fundraising, God has provided more support than what I could ever imagine. Praise Jesus! I hope everyone who is reading this is having a wonderful day. If there's anyway I can pray for you, just let me know. I love you friends!

Thank You

Thank you to everyone who came to my commissioning service and party on August 13th. It was so great seeing all of you!

Trusting and Patience...sometimes it's hard to do.

Sometimes it's hard to have patience and trust that God will take care of you. Today I received a call from LCMS World Mission telling me that we may have to set my departure date back because of the lack of funds in my account. Fundraising was the reason why I almost didn't apply to be a missionary. It's a scarey thing to trust God that I will raise over $19,000. It's even scarier each Friday when I receive my financial records and see that I'm not even close to reaching what I need to raise. Asking people to donate money to be apart of this mission is a hard thing to do. No one owes me a dime. However, I felt this strong call to do mission work overseas and it seems so stupid to let money get in the way of doing it. After all I know that God will provide, especially since He is the one who works in people's hearts to give financially...not me. It's still amazing to see how generous people are even though I am far off from the goal. Even though I wish I could be done with the fundraising like yesterday, I know that God is teaching me patience and trust. So I guess I'm asking everyone who's reading this email to pray for me that I continue to trust in God and have patience for God's timing.

33 days until Panama

The last few weeks have been a pretty crazy time. I don't think I have had time to catch my breath between working full time for the YMCA, working part time at Jehovah Lutheran church, moving (finally out of the Kappa Kappa Babe house...we moved on the hottest day of the year...yuck...109 degrees), and fundraising for Panama (writing letters, thanks you's, and traveling for presentations.) I also really want to find the time to work on this website so that I can let you all know what I'm doing in Panama and how you can pray for me, so bear with me while the website doesn't look cool yet. I do however have a pretty cool myspace, so you can check it out at www.myspace.com/kristylorfeld. You have to play the video with the little girl...she is the cutest little kid in the world. So back to prayer requests...here's how you can pray for me. Humility in learning another language and culture. Ongoing struggle with giving all my control over to God to take care of fundraising and other personal issues. Panamanian's hearts will be opened to receive the Gospel message. Everything that I do will be to the glory of God. I will also be giving some presentations in the next few weeks, so if you're in the area, I'd love to see you!

• August 6: St. John's Lutheran Church in Edgar, WI following the 10:15 service.
• August 13: Faith Lutheran Church in Green Bay, WI. 8:00 and 9:30 service. There will be a party following at 1:00 at my parent's house, so you should come!
• August 27: St. Paul Lutheran Church in Chicago, IL. 8:15 and 10:45 service.