Donating Link

http://justiceandmercy.org/mcdivitt/

Follow the easy steps once you click on the link to give! Thank you so much for your prayers and support!

5 Days Away..

Today is our Social Media Outreach Day and our goal is just to spread our story so that people can ultimately remember us in their prayers over the next two years, but also so that they can have an opportunity to join alongside us in our journey and partner with us financially.  We've prayed over this day and we have set a goal to raise $5,000 dollars during this 12 hour period.  More than anything, we want for Christ to be magnified during this day.  There's no way we could do any of this without the Holy Spirit moving into hearts and spurring them.  We know that our God is big enough to take care of all our financial needs and we want to look back on this day and have no other choice but to give praise to the One to whom all Praise is due.  Thank you for taking time to support and encourage us.  You prayers during this journey has comforted us when we felt overwhelmed and gave us the confidence to keep pursuing this wonderful adventure God has for us!

18 Short Days

I know it's been awhile since I've blogged, I promise it will have a lot more consistency once we get to South Africa. The past couple of months have been a whirlwind to say the least. On September 15th Nathan and I finally tied the knot and the day couldn't have been more perfect. It was the wedding I pictured in my head ever since I was a little girl. We are so grateful for everyone who made that day possible for us, especially his family! Now that life has slowed down a little bit we are really able to focus most of our attention to the big move in 18 days, not that anybody is counting. If you asked us how we are feeling you would probably get a handful of answers. Excited, anxious, nervous, happy, grateful and humbled would be some of our answers I'm sure. I can already tell why people love being married, it truly is one of God's greatest blessings. As we look forward to the weeks ahead we are so excited to be in Cape Town and start our life together, just us! We are currently living out of suitcases and living at his parents house in his room upstairs. While we are so thankful for time with family right now, we are ready to be in our own little small "flat" that we will call home. We started reading through Acts together right after the wedding and it has been such a blessing. Learning and growing together brings me so much joy. Being able to seek the Lord through all these huge steps in our lives is a blessing in itself. Psalm 105 3 says, "Glory in his holy name, let the hearts of those who seek the Lord REJOICE!" Reading through Acts we have seen so much. One of my favorite stories we have read so far is in chapter 4. The boldness that Peter and John have is the boldness that I pray Nathan and I will take to the beautiful city of Cape Town. "But Peter and John answered them, Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge, for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard." (Acts 4:19-20) WOW! That is exactly the kind of attitude that we want to have. It's not going to be easy. We would be crazy to think it was going to be. There are going to be those days that we are uncertain why we are still there and days that Satan seems like he's getting in between everything. It's in those days that we will dive into the word and read verses like Acts 2:28, "You have made known to me the paths of life; you will make me full of gladness with your presence." We are reminded daily of the plan we have for our lives. We know that every step of this journey is God ordained. When we step on that plane in 18 short days, we know that we are taking another step of obedience toward the next chapter of our lives together.

As most of you know we are raising our own support for the next couple of years. This has been one of the most humbling experiences for both of us. There are times when we sit together and wonder how we are going to pay rent 6 months from now or wonder how much money we will have by the time we leave. We have had moments of rejoicing and moments of doubt. In the moments of doubt we are always blown away by the faithfulness and sovereignty of our Father. We quickly remind each other that we didn't call one another to this country. The God of the universe called us there. We didn't choose for our hearts to long for hugs and kisses from the kids in Red Hill, God gave us that longing to be there. We didn't plan 3 years ago to fall in love with each other and that beautiful community, but He did. As much as we like to be in control, we couldn't be anymore not in control. God is carrying this all out by himself. He asked and we simply said yes. So when we are looking over our budget and facing uncertainties we must remind ourselves how we got here in the first place. He is the one providing our next step, He always has been. So with that being said I ask you to join us in prayer these next couple of weeks. We are having a couple more fundraisers and we know God is going to show up. Next weekend, October 12-13, in Franklin we are having a huge garage sale. There will be so many things there for sale and we would love to see you come out. Sara and Steve Ingmire have been kind of enough to let us use there house. The address is 3145 Vera Valley Road Franklin, TN. The other fundraiser we are going to do will be the week right before we leave. We haven't set a date for it yet, but just so you have a heads up. More details on that will come in the next week.

More then anything right now we need your prayers. There are some specific things that you can be praying about. Pray for the kids and teens in Red Hill that we are getting the blessing to work with the next couple years. Pray that there hearts will be open to us when we get there and that they will feel comfortable and will be able to see Christ love in us. Pray for Lumka and Kennedy who are daily serving in the community of Red Hill. Pray that they feel encouraged and loved daily. They are two fearless leaders who are always looking for ways to serve others. Pray that Nathan and I will be able to encourage them in the way that will help them the most once we get there. Pray for last minute things that need to be done before we leave. We are still waiting on our visas to arrive and that is something we have to have before we step on that plane. Lastly, pray for our hearts these next couple of weeks. Pray that we would be so filled with the spirit that it would overflow out of us. Pray that we continue to seek Christ in every little thing and that we will be BOLD in all that we do. I can't believe the countdown is less then 3 weeks, but couldn't be more excited! Thank you all for your continued prayer and support. May God continue to get the glory everyday with each step of obedience we take.

The Stillness of the Night

It's 2:07 in the morning and I couldn't be more awake. The house is dark and quiet as I sit still on the couch upstairs. I pulled out my Bible and started reading the book of Psalms. The truth and light that the Psalms shed is incredible. I am blown away every time I read of our God's power and how He has been working through people from the very beginning of time. I began to read Psalm 18 and it had a completely different meaning for me then it has in the past. David is addressing the words of this song to the Lord on the day when the Lord rescued Him from the hand of all his enemies. Reading the words on the page that David spoke brings me so much JOY! "In my distress I called upon the Lord; to my God I cried for help. From his temple he heard my voice, and my cry to him reached his ears" (vs. 6). David was no different from us. In our times of distress we call upon the Lord. We want our Father to hear us and comfort us in times that are hard. He hears our cries and he listens to our every word! David goes on to acknowledge how GREAT our God is! "For who is God, but the Lord? And who is a rock, except our God? The God who equipped me with strength and made my way blameless. He made my feet like the feet of the deer and set me secure on the heights. He trains my hands for war so that my arms can bend a bow of bronze. You have given me the shield of your salvation, and your right hand supported me, and your gentleness made me great. You gave a wide place for my steps under me, and my feet did not slip. I pursued my enemies and overtook them, and did not turn back till they were consumed. For you equipped me with strength for the battle; you made those who rise against me sink under me. You made my enemies turn their backs to me, and those who hated me I destroyed. The Lord lives, and blessed be my rock, and exalted be the God of my salvation. For this I will praise you, O Lord, among the nations, and sing to your name!"(vs. 31-49). David from the beginning of this Psalm is stating his love for the Lord. David is sharing with us how he is yearning for God and the close love that he has for his Father. This is the kind of love that we pray and yearn for daily. A love so strong that we can confidently say that we have are arms wrapped so tightly around our Father. David explains to us how he has been saved from his enemies and God was so faithful and deserves all the praise. Seeing God for his worthiness is so important, as David points out for us. I pray that we will daily remember that God is the only person deserving of our focus, praise, and service because of all that He does. Revelation 4:11 says, "Our Lord and God, You are worthy to receive glory and honor and power because YOU have created all things, and because of YOUR will they exist and were created." Please pray that the worthiness of God is something that we will seek daily. David goes on to talk about how God took delight in him. In the same way God takes delight in us. God takes delight in all of his children! This is such a beautiful picture! When we are obedient to the things that God has called us to, He takes such delight. God is always our number one fan. He wants the absolute best for us no matter what the circumstance. We must see our Father in this light. Reading this passage in the stillness of tonight has shed a new light. Just like God delivered David, He is waiting to deliver us. He wants us to yearn for Him. He wants us to draw close to Him. He wants us to recognize His worthiness and be the only one deserving of our focus and praise. He wants us to delight in Him and be obedient when He calls us. So many things that David learned we are learning today. The same God that delivered David and called Him by name is calling us! My heart is thankful tonight for the blessing of knowing this God and knowing that His plan for us is HUGE! I pray that Nathan and I will continue to cry out to God and seek Him in the stillness of the days to come. He is waiting patiently and we are so blessed to have a Father whose love never runs dry!

The Mystery of the Gospel Revealed

Getting things ready for South Africa hasn't been as easy as we originally thought it was going to be. There are so many small details that have to be taken care of before we can move on to the next step. The past couple of weeks Nathan and I have been scrambling around trying to check things off of our list to do. We quickly realized that we were unable to do a lot of things until something else was completed first. We were able to send out all of our letters before we left for the beach two weeks ago and that was a huge blessing. Now we are in one of the harder stages of the process, getting things together for our South African Visas! The list of things we have to have is a bit overwhelming when you first look at it. I remember looking at it at first and thinking how in the world are we going to get all of this stuff done. We have been so blessed with the people around us who have been helping us in anyway that they can. I was able to Skype with Lesli, the missionary in Cape Town, last week and my conversation with her helped so much. We made a list and have been checking things off as we finish them and the list is finally getting smaller and smaller. Even though this process is very overwhelming and stressful, the Lord continues to remind us how much He is in control. When we were in Florida a couple of weeks ago we went to visit some of our friends that are working Centrifuge in PCB. While we were there I ran into one of my pastors that I had last summer while working camp. His name is Brandon Bowers. He spoke to Nathan and I for a couple of minutes and we told him a little bit of our story. Worship began and we found our seats ready to hear what the Lord was trying to teach us that night. We weren't sitting long until we heard Brandon ask from the stage if Nathan and Claudia were still in the room. We raised our hands from the back and he asked us to come up front. There we were standing in front of hundreds of students while Brandon began to tell a little bit of our story. He told the students that it didn't take something crazy to happen for them to be open for God to use them. They just had to be open to the things God is calling them to do. Brandon asked the students to bow their heads and he began to say a prayer over Nathan and I and the journey that we were about to begin together in South Africa. The prayers of those students overjoyed my heart and brought tears to my eyes. Ephesians 3:6-8 says, "This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel. Of this gospel I was made a minister according to the gift of God's grace, which was given me by the working of his power. To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ." As we left worship that night Nathan and I began to talk about how unworthy we were to have this opportunity. Why has God chosen us? Why are we getting to partner with Living Hope to bring the Gospel to those in Red Hill? How can God use sinners like us to spread the good news? Ephesians 3 lays it out clearly for us though. God's grace is washed over us every single day. We are new creations and his power has made us alive in Him! His love for us stretches as far as the eye can see. We have boldness and confidence through our faith in Christ and according to the riches of His glory He may grant us the power through His Spirit and we may be filled with the complete FULLNESS of God! WOW, what a blessing! God has continued to show us in the small things how He has His hand over everything that we are doing. Through scripture, conversations with people, random phone conversations, camp, our family and friends, and so much more He is revealing to us our purpose in what we are doing. Right when we feel like we have hit a wall, something will happen where we hear Him whisper, "It's going to be okay, I'm right here, and I'm going to take care of you." That is the kind of Father we serve! As we continue to move forward in the process I ask that you continue to pray over this journey. There is still a lot to be done in the next couple of months and we know it will all get taken care of. Right now we are still in the process of getting our visa stuff together before we can send it all off to New York to get processed. We are hoping to book our plane tickets in the next week which will be one of the last things we need before sending everything off. I ask that you continue to pray for the support that we need to raise. I will place a link at the bottom of this entry where you can go online and make a one time gift or a monthly gift if you want to support us in that way. Every little bit helps and we are so grateful for those who are supporting us financially! Your prayers and support mean so much to Nathan and I during this time. We are so excited to see how our God uses our gifts and passions to bring glory to Himself! Continue to lift up the people of Cape Town, South Africa and all that God is continuing to do there. Pray that the Lord continues to prepare our hearts for things we will be doing once we get there! May God continue to receive the glory in everything that we do!

"His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence." 2 Peter 1:3

Copy and paste the link below to support us through giving! Thank you!

http://justiceandmercy.org/mcdivitt/ 

All Glory To God

"While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, 'Take and eat; this is my body.' Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, 'Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.'"
 Matthew 26:26-28 

What a blessing it is to know that the Savior of the world gave us the opportunity to take communion and remember the gift that He gave us. As I sat in church this morning and took communion I was reminded of this blessing. Jeff walked us through 15 Psalms this morning and showed us the meaning of each of them. God had a purpose for the words that were written and they each individually show us the beauty and grace of our Father. Psalms 120-122 are Psalms of vision. We see here that the God of the universe watches over every single one of us. He knows all of our individual needs and desires. None of them go unnoticed and they are all important to Him. As long as our eyes are fixed on the Lord we will be able to see things come together in His perfect timing. Psalms 123-125 are Psalms of confidence. Having confidence in who you are in Christ  is so important. We belong to Him and nobody else. We should meet with Him daily and realize that He is enough for us and nothing we can do can tear us away from his loving arms. Where we find our confidence is so important. "Our help is in the name of the Lord and our confidence is found in Him." Psalms 126-128 are Psalms of enjoyment. Having the joy of Christ is a feeling unlike any other. Waking up each day with the feeling that we are here for a purpose that is so much bigger then we can fathom is so incredible. The joy of life should pour out of us. Our hearts should be filled with so much laughter and joy because we have a reason to celebrate every day, and that reason is Jesus! In 1 Thessalonians 5:16 it tells us, "REJOICE ALWAYS, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." This verse couldn't have been written any better to explain the joy that we should find in our God. Pslams 129-131 gives us a glimpse of how sometimes our pride gets in the way. It is so easy to take the glory for the things that we do every day. God continues to work every single day, and while He uses us in situations, the glory should always be given back to Him. ALL things come from Him. James 1:17 says, "Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly light." We should always remember this in times that our pride tries to get in the way of giving the glory back to the One who deserves it. Psalms 132-134 is a beautiful picture of the blessing that we have to bless others around us. We are blessed so we can bless the lives of others around us. I can't think of a better way to show the love of Christ then to share God's love and be a blessing to those around us. I couldn't begin to count the number of blessings that God has lavished on me, but I do know that He is the only one that they come from. We have been chosen by God, we are His and we get the opportunity to make His name known! "But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light," 1 Peter 2:9. 


Last night marked a very important milestone in my life. I graduated from college! Looking back at my four years at Union I can't begin to thank the Lord enough for all the blessings. Not only did He put people in my life that will be my best friends forever, but He grew me and stretched me in ways that I could have never imagined. He showed me daily how much He loves me and how His love is constant and unending. He taught me hard lessons that I will never forget, and in the hard times He was always waiting for me arms open for me to run to. Closing that chapter of my life was hard, but looking now to the future has never been more exciting. As the summer begins I pray that you will join Nathan and I in this journey. A journey that we don't know exactly what it's going to look like. A journey that is going to have it's surprises and uncertainties. A journey that is so exciting that I could jump out of this seat I'm sitting in right now. During the next few months we will be seeking the Lord's guidance in all that we do. We want to make sure that every step is God ordained and that He receives the glory for everything. Like I talked about above, we want each step to reflect those Psalms. We want to have our eyes on the Lord daily. We want to be confident in who we are in Christ and confident in the direction that He is leading us. We want to be so joyful in the fact that the Lord has called us to take His name to South Africa, not only as individuals but as a married couple. I pray that our marriage will be a reflection of the love that Christ has for the church and people will be able to see that in us. We don't want our pride to get in the way of the glory that God deserves. He is the only reason that we are getting the opportunity to spread the Gospel and make His name known. Lastly, I pray that we will be a blessing to others. We are both blessed way beyond what we deserve and we want to be that blessing to every single person we come in contact with. The God of the universe gave his Son so we may freely receive the blessing of spreading His name throughout the world. His body and blood were given so we can freely live in the arms of our Savior and I pray we will never let that be far from our mind. The next couple of months are going to be busy, but I ask you to continue to pray for Nathan and I as we continue to seek God's hand in our lives. We are so thankful for each and single one of you and the encouragement that you bring to our lives. May God receive the glory today and all the days to come.

The Greatest Love Story Ever Told

It is absolutely amazing to me how the God of the universe has adopted all of us into His beautiful family! He could have done everything by himself, but he chose all of us to carry out his promise to the world. I am blown away by the love of our Savior and reminded in the stillness of the night how much He truly loves his children. Before we even saw the world around us the God of the universe knew us and chose us! "My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, what as yet there was none of them" (Psalm 139:15-16). He knew US, God chose US! From the very beginning God knew exactly what He was doing when it came to creating every single person. We all play an intricate part in the body of Christ and what a beautiful picture that is. Tonight is one of those nights where I have been reminded in small ways how amazing of a Father we have and how badly He wants us to be apart of His story! His love for us reaches higher then the mountains and stretches far across the sky. His love is steadfast and true. He isn't going anywhere and reminds us that His love is unconditional even when we mess up, which will happen daily. It is very humbling to know that Christ chose us despite our sinful nature. He gave the ultimate sacrifice so we can have the joy of knowing Him! I know there will be days that we feel like we don't deserve His love, but that couldn't be any less true! "For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 8:38-39). His Son was the ultimate sacrifice and there isn't anything we can do to separate ourselves from the love of Christ! What a blessing! As I continue to pray for what the future holds, I am reminded tonight that there is no greater love then the love of my Father! Through everything, the good and the bad, He is isn't going anywhere! Things will begin to get overwhelming I'm sure, but at the end of the day He is already moving in South Africa! He doesn't need me or anyone else, but He chose US because we are His children. We are apart of the greatest love story ever told and it's a beautiful story! He will always be our Father and we will always be His children! We all play a part in this story and I love that about our God! "Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God--children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God" (John 1:12-13). I pray that we are reminded of this truth daily! We don't have to earn this love because He is our Father. We just have to run to him, crawl up in His lap, and accept the invitation to live a life of freedom and joy in His arms!