Reflections on Missionary Orientation

Whew!  What a week!  My time at Missionary Orientation in North Carolina was chock-full: spiritual warfare, emotional highs and lows, keeping up with work, being overwhelmed with lots of new information and the excitement of meeting new friends.  For those of you who have been keeping up with me, you know that I have been appointed as a missionary to Swords Ireland with TEAM.  Two weeks ago I went to a week of training at a conference center in North Carolina and the whirlwind of preparing to be a missionary began.

At Missionary Orientation (or MO) we learned about TEAM’s core values, how to raise support, what partnering with churches looks like, how to ask for support, how to work with missionary budgets, how to do taxes as a missionary, and so much more!

As we went over TEAM’s seven core values, I was amazed at how perfectly their core values matched with my own!  Everything that they covered, I agreed with 100%!  How often does that happen?!?  Not only did I agree with their core values, but I agreed with every concept they discussed as the week went on: their emphasis on prayer partners, their support raising partnerships, their fiscal responsibility as an 

                                                          organization, and their support of their missionaries.

As the week went on, God graciously showed me many affirmations of His plans to send me to Ireland with TEAM.  He provided amazing people to walk alongside me in this journey: both staff and fellow missionary appointees.  He also affirmed my call as I shared my story with these amazing people and we were mutually encouraged by each other's faith.

I’ve been back for two weeks now, and it has been a crazy two weeks!  I have experienced more spiritual warfare in the last 14 days than I had in a very long time.  I have felt discouraged, downhearted, and at times even oppressed, but God has also shown Himself faithful to provide encouragement along the way too!  I am beginning to build a prayer team and soon I will begin my journey of developing a support 

                                                         team to partner with me financially too.

If you would like to hear more about God's call on my life to go to Ireland, I would love to have coffee with you to share my story and hear what God is doing in your life as well!  

Please email me at 

applegarthdesigns@gmail.com so we can set up a time to talk.