THANK YOU

Dear Friends and Family,

I just wanted to write one final letter saying THANK YOU for all of your support over these last eight months. I have seen the Lord provide in so many ways this year, and many of you were the answer to many prayers, as $12,000 fully came in by March 1st.

This year has been full of so much discipleship, studying, learning, teaching, understanding, and building a foundation that I can rest my faith and hope on the rest of my life. I have learned the blessings that come along with faith and trust in Jesus Christ, and I am excited to continue to serve and teach all that I have learned this year.

As part of The Forge, we studied for two weeks in Israel, as a culmination of all that we had studied and learned throughout the entire year. Leslie Strader wrote it in a perfect way for the Tyler Morning Telegraph when she said, “Along the way, something shifted inside each of us. The bone-tiredness we all felt was offset by the beauty of what we saw. We were filled with a rare joy. Rare because we had seen and felt and smelled and touched things we knew were holy. Not holy as in something to be worshipped, but holy in how uncommon they were set against the notions we came with. We were replacing imagination with the real thing. To see where Jesus was born and lived his days on the earth, to dip your toes in the water he walked on and climb the mountainside where he went alone and prayed. To make yourself look at the place he suffered so that you might have life. And to step into the tomb those brave women found empty on that bright, beautiful morning. It's like looking into his eyes and seeing a love you didn't know existed.”

Throughout The Forge, that love has become so real and genuine, as I have served in ways that I never thought I could, stretched myself in ways that made me grow, and learned what life truly can look like when you commit to loving the Lord your God with all your all your heart, with all your soul, with all your might, and loving your neighbor as yourself.

Thank you for coming alongside me in this journey and making it possible through so much encouragement, prayer, and support. I am excited to begin teaching in the fall and apply so much of what I have learned to my career as a teacher and to my life as I continue to follow where the Lord leads.

So much love and thank you again,

Tabitha