Hello future family! My name is Beth Grosz and I am so stoked we get to spend two months in Africa together!!! How crazy awesome is that?! I’m just super excited to meet all of you in person and to be challenged and strengthened and blown away by the Lord this summer! I believe He is going to do some earth shakin things and I cannot begin to tell you how excited I am about it!

Well anyway, I’m Beth and I live in North Dakota.  I grew up across the river in Minnesota but now live in an apartment in the great and cold state of ND as I am going to school at North Dakota State University.  I am majoring in Social Work as well as Human Development and Family Science with an emphasis in Child Development.  I love what I am studying and can’t wait to see where the Lord takes me with it!  I work part-time (if that) at a daycare, which I absolutely love.  I’m just a sub so I don’t work a whole lot, but when I do it is great experience for me! I absolutely adore children; they are a large part of my desire to go to Africa.  Some other things that I adore…my friends, sunsets, journaling, I love to longboard, going to the lake in the summer, rollerblading, listening to people, coffee, thunderstorms, playing hockey, church, rain (and dancing in it), pickles, reading, volleyball and tennis, school, photography (although I am not very good at it), the book of James, pounding out the keys on my piano, running, family, taking naps, watching God in the stars, adventures, ben&jerry’s, and so much more!  There aren’t a lot of things that I dislike, but the one’s I can think of at the moment are tomatoes-yuck, slow and old drivers, inconsiderate individuals, laziness, wasting money (not to say I don’t, I just hate when I do!), a dirty kitchen, and tornados.  My fears-heights, sharks, and getting eaten by a lion in Africa (not really..but how freaky would that be!) 

I try not to mooch off of the parentals, I work hard during the summer so I can get through the school year and try to work as much as I can while going to school.  However, my parents are the most generous and kind people ever and have blessed me way more than I deserve, so they have been known to surprise me every once in a while and help financially.  I have never been outside of the country.  I have been on two mission trips to Minneapolis and Chicago.  I have volunteered a ton starting in high school until now, which in my opinion is missions just the same.  I love people, everything about them.  I think that everybody has an impacting story and has the potential to help and affect the people around them-no matter their situation or what they’ve gone through, and I like to let them know it! 

AFRICA.  When I think about this trip, my heart feels like it’s going to fly out of my chest.  I can’t wait. I’m excited but nervous, anxious, impatient, overjoyed…so many feelings all at once!  I’m sure you are feeling them too. This trip is huge for me.  God placed Africa on my heart starting in elementary school, and He has now given me the go ahead! A main prayer that I have prayed over the last few years is that my dreams and desires in life would line up with the Lord’s desires for me, and He has answered that prayer!  I guess a main concern I have struggled with in the past is that I am going out of my own desires, but the Lord has proven otherwise and has made it clear multiple times that Africa is where I am supposed to be!  He has created this passion in me that is purely from Him and not out of my own selfishness and that is the coolest experience ever!  I am so excited to watch what He is going to do with each one of us on this trip.  I’m going into this with high expectations and great faith that our Lord is going to reign Mighty in these three countries, as He uses us to preach and teach and point other’s to His glory and greatness! And I believe that those expectations that I have are going to be blown out of the water by what God is going to do.  He is so good!

Well I suppose that’s enough for now.  I love you all dearly, I’m praying for you and I can’t wait to meet you all face to face!  

Psalm 73:23-26