2 am

I kept thinking it was my alarm. How do I shut it off? Deep in sleep, I finally realized that it was actually my cell phone ringing.....someone is calling.

It must be family. It's hard to remember that I'm 9 hours ahead of West Coast time. I never care though. I always want to hear from the other side of the world.

"Hello" I say in my groggy voice as I try and find the light switch and pull myself up. "Oh, Jen, I woke you huh!" Well it's hard to hide groggy morning voice. And the conversation continues with my good friend Lara who is calling from Kansas, which is actually only a 7 hour time difference.

Soon she will be on the same continent as me and the same time zone. She moves to Lithuania on March 10th and has made a year commitment to work with a church there. She grew up in a Lithuanian community in Chicago. This is a lifetime dream for her. In fact years ago we both felt like we would be in Europe at some point in our lives. Now it's happening. I'm absolutely excited as it gets rather tedious to remember time zones. How nice it will be to see each other now after two years as well.

The last time we were together was in Latvia and Kansas when I traveled with a team she organized for "Straight Up Beautiful" and we hosted a conference there for young women. Needless to say, after our 1.5 hour conversation, I had a really hard time going back to sleep. We actually talk quite frequently but I was so excited about what's happening with SUB. She told me about their amazing conference in Kansas where 600 girls came and she told me about this process she's going through to finish her book. She's trying to get it finished by the time she gets over here.

Wow. This book is going to be like gold in the hands of women. I cannot wait for it to finish. She was saying it will take about a year to finish the whole process with getting it published. If you think of her, please pray that all goes well and that things work out for her in getting it published.

I'm so excited that she's coming over here! WE are going to bust it up in Europe this next year -- and fulfill the dream we both had -- to invest in the next generation of young women living in Europe who desperately need to see, taste and touch something different when it comes to living out Christianity.