Hello all.

I am excited and anxious to be introducing myself.  My name is Amy Koran.  Before I go any further, I would like to say that the Lord has truly blessed me with each of you.  I grow more and more excited each day that I get to hear and learn a little bit about the beautiful ladies that I will be with this summer.  We are all connected, not in the obvious sense because most of us go to different schools and live in different places, but we all share a passion.  A passion for living our lives for Christ and a passion to fight sex trafficking.  

I am currently a freshman at Appalachian State University.  I am a beach girl that traveled six hours away from home to live in the mountains.  Now, I have the best of both worlds some would say.  My wonderful parents live in New Bern, North Carolina and I have three older sisters.  I am also a proud aunt of three beautiful girls.  So, yes, my dad has four daughters and now three granddaughters and I can assure you that he loves every minute of it. 

While in high school, I was involved in athletics.  I played soccer, volleyball, and basketball.  Now at school, I'd play all of them if I had the time, but I enjoy running.  I just completed my first half-marathon with my sister over Christmas break through Walt Disney World.  It was surprisingly pretty easy with all the entertainment and fun throughout the entire race!  On a side note, I injured my knee while running and I am still waiting for a referral to the orthopedic doctor, but I am praying that I will recover quickly and the injury will be minor.

My life revolves around service.  I am mildly obsessed with helping other people.  (A pretty good obsession to have, I'd say, but sometimes it gets me into trouble.)  I enjoy participating in service with my campus ministry, InterVarsity, and also in the community of Boone.  I also recently had the opportunity to go on an Alternative Spring Break trip to Granada, Nicaragua where I was able to volunteer at a school, painting the classrooms and conducting English classes for the 6th grade students.  I enjoyed each and every minute of it.

I have been overwhelming blessed with the opportunity to go to Thailand this summer.  This past year, I have grown immensely in my walk with Jesus Christ and I have been learning that his plans far surpass anything I could plan or conjure up on my own, including Thailand.  My passion is to help women trapped in the sex trade.  In fact, I want to devote my entire life to it.  I am studying Non-Profit Management and Accounting at Appalachian and my dream is to work with a Non-Profit full-time.  God's timing continues to leave me speechless and amazed, I cannot wait to share with each of you how he has perfectly planned each and every step in my life.

Upon rereading what I have wrote so far, I laughed a little to myself because I wrote about planning.  I laughed because when I am asked a question like "What is your favorite hobby?" or "What do you like to do in your free time?"  my answer, besides service, is planning.  That's why surrendering my plans for God has turned my life around.  I find joy in planning out my week, constantly meeting with my friends for lunch and dinner, and having something planned each and every night to do.  Some of my friends claim this will be the death of me, over-planning.  In case you are a little concerned, I have gotten far better with the planning aspect of my life, in fact, I have almost completely abandoned having my week planned out completely because spontaneity might as well be a class at college.  

Anyways, enough about all this talk about planning.  I am ready to be in Thailand with each and every one of you.  I wish that I could put my emotions into words, but sometimes I feel that words are inadequate.  I cannot wait to share more about my life, my fears, and my hopes with you.

Love, Amy