Ch ch ch changes

         Well I’d like to first apologize for not blogging as much as I’d like, and secondly I’d like to apologize for jumping off of my short-lived India blogging train. I’d like to say that I’m going to get back on board and tell you more but I’ve had a pretty big change take place just in the past week and I need to get all of this out and see where it takes me.

         “I’m currently unemployed” Those words strike fear in so many people, myself included. Until I had to say them myself this week. Call me crazy but I’m completely at peace about being unemployed. Working at the coffee shop for 3 years was such a blessing, I made some great relationships, reestablished some old ones and learned a lot of lessons along the way. Yes it was a minimum wage job with no benefits but I’m walking away completely changed because of that place and the people that were connected to it in anyway.

“It is strength that endures the unendurable and spills over into joy, thanking the Father who makes us strong enough to take part in everything bright and beautiful that He has for us”

Colossians 1:12

       For a while now I’d been praying for a change in myself, I thought for sure that would happen in India. And it most certainly did, but it didn’t end over there. The changes have continued back in North Carolina. I’ve reconnected with family that I hadn’t gotten to talk to or let alone spend any time with in months. I got to reestablish a friendship with my old roommate when I didn’t really think it was possible. I’m transitioning into a team leader role on our nursery team at church. A lot of things are new for me right now but great non the less. So I wasn’t exactly surprised when I got word that the coffee shop was closing. It was almost humorous the way that the Lord is suddenly shifting things in and out of my life. With that being said, I have no idea what is ahead of me on this path. I don’t know what direction the Lord is taking me. I don’t know what he wants me to be doing with this season. But I do know that this whole situation is completely in His hands. My needs are going to be taken care of 100%. A shepherd never leaves His flock so I know that the Lord is by my side through this, as long as I’m obedient. And in my heart I know that I have been, that’s the only thing that explains this feeling of peace that I have about everything. There is a definite sense of excitement in my life right now as so much is unknown but I can’t wait to see what is up next for me!

         This song is my anthem right now thanks to Anna George. So thankful for her new presence in my life!

India: Part 1

Well I’m back from Bihar India and I’ve tried to blog about this for a couple weeks now but have had the hardest time processing everything, but I’ve got to immediately jump back on this blogging train before I forget (not that that will ever ACTUALLY happen, but you know what I mean) about the amazing amazing things the Lord has done. To say that I’m a little overwhelmed would be the understatement of the year. I think that the best way for me to get all of this out without you missing anything of importance and me rambling too much (lets face it, we all know that’s going to happen regardless), is for me to spilt up my whole trip by topics and just blog about each one separately. So I’m going to start today with the conferences that we were apart of.

The first day that we were over there we got to go to a women’s conference. I know that I’d mentioned this before to y’all but let me tell you, the Lord is really working in the lives of those sweet women. First things first though, my flesh hasn’t ever been as tired as it was then though. Somehow the car I rode in to the church was one of the last ones there and the church was packed, so guess who ended up sitting up on the stage? Yep that’s right, this girl. Knowing that everyone in the church could see you and would know if you fell asleep was more then enough incentive to keep me awake (honestly I still struggled though). However after a couple of hours of great speakers and some Hindi worship music, one of the speakers told all of the missionaries to just go out into the crowd of women and begin praying with/for them. At this point every thing in me that was tired was immediately restored and I was energized. I found my way through the crowd stopping to pray whenever I felt led and eventually ended up with this one woman and her daughter. The woman looked no older then 19 and her daughter was 2 and she immediately handed her to my friend Maggie and we began praying for her without really knowing what was going on due to the language barrier. The baby began having seizures while we were holding her and other people began to gather around us and we quickly had a few extra hands reaching out to touch this child as we prayed. As the four of us were praying the seizures started happening less and less frequently until the baby seemed at peace and was close to falling asleep. We then had an interpreter come over and we found out that the baby had been to the doctor many times but they had never been able to diagnose what was going on. Due to the seizures she was still only eating foods in liquid form and had never spoken or walked. The mother was in tears and said that she had prayed to so many different gods but had never seen results like this and wanted to know why. We got to share the gospel with her for the first time! If that had been all that I went to India to do, that would have been fine with me at that point but that funny Jesus had so much more up his sleeve.

The second day over there we got to be apart of a youth conference and it was the largest conference in the states history! So many eager young people just looking for a change from the darkness that is Bihar India. I was on the front row this time instead of on the stage, thankfully. The speakers were great again as usual and after a couple of hours we were released again to go out and pray with the youth. I ended up spending the whole time with this one girl who was a year younger then me. She was already saved and with us both able to speak English we struck up a conversation easily, her name was Gracie and she is the sweetest woman. She told me that because she lives in India she can’t worship freely and her family thinks that her being a Christian is really evil spirits in her, so they abuse her every chance they get. It was heartbreaking to hear that. I’m so so so blessed to call this place home. Even though there are things going on that we don’t all agree on, it’s still a country that was founded on Christian beliefs and we’ve been given freedom through that. Freedom in Christ and freedom in the world we’ve been given as American citizens.  

Like I said earlier, there will be more posts coming your way but this was such a BIG trip for me that I’m still having a hard time processing everything that’s happened and is still happening. But your prayers have meant everything to me so keep them coming! Love you all!!

T-3 days!!

Well here I am on Monday morning, just 3 days until I leave for India! I just can’t believe that it’s all happening now and happening SO fast at that! Gosh it seems like just yesterday I was deciding to go and worrying about how to tell my parents and how they would react. The Lord has seriously done some awesome things to make this trip become a reality.

So many people have told me that they are jealous of me getting to travel over there and serve like I am, and believe me the blessing of that isn’t lost on me. I think at this point though I need India more then India needs me. After everything that’s changed in the past few months this trip has been the one constant, always something to be shooting for and counting down towards. Please keep me in your prayers the rest of this week as I’m preparing my heart for this opportunity, it still doesn’t feel real to me (and I don’t think it will until the traveling commences). We’ll be leaving Boone Thursday morning for RDU and have basically 2 days of traveling so I’m counting on getting some sleep on those long flights. If any of you would like to keep up with what we are doing, our trip itinerary will be posted online at www.missions.me/teamschedule . They will also be updating their Facebook daily so check out their page on there for pictures and updates.

Once again, I’m at a loss for words at each one of your generous support to get me to this point. Without that I wouldn’t be here today, the week OF, on the verge of a life-changing trip. I love you all!

“Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you”

James 1:27

“For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world-our faith”

1 John 5:4

Come Back Kid

         Well it’s certainly been awhile since I’ve blogged and for that I apologize. To say that things have changed for me in the past month would definitely be an understatement. And the crazy thing is that I know this is just the beginning of all of the changes. Having someone tell you that this is a major breakthrough season for you will definitely slap you across the face (in the best way). I’ve had to say goodbye to some people, things and situations that I didn’t necessarily want to, and they were far from easy to walk away from BUT breakthroughs aren’t meant to be easy, the resistance that I’ve felt and am still feeling is doing nothing but refine me. And refinement is exactly what I wanted/needed in preparation for this trip to India (T-10 days BTW!).

“That’s why I take pleasure in my weaknesses, and in the insults, hardships, persecutions, and trouble that I suffer for Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

2 Corinthians 12:10

         Well now that I’ve successfully typed my way into a writer’s block, I’m forced to either ramble or list so just stick with me and we’ll see where this goes.

1.     We talked a lot about Peter in church yesterday and he was THE man.  He was one cool dude that I think a lot of us can really relate to. He tried and got rebuked repeatedly but was so resilient and determined to be “the rock” that Jesus called him to be. He kept coming back! The original come-back kid!

2.    My support for India came through and for much more then I asked for. God certainly knows what he’s doing with surplus and I’m still in awe of everyone’s generosity.

3.     I got the coolest coolest coolest form of support Saturday. A woman from my old church contacted me about a month ago asking for my address. I gave it to her and then forgot all about it. Well Saturday comes around and there in the mail is a card from her (Beth) and in it is a generous check for my trip. Now the check isn’t even the coolest thing. Listen to this! She wrote me the sweetest card and was talking about this journal entry of hers that she wanted to show me about her first Mission trip to the Ukraine back in 1997 and how she prepared for. She wrote about how she had stood in front of our church and the Pastor had said some amazing things to her and prayed for her. Now this is the kicker and totally Jesus, you ready? Then she wrote about how after church she was talking to ME and told me that that would be me one day! She actually sent me a copy of that page in her journal and it was the coolest thing to see that someone was speaking that over my life when I was just 9 and had dreams of playing in the WNBA instead of orphanages in India and Africa. It’s funny how things fall into place when Jesus is behind it from the beginning.

4.    I really really really love my roommate. I definitely thought it would be weird to live with someone new and someone that I wasn’t particularly close with before I moved in but the past 5 months have been SO great. Building a new relationship is really awesome, especially just learning about your new friend. Seeing Becky be so on fire for what she gets to do everyday has lit a fire under me to get out there and follow my own passions. She’s been the biggest inspiration for me and I know that the Lord put us together so strategically for this time in our lives.

5.     “I’ve already outlived everything that the enemy sent to kill me” Let that one sink in for a second. Yeah, it’s so good right? My Pastor said that in his message yesterday and I can’t stop thinking about it. I’m an overcomer, and so are everyone of you, so don’t let the enemy or anyone else tell you otherwise!

Well I think I’m going to have to call it a day on this post and say that I’m going to TRY to blog again before I leave for Bihar India next Thursday (!), because I really do have so much to say about that alone that it should be it’s own blog post. I love you all and I really and sincerely thank you for supporting me through this already incredible journey.

Source: spiritualinspiration.tumblr.com via Brittany on Pinterest

A Hunting We Will Go

Wow. I’m still kind of speechless about what happened last night. But I think that I need to push through this to write because if this is any indication of what I’ll be feeling while I’m in India then I know that you’ll want/need to hear it (regardless of whether it makes you or me a little uncomfortable).

We’ve had some guests at our church for the past couple of days and they’ve helped start a reformation in Boone. Last night we took that and went out into the community, ready to love on the sweet people in this town. We went on this thing called a treasure hunt. Seriously the coolest thing. We started at the church office and just began praying for specific “clues”, now these clues can and did get very specific. I’m talking shirt colors, tattoo placement, hairstyles, names, health issues, locations, you name it really. Already this is blowing my mind and I’m almost starting to doubt if I’m just making this up to make myself look better. But then we split up into teams and we’re sharing our lists and ours are starting to match up. Mind still blown. Our team immediately knows that Wal-Mart is the place to headfirst. We get there and I start walking around looking for things on my list and nothing is really jumping out at me, and oddly I’m not getting frustrated (so take that stupid devil!), I’m too excited seeing other people from my team succeed. Then all of a sudden three clues came back to back to back. Now only four of mine happened last night but this fourth one still gives me chills. Hollie and I were standing up at the front waiting for our team leader to get done so we could leave and this girl walks up to us and asks where we go to church. We were both a little shocked but told her and she said that she heard a man talking about Jesus (pointing to our team leader) and had overheard another girl praying and assumed we were with them. We can barely get out “Is there any way we can pray for you?” before she started telling us about her sister who lives in Boone and had recently had a baby. Now pregnant was one thing on my list so my ears perked up a bit. We asked what her sisters name was and she said her name was Sarah (also a clue on my list!). With shaking hands I show her my list and to my surprise she knows exactly what were doing and she had done one of these with her church a couple weeks before! Well long story short but we prayed for her and for her sister and then exchanged phone numbers and Facebook info to keep in contact. That one clue was totally of the Lord and I still can’t really sit still thinking about good He was last night!

Now if I told you that that was all that happened that would still be a great story but that also wouldn’t be true. I got up at my usually early time today but got ready fast enough so I could go to Wal-Mart and get the new Carrie Underwood album (highly recommend it btw) and as I’m walking back to the back I walk through the meat section (not really sure why because it’s not exactly on the way) BUT hamburger was on my list so why not? Shocker of all shockers but there is a woman over there stocking the hamburger. OK so now I’d like to insert that I also had the name Linda on my list and thought this was for sure the Linda that I’ve talked about in earlier posts, but Jesus had something else up his sleeve. Now back to my early morning trip to Wal-Mart, the lady stocking the hamburger turns to ask me if I need any help and I see that her nametag says Linda. Pretty sure my heart stopped for a second. So I told her about this treasure hunt I was doing and asking if there was anything she needed prayer for. She told me that her daughter is overseas in the Army and she has very little contact with her.

There are so many stories of God’s amazing outpouring of love last night and hearing how the Lord is continuing this treasure hunt into today and who knows how many more days is seriously the most incredible thing. This is something that can be done anywhere and anytime though, so sit down and ask the Lord to give you clues and watch them fall into place right in front of your eyes and then just get out there and love on people. It doesn’t make you weird if you do it. It might feel a little awkward at first but just push through and your mind will be blown at how great God is!

In other news, I’m going to India NEXT MONTH! The time is flying by and my excitement is growing more everyday. This is the last week of fundraising and I have $700 more to raise before I reach my goal of $3,200. I’ve come a long way and I couldn’t do it without everyone of you. If you’d like to support me financially on my trip to India you can do so easily here, if you would like for your donation to be tax deductible then you can also mail a check to our church office:

Cornerstone Summit Church

869 Highway 105 Ext Suite 3

Boone NC 28607