Philadelphia

Today marks one weak of the mission trip being over. But really, it has only just begun. God does not send us out for a week but our whole lives are to be a mission. A mission to be the hands and feet of the Lord.

Our week in Philadelphia was nothing short of incredible. I walked out onto Kensington Avenue (a street just littered with homeless, addicts, and the power of God) with a mission of showing as much love as I could to the homeless, to pray with them and give them hope, and to be a light on a dark street. I walked onto the street I had a certain pitty in my head and in my eyes I am sure. Oh, how God uses us in our ignorance and weakness! By the end of the week I was down right overjoyed to go see if my new friends were on Kensington and what they would have to teach me that day. You see God's light had been on that street all along...it wasn't void until the we came along...it was already powerful and ready to show us a thing or two. I saw teenagers come to love this street and the people on it. They developed a passion for the hurting and the oppressed and also got a glimpse of a faith I am not sure we had ever seen. Of course there were people we got to share our faith with, and pray with but the faith of some of these people was truely humbling. As I walked to this street to share my faith and God's love for a couple of hours there are already people there who have nothing, who are there all of the time living on the streets who love God with all they are and are showing it too. They see their need for Him and have no bitterness for their circumstance. Could I do that?

I have been asking, begging really for God to show me things as He sees them so that I could have His kind of love and passion for people. He showed me just a small percentage through these people and I think we all left being able to see people as children of God and not as poor people, or addicts who are totally different from us.

Aside from Kensingtion, we also had the opportunity to do a VBS for about 12 kids that the AIM staff spends time with year-round. Humility, once again. Some of these kids are completely neglected and just need a hug. They need to know that Jesus loves them. I thought we were there to plant that seed. Yeah, no. God had been planting and cultivating that through the staff for years. We were there, or at least I think God put me there to show me once again, His love. We were there to do a little bit of seed watering but really I thank God for the Aim staff. They are the ones who have given their lives to show these kids what nobody else has. Jesus.

So, I thank God for Philadelphia, for His prescence there, for showing it to us, for unifying us, humbling us, and for ultimately for giving us a passion to find our own Philadelphia at home.

One More Day!

So it's finally here...the most anticipated part of the summer. We leave in one day (plus a few hours) on the mission trip to Philadelphia! It's the high schoolers that we go with and it is always amazing. This will be our first time to this location and I can't wait. So, I don't know all of what will happen on our journey but here are a few things I know for sure:

-Our mission is to impact people for Christ, to spread His love. Oh how I wish I has God's eyes to see what He sees.
-Someone WILL be impacted. Hopefully many and I know we will be part of the many. God always shows Himself in a mighty way when we quiet the distractions.
-Someone will cry....I will probably be among the first. I am a very happy person but am a bawl baby at times....God just brings me to tears...in a good way.
-I will without a doubt be asleep within an hour after leaving OKC. I have some sort of infant syndrome where riding in the car puts me and keeps me asleep. The last road trip I went on with Adam I slept from Arkansas to Alabama with0ut waking. I'm so strange.
-People will laugh at Adam's singing.
-We will argue over music
-God will be in control, and really, what else matters?

Tomorrow we will be fasting and in prayer that we can meet felt needs, and spread Christ on this journey, and bring a stronger, renewed passion back home with us! Then, on Friday it begins...


Be Blessed!

What a summer!

There has been so much going on this summer! Mostly with the youth as usual, but honestly that's the best part. Summer Camp was first on the summer to do list and it was fantastic! God really moved in the hearts of most of our students and I thank Him for that! They got to see hundreds of students pouring their hearts out to Christ in unison during worship, listen to Matt speak about not standing still but MOVING for Christ, and experience new friendships. I love to just sit back and see God work. It is super cool.

Other than that we have been doing various projects with the youth, getting to know them better, and "remodeling" the youth area. We were at the church until about 2 am painting and it is just about completed. We invited any youth that wanted to help to come and we would paint, have pizza, and just hang out. So, of course when you get a couple of youth leaders and lots of crazy teens together with paint....well....you know. It was a blast!

We also gave our cat Chloe to Adam's parents, she now is loving life on the farm! And sadly My family put our 15 year-old dog to sleep last Tuesday. She was a great doggie!

In the midst of the craziness we have been having a great summer so far! Our high school mission trip to Philidelphia is in just about 2 weeks and I can't wait!

I guess that is about it for the summer so far!

Worry is Strangling

So I heard one of the most amazing sermons last night at Lifechurch.tv. Craig talked about worry and how some of us worry so much that we make it our friend and we almost feel lost without it. He talked about how the Bible tells us to worry about nothing but to first seek God and tomorrow will worry about itself. He had two boxes one labled ME and one labled GOD. We tend to worry about things and put them in the "ME" box to worry about when they should be going into the "GOD" box. Out of the two boxes the GOD box was smaller which is the problem. Our God is too small. Right when He said that I realized that MY God is too small...not only is He small but He is so far away sometimes. I was so ashamed to realize that! He switched the boxes and said when our God is bigger He can carry more of a load for us, and we trust Him more. And the part that was the best was he said that ultimately WE should put ourselves inside God's box! How can we worry if we are in God, if we trust Him so much with our lives that He surrounds us all of the time. I know I have a problem with giving God my worries and when it isn't better soon enough I take it out and keep it. If I was in God's box....I wouldn't even be able to take it out, I would be in there with it! It was amazing... I just realized that since I got married I have been trying to keep all of my worries and I have not trusted God to be bigger than me and my problems. That seems so elementary but I have the hardest time with it. It was so enocouraging to me and I really searched within myself to change some things. Adam made me a box to keep at home so that when I worry I can write it down and put it in God's box. I am sure it will fill up quickly at first. Worry in my life is choking the life out of me and my realtionship with God and I want that to stop. I do not want my life to be consumed by worry but by faith. I think my faith has been stomped out for some time now. I have been worrying about money, and jobs, and marriage, and the youth...oh my gosh to I worry about that, I worry so much about controlling my life that it is falling apart, I don't feel like me anymore I don't feel like others know me either because I have been so unhappy for a long time that the life I used to have is so far away. I am so dissapointed in myself for getting to this point. I also went to Grace this morning and Lance's sermon really hit a spot too that jsut made me break down. I think God has made me realize some things but before it can get better I feel like I am being stripped of myself. It hurts sometimes to get better. I feel like an addict who is going through detox....I can't just know that soemthing is wrong I have to face it, confront it and start the repair process and for me that is painful already and I am sure there will be many more tears. There are some areas of my life that even if I give it to God I know it won't cange right away. Some things in my life are painful and lonely but even if none of that chages I have to let God carry my burdens and stop carrying my own pain. It really has been corrupting my life...awww....deep breath.

Faith!

The following is part of an article that I had to read for a class I am taking and my thoughts on it:
***I have observed at least four types of change strategies.

Traditionalists defend their passively-acquired viewpoints and resistchange.

Free thinkers often abandon their second-hand world view with enthusiasm. Yet they are reluctant to commit themselves to any particular world view for fear of making a mistake or of losing the respect and support of influentual people.

Chameleons change world views as easily as they change clothes, eager to be among the early adopters of innovative trends in intellectual circles, to please others or to influence the decisions of others.

Yet I believe a fourth strategy is an even more powerful paradigm. I urge you to approach learning and knowing as a Humble seekers. Be prepared to accept the prerequisites of truth and not demand that truth come on your terms.***

My thoughts: Which are you? Which am I? Do we change what we believe as often as we change clothes like the chameleon to "fit in" and look like everyone else, ignoring our hearts calling to truth? Or maybe never stopping long enough to hear our hearts calling. Or maybe we are happy to be the free thinkers who do not fully hold on to any belief to protect ourselves from errors and inacuracies. Do we leave our minds open for something better or maybe just for the purpose of not offending others. For when we truely Believe we WILL offend somebody, often many. Many of us are Traditionalists who have been taught what to believe in but have never dove deep enough to even know why...to challenge why we think what we believe is right and to be open to the fact that maybe it isn't. I have learned that the fact do not always equal truth. Our ancestors once thought that the earth was flat. Were they stupid to think this? No. They were relying on many facts that they found. Facts do not equal truth.

I hope to always be the Humble Seeker. To know why I believe that Christ died for me and will come back to us one day. To not question God or ask for proof based on my terms. God does not reveal Himself based on our terms...never will.We all must decide which is more important- to know and believe the truth or with a lack of faith try to and hope to discover it on our own.Some of us do not want God to prove Himself to us, but to the whole world, so that what we know in our hearts to be truth would be revealed as fact to everyone around us. Wouldn't that make faith easier? Just one problem: that isn't faith.