Thursday, May 6, 2010

Tears of the Saints

This morning I woke up much later than I had hoped and knew there was no way I was going to make my appointment, so I decided to just take my time getting ready. So I was on facebook and found this video posted by one of the girls on my India team. Take a minute to watch it, its so amazing! http://vimeo.com/2843450 After watching this video, I had a realization moment and knew that this summer was going to be intense! So I took some time to pray for the girls on my team and I just became so overwhelmed with God's love for me and His incredible grace that He pours out on me. This trip to India this summer is going to be amazing! And I pray that God uses us to reach thousands of these women, showing them the light and love of Christ. It got me thinking and questioning why God gave me such an incredible life and why He chose me to grow up knowing His name and His love. I want the children in the slums where we are going, to be able to grow up knowing His name. I want to reach the unreached, touch the untouchable, love the unlovable, and make His glorious name known. This is not only my prayer for the next to months, but this is the prayer for my life. God has an incredible summer planned and I cannot wait to see what happens!

Saturday, May 1, 2010

Goodbye Junior Year

A lot has happened in the past three weeks. First off, I turned 21! YAY, except the fact that it was right in the midst of last tests and finals. But it was still great spending time with great sisters and friends on a long study break. I went through a long debate about drinking. I've never had a drink before, and of course I got asked a lot if I would. I debated, and I already knew I would not drink around people who didn't know how I felt about it. I don't think it is ok to get drunk (the Bible talks against it), I hate what drinking leads to, and while I may be fine to drink one drink, that may tell a friend struggling with alcohol that its ok for them to drink too since a "Christian" is drinking, which could cause them to stumble away from Christ. For me, it's not ok to cause a brother or sister or anyone for that matter to stumble, its just not worth it, so for now I have come to the decision not to drink. Then we had formal the next day...God has blessed me with some of the most incredible friends and strong brothers and sisters in Christ. I spent over half of formal in some awesome and sometimes deep conversation about walking with Christ! How awesome is that!

Finals went by slowly but surely and I managed to pull three all nighters in a row with many short naps during the day. Then just as finals came to an end, I called my mom to tell her I was done, to that she had some news for me, my grandad was in the hospital waiting to have a heart valve replacement and a triple bypass surgery! So needless to say, Ive spent much of this week in the hospital. But on the other hand, it has been great spending time with my parents and my aunt Melanie. Grandad is doing great for an 80 year old who just had heart surgery and he just moved out of ICU today! So now we can visit anytime during the day we want, which is great! We are also looking at rehab nursing homes so he can get back to his old self! Which I fully believe he will! Knowing him he will be out of rehab and back at home in 6 weeks and out doing yard work or whatever by the fall. We have to work hard to get him so slow down sometimes.

Also this week, I got to go eat lunch with one of my friends out it Gainesville and go to a store called Rehabs Rope. This summer I am going on a mission trip to Bangalore and Goa, India to work with women in the sex trade industry and their kids in the slums through an organization called Rehab's Rope. The store in Gainesville sells purses, jewelry, quilts, and other things made by these women. So it was really great and exciting to see that! Also, I have decided to read the Bible all the way through chronologically in a year! So I am starting that today, on May 1! I am very excited about it and cannot wait to learn about His word! But yeah, this is where I am in my life right now, and it's about time to go so I can read His word before I go to sleep!