30 Day Picture Challenge

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Well my sister got me into doing this 30 Day Picture Challenge, and I am not going to lie, I am pretty excited about it! Get ready for some fun pictures and interesting blogs about my life!

Day 1: A picture of you with 10 facts.

Day 2: A picture with you and the person you have been closest with.
Day 3: A picture of your cast from your favorite show.
Day 4: A picture of your favorite night.
Day 5: A picture of your favorite memory.
Day 6: A picture of someone you would love to trade places with for a day.
Day 7: A picture of your most treasured item.
Day 8: A picture that makes you laugh.
Day 9: A picture of the person who has gotten you through the most.
Day 10: A picture of the person you do the craziest things with.
Day 11: A picture of something you hate.
Day 12: A picture of something you love.
Day 13: A picture of your favorite band/artist.
Day 14: A picture of someone you could never imagine your life without.
Day 15: A picture of something you want to do before you die.
Day 16: A picture of someone that inspires you.
Day 17: A picture of something that has made a huge impact on your life recently.
Day 18: A picture of your biggest insecurity.
Day 19: A picture of a letter.
Day 20: A picture of somewhere you'd love to travel.
Day 21: A picture of something you wish you could forget.
Day 22: A picture of something you wish you were better at.
Day 23: A picture of your favorite book.
Day 24: A picture of something you wish you could change.
Day 25: A picture of your favorite day.
Day 26: A picture of something that means a lot to you.
Day 27: A picture of yourself and a family member.
Day 28: A picture of something your afraid of.
Day 29: A picture that can always make you smile.
Day 30: A picture of someone you miss.

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Mozambique....??

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Well several things have happened since last week, and well I might be going to Mozambique, Africa for two weeks this summer with my husband and a team from our church to do mission work!!!

Let me start at the beginning:

Last semester in like AUGUST! Meguell mentioned going to Mozambique...I really wanted to go to Israel (these are both trips that my church takes each year), but I really started thinking about Mozambique, knowing that I WILL GO TO ISRAEL IN MY NEAR FUTURE. So anyways, we started thinking about Mozambique and praying about the trip, but then as I thought logically: Meguell doesn't have a job, it's $3,000 each and as a married couple everything doubles!! Which means we would be paying $6,000 each. At that point I kind of just pushed the idea out of my mind and we kind of just stopped talking about it.

Then, just this semester we thought of it again and I kind of pushed away the thought! Then last week, I watched the documentary "Finger of God" (you should watch it! Or Youtube it, it is in segments on youtube but it's good)! Well this movie got me stirred up and me and Meguell talked more about it and contacted the Trip Coordinator from our church!

It was when I was watching that movie and seeing a missionary named Heidi Baker love on African children that I got stirred up and I felt the Lord reminding me....why did you let money sway you from where I was leading you!?? I mean I have seen the Lord provide in radical ways! And when I pray for other people, I fully believe that the Lord will provide! So why did I doubt that he wouldn't provide for Meguell and me!??

Anyways, so we have turned in all of our information and our deposits, my boss let me off work for 2 weeks! and now we are waiting to make sure there are seats available on the same flight as the rest of the team!! (Since we came in late, they had already bought the team tickets)

But I am fully trusting that the Lord has brought us this far and if he wants us in Mozambique this summer then he will provide tickets! So be in prayer with us! We should have confirmation by the end of the week! I will keep you posted!

Also! When we get tickets, half of the team will be college students, and friends we walk very closely in life with! Which is just another blessing to get to serve in such an awesome way on the other side of the world with people we love so much!!

Please pray for us in all areas of this trip!

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Heaven is FOR REAL!

Pin It There's one thing you should know about me....I enjoy reading a lot, but I have never been a fast reader. It's not that I have trouble reading, I just do it slowly, and a lot of times books that I read I need to take my time and process what I am reading as I go....

Well recently my friends have not been able to stop referring to the book "Heaven is For Real" by Todd Burpo. So finally after our Spring Break Trip I went to the store and bought it. I started reading it around 10:30pm on Friday night and was done with the book on Tuesday morning....plus my dad had been visiting all weekend so I only really read at night! The book was so good I could not put it down.

The book is written by the father of a little boy who while he had an appendicitis went to heaven for a little while, experienced the glory of the kingdom, and then gradually over several years process told his family about it. You may be thinking..."ya right, I don't believe that stuff..." Well let me just say this was a 3 year old boy! Do you really think a 3 year old could make these things up? Even the dad wondered if the boy was making it up, there were multiple things he said that there was no way he could've known from his three years of life.

For example he mentioned to his parents that he has another sister. At first they didn't know what he meant, then he said the one that died, and it hit his mom! He was talking about that child that she miscarried! He talked about how Jesus had adopted her and how he got to see her and she said she couldn't wait for all her family to get to heaven! That is something that he could never have known unless he truly experienced heaven!!

Well my favorite part of the book was this:

They were talking about the throne room of God and where God and Jesus sat, and the father asked the son,

"Where did you sit Colton?"

"They brought in a little chair for me," he said, smiling. "I sat by God the Holy Spirit. Did you know that God is three persons, Dad?"

"Yeah, I think I know that one," I said and smiled.

"I was sitting by God the Holy Spirit because I was praying for you. You needed the Holy Spirit, so I prayed for you."

This took my breath way.

Anyways, this may seem like a random favorite part, but it struck me so solidly! I realized the Lord has been blessing me with experiencing his Holy Spirit and encountering his presence through Holy Spirit, and I need to honor Holy Spirit more. After reading this I began to ask God to show me how to love Holy Spirit like I love God! This may sound funny since the Bible says the trinity is the Father, the Son, & the Holy Spirit, but to me Holy Spirit is something God has and gives, in my mind I don't see Holy Spirit as part of who God is! So I have begun praying that God will show me that he is the Holy Spirit! And begin to teach me to love Holy Spirit as part of God, and appreciate that and honor him!

Anyways, I encourage you to read the book! It will stir up your faith and encourage you!

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Tumors....? What Tumors??

Pin It At one of our out reaches in Abilene, we had a couple of healings happen before we even started our set.

(SET=when we get everyone's attention to sit and listen to a testimony, a drama, and someone share the gospel. Then our worship team plays and we ask if anyone wants to get saved or get prayed for for healing, etc., if no one raises their hand we still engage and pray for people and the Lord always shows up!)

But at a lot of our outreaches on this trip the Lord began doing work as soon as people started showing up! We didn't have to share the gospel, etc. for him to start working! ha ha

At this particular outreach, we got the two ladies that were healed to come up to the front and testify to what the Lord did in their bodies! We did this, because we believe testimonies have power! When you share testimony it creates an atmosphere for Holy Spirit to come and for God to do work!! In Revelation 12:11 it says "and they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimonies...."

So, the first lady came up because she had a nerve problem in her back/shoulder that caused her not to be able to lift her arm above her shoulder, and she definitely couldn't touch her back! She came in so much pain, but after a girl from our team prayed for healing, the pain was gone and she could lift her arm and touch her back! The lady was so full of joy! She stood at the front of this crowd demonstrating how she was healed, waving her arm back and forth, high and low, and actually almost hit the girl with the microphone! ha ha ha

The next testimony we shared out loud was of a lady with tumors. These tumors were generational, her sister had them, and someone, (either a niece or daughter) had died because of the tumors she had! Anyways, this lady had them in her back and her arm, and for years, I think over 20 years she couldn't bend over or touch her back because of the tumors. Well after a few girls prayed for her, she began to feel her arm to show where the tumors were in her forearm. And as she felt around a girl spoke out in faith and boldness telling her she wasn't going to find them because the Lord healed her! SHE COULDN'T FIND/FEEL THE TUMORS! She came to the front of the crowd and told us about this and bent over and reached her hands around and touched her back! She was so blessed!

And her daughter who has cerebral palsy (which was a word we had gotten) came full of pain, and left with no pain! This little girl, probably age 8 or so got up there and told how she came with pain and now had none because God had healed her! It was so sweet to see her speak that out in confidence and happiness!

The Lord is so good and loves to bless his children and to show his glory! Pray that he will continue to use us and bring his Kingdom to earth!

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My Blessing Day....

Pin It There was one day on the trip that the Lord continually blessed me....it was so amazing and overwhelming, I couldn't believe that the blessings just kept on coming, that is why I called it

My Blessing Day!

It started as I was praying with Kelsey over DC...I began to think of how much I wished I had more boldness praying for people, and discerning the Lord's voice while praying over people like Kelsey did. After that, my friend Torre came up and this seemed to be my first encouragement. He told me how he was watching me pray for those girls and he could see my compassion for them and could tell I was hearing from the Lord and speaking life into them! This was so encouraging at that time, it was exactly what I needed.

My second blessing came after Dani prayed over me, I saw my friend Johanna and began walking with her and I thought/prayed, "like her Lord, I want to hear words for others and speak them out as I pray like she does..." At that time Johanna asked me how I was feeling and I said, "I am feeling great!" And I was, the Lord had been blessing me all morning and I had felt his presence on me for the first time! It was amazing! At that time I just starting smiling and was filled with joy for a second and just laughed and had a few tears come out! ha ha Johanna took me and prayed that the Lord would continue to bless me! I was just so filled with encouragement and thanksgiving to the Lord for blessing me so much! It was like everytime I slightly compared myself or my spiritual gifts to others God used encouragement to reaffirm the gifts that he has given me.

Then, as Johanna and I walked towards the bus, a man from our church named Joe, who hung out with us and has the gift of prophesy, and speaks words over us a lot stopped me. I just laughed out loud by the fact that the Lord was about to bless me again! Literally all in a row! :-) He started by saying he saw leadership and teaching in me. With maybe a little administration. I confirmed yes, administration is A LOT of my spiritual gifts! And he said in me those two gifts meshed really well, more than they usually do and he could see these things as I prayed over people. Then he included that I have compassion for people which doesn't always go with the gifts of teaching and admin., but that he saw a lot of that in me. I was in awe and so thankful to the Lord. I was just full of joy and overwhelmed at the Lord's goodness, and the fact that this man who barely knows me called out some of my strongest gifts and one that I have been praying for.

He and Torre both used the word compassion, which is something I have been asking God for more of! I want to have love and compassion for people as the Lord does!

Then more blessing came that night during big team time! First Glorie encouraged me out in front of the group by saying how much I and my testimony had impacted her, and how maybe I was sent just for her! :-)

Then Natalie added on, and when she raised her hand I was so excited that she, with her sweet, wise, impacting words was going to encourage me. The day before I had just been thinking about wanting to be able to speak words out like she does with such clarity and sincerity! And here are some of the words she spoke over me: She said she is so blessed to be led by me because she trusts me and the words that come from me. She felts that every word I speak has been given from the Lord and discerned. Plus the fact that we give vision for all things. She basically focussed on how wise my words are and how she desires that and trusts my wisdom. I literally sat there asking the Lord Why, Why he was doing all this for me, and giving me this blessing too!? When we were done I went to tell Nat how I felt, and five other people came over and agreed with her word.

Then Josh told me how much he was encouraged by my words and encouragement, and how much he loves that I work at the school and he looks forward to coming to by office everyday. Just to talk and unload and how it is so great that I always have words of wisdom and encouragement.

It was just such a sweet day and I couldn't believe how much the Lord gave to me and blessed me through encouragement!

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One Quick Story

Pin It Spring Break was incredible! We expected the Lord to show up and he totally exceeded our expectations!! The Lord is so good and so powerful! How in the heck do we as humans think we can put the CREATOR OF THE UNIVERSE in a box! ha ha it makes me laugh, and I'm sure it makes God laugh when we don't think he can do something, or doubt him! I really think God loves to show us how much he can do beyond our expectations, and totally shatter our little tiny boxes that we have him in!

One quick story:

Well you see, when we go to an outreach we sit in silence and wait on the Lord to speak to us! And I believe the Lord definitely talks to his children...well what we are waiting on is words, names, pictures, etc. that will identify-highlight people that he wants us to minister to! Or sometimes God will give us crazy weird words that we will see as we are going to the outreach, and that word may not have a significant meaning for a person to be saved or healed, but it is just God showing his faithfulness and that he speaks to his children!

Anyways though, God can also speak to us through pains we have in our body. I don't mean like I rolled my ankle playing basketball so it must mean he wants me to pray for someone with a rolled ankle and both of us will be healed :-) But sometimes if you are aware of it there may be a sharp pain, or slight throbbing in a place on your body that the Lord is trying to get your attention with. We have seen this happen in small groups where the person speaks up and asks if someone is having knee pains and through their boldness finds out that someone is, and they get healed, or may just get prayed for and blessed in seeing that the Lord is noticing them and hears their prayers!

For me this has never happened...but last Thursday I was noticing little pains all over, and so as I worked hard to discern if some of those were from the Lord, I told them to write down one where I got a shooting pain down my leg starting at my hip. My pre-med friend behind me popped up and said that sounds like a Sciatic Nerve, so we were all aware of this.

Anyways, towards the end of the night at our outreach a friend called me over to her and a woman she was talking with and asked me what word I had gotten that night. I explained the pain I got and how it felt and that someone named it a sciatic nerve. This lady couldn't believe it!

You see earlier she had gotten prayer for a pain in her back and had been healed, she came in pain and left painless! Then they shared the gospel with her and she was on the verge of praying the prayer to accept Jesus! When I explained the pain I had to her she said, "YEP THAT'S WHAT I HAVE! Except I named it my psychotic nerve....ha ha ha!"

It was amazing! The Lord had never spoken to me through a pain in my body...or I had never been aware enough of it! Usually when I wait on words from the Lord, or even a lot of times when I am praying over people the Lord uses pictures to speak to me!

I will tell more stories later! Enjoy this one though!

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Tsunami

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Please be in prayer for my sister and baby NOah! They are in Japan where the Earthquake & Tsunami hit. They live in the North-East part of Japan, in Misawa! As of now no one has talked to them directly but my brother-in-law did talk to someone who said that all families are accounted for and that she and Noah were at the fire station with all the fire fighters families. Pray for continued safety and no more damage there, and that we can make contact with them directly soon! Pin It

You've got mail

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My journal came in the mail today!! I am so excited! Last night at church while I was worshipping I felt like the Lord just began to speak things about himself over me. It came from a song:

"Iam

Lord of Lords,

I am

King of Kings,

I am

the Mighty God,

Lord of EVERYTHING.

I am

Emanuel

I am

the Great I "Am"

I am the Prince of Peace

Who is the Lamb...

I am

the Living God

I am

Your Saving Grace

I will Reign Forever

I am Ancient of Days...

I am

Alpha,

Omega,

Beginning & End.

I am

Savior,

Messiah,

Redeemer & Friend."

In this time, I felt like the Lord was speaking these words to me, revealing himself to me and telling me who he really is. Then out of honor and respect I was able to speak those back to him through worship....

Then I asked the Lord to speak over me the things he saw in me and thought about me, he did and it was amazing.

I then thought, if I get my new journal tomorrow I will start it by writing about this! Well today it came in the mail, and I am so excited to start writing in it!

(The inside cover of my journal)

(Dani's journal on the left, mine on the right)

This is the link of the etsy seller that makes these journals! I love it and encourage you if you are in need of a new journal definitely check out this site! http://www.etsy.com/shop/inblue?page=1

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Spring Break

Pin It Spring Break is rapidly approaching....and I have got to get ready for it! This year the church that my husband and I attend, Beltway Park Baptist Church, is taking a Spring Break Mission Trip! Well I say taking, but really we will be staying in Abilene. First let me explain, Meguell and I lead a college lifegroup, and have for several years now. Even though I am done with my undergrad and Meguell is finishing up, we still felt like God was calling us to serve in the College Ministry. This has been confirmed in so many ways: since then, we have stepped up to a new position in the college ministry, plus everyday when I see students and they come to my office and chat with me about issues they are dealing with, or celebrate with me about all the good things the Lord is doing, I am reminded why God gave me this job and told us to stay in the college ministry! I love it!

On that note, we are doing this mission trip with the College ministry! Last year we did outreaches in Abilene with about 80 college students, this year we are doing work in the surrounding small cities of Abilene, or "The Big Country," and taking about 160 college students! Meguell and I are leading one of the groups of three, which is about 51 students! We are so excited and God has taught us so much through this process of leading! Plus, God has already started doing some awesome work in the past few weeks, and I know he will just continue to move...not only in us, but through us and to the people we will encounter!

Anyways, I am asking that you pray for us throughout the week....below I will give a brief summary of things you can pray for on each day of the trip! Thanks so much...and of course I will be sure to update after the trip! I have got to tell you how faithful God is and all the work he does!

Saturday, March 12^th

- Pray for grace as we begin the trip, travel, and get settled into our hotel rooms

- Pray for our trip leaders and members as we work through administrative details, etc.

- Pray that all fears and doubts would be driven away by God’s love

Sunday – Thursday, March 13^th – 17^th

- We will have compassion for the cities we go to. Special sensitivity to each individual we meet. To feel and suffer with them, to have deep feelings of mercy for them.

- Our teams will be united and each member will be healthy.

- People will be saved, healed and delivered from all of the powers of darkness.

- The Lord will give us creative ways to communicate the gospel.

- That all of the strongholds of legalistic religious tradition will be broken.

- Our friends and family at home will be free from worry and involved in prayer for us.

- The Lord will train each of us to minister effectively.

Friday, March 19^th

- As we end our trip, pray that God would establish deep in our hearts and lives the things He did in us throughout the week and that the seeds we have sown would produces long-term fruit.

Saturday, March 20^th

- Pray that God will strengthen us and fill us with His rest. Pray that all we experienced and received from the Lord will continue with us and be established in our everyday lifestyles. Pray that it would forever impact our church and city.

(Ask the Lord to give you scriptures to use in prayer related to each of these prayer needs.)

Please access our blog throughout the trip to hear daily stories and testimonies of what God is doing: www.beltwaycollegepark.org/blog

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He is faithful to the end....

Pin It Well....let's just say this past weekend was pretty stressful and spiritually draining for me and Meguell! Even though we did get to go to a Hillsong concert on Saturday and that was good, there was still a lot of stress on us as leaders of the Spring Break trip for our church. Then, God did something amazing...that was not only a sweet material gift from him, but also ministered to our hearts!

Yesterday we were sitting at home and a friend of mine was coming over....when I heard her pull up I opened the door and her and another girl came walking up to my house carrying a large box! I stood there astonished asking "What are y'all doing....what is this?" They just smiled, walked in and laid the box down, and said, "Don't ask questions....just be blessed." They laid the box down, grabbed a quick hug from me and scurried out the door saying they had to go to Lifegroup.

I stood at my door as they drove away with my mouth wide open....these two sophomore girls in our college ministry just laid down a brand new television in our living room and left us with no explanation!

REMINDER: our house got broken into in January and they ripped our tv out of our wall....

Anyways, I turned to Meguell and said, "What do we do now...?" and he picked up his guitar and said..."I guess we just worship."

So we sat in our living room and sang praises to the Lord because he is so good and so faithful! And it wasn't only that he gave us this gift, but also he ministered to my heart through this!

Out of all that we had been going through in the weekend and the stress and heaviness I felt, in that moment I felt the Lord say, "I can take care of you!" I mean the TV is just a symbol of that, and something for me to see, which may be what I needed to believe his words...but at that moment I remembered that my God is good and powerful and can take care of me in all things!

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New Pages....

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It's about that time....time for a new journal! I'm very excited about this...Excited to start writing in the new pages! Flipping through a brand new journal is so nice, so adventurous! A journal is a place that has no boundaries, you can write any thought, draw any picture, or recite any quote! It is a place of freedom! And this time, I am spending a lot of time finding the PERFECT one! I am finally getting a nice leather one! And just in time for our Spring Break Mission trip! I need an entire journal because I am expecting the Lord to show up and give me lot's of wisdom and revelation of him that I will have to record!

Well here are the two that I have narrowed it down to:

The thing I like about this one is....well first the tree! But also, I like that it is refillable! The leather part is just a cover so I can continue to have the nice leather bound journal even when my pages run out!

This one does not say that it is reusable, but I do like it...so now I am in the deciding process!

Which do you like best?

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Black & White Party

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I heard about this Black & White photo party on Tracy's Trinkets and Treasures Photo Linky Party, and since I love pictures I thought I would jump right on this!!

The first thing that came to my mind when I thought of Black & White was my sweet Dalmation Bella-Jane! So this blog is a tribute to her!

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