Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Christmas?...Here?...Already?

My oh my where has the time flown? It seems like Thanksgiving was just last week! Things around here have been super busy. The month started with Christmas at Concord 2008! I love production time! This year the production was about 2 army families. The husbands were deployed unexpectedly just in time for Christmas. While sharing the gospel with his lost friend, Captain Robert Foster laid down his life for his friend...just as Jesus did for each of us. "No Greater Love has no man that this. That he laid down his life for his friend". I played the part of a civilian secretary. I don't know what it is, but I just love the stage!
**********************************************************************************
The week after production we celebrated Christmas at Strong Rock (www.strongrockcamp.com) sidebar: I wish I knew all the neato blogging tools...like how to put in a link but only show the title of the link....It was great to see all of the amazing staff! We had a great time. I even won a My Little Pony with a bonus DVD while playing Dirty Santa! Come on, you know your jealous! You can check out pictures and more info on the website blog!
*******************************************************************************
This week was a little more normal...well, normal for Christmas. Last Thursday Jill and the kids came over for lunch for our Christmas celebration. I love watching my nieces and nephews open gifts. They get excited about the simplest things....like orbit bubble gum! You would have thought that it was made of gold! On Monday, Laura and her kids ate dinner with us at mom's. It was fun to watch her kids open gifts as well. The Strong Rock Camp sweatshirts were definitely a hit!
********************************************************************************
Tomorrow will be our traditional Christmas Eve celebration! I LOVE Christmas Eve! After the candle light service at church we head over to mom's house to celebrate. When I say we I mean my family, and about 40 other people! I LOVE IT. We start the evening by having all the kids read the prophesies of Christ from Isaiah. We then pour sparkling cider and toast. After toasting I read the Christmas story from Luke out of my Great Great Grandmother's Bible. We then pray and sit down to a feast of homemade lasagna, salad, and mom's famous sour dough bread! YUMMY...After dinner we enjoy some of my famous banana pudding and then all the kids head outside to light sparklers and fireworks! The kids look forward to it all year! We even have some "Grand Finalise"! I can't wait!
**********************************************************************************
I know it will come as a shock to you both of you but I may not blog for a couple of weeks. We are driving down to St. Simons to spend time with family on Christmas Day and driving back on December 28th. I am then flying out to India...yes, the country...on the 29th! I'm super excited about the trip. First a little background....In 2002 I began teaching at Westminster Christian School. The parents of one of my students asked me if I would be interested in babysitting for a week while they went out of town. They were going to be taking Christmas gifts to children in India. I had just returned home from China and was super interested in their trip. I stayed with the kids (all 4 of them) and was excited to hear about all that God did through them! I wanted to go! Unfortunately, the trips were always at the beginning of December, and I had to teach so I couldn't go. Well, really, God just wasn't ready to use me there yet....Every year I would inquire about the trip, and the timing never worked....UNTIL.....This year! They decided to do the trip after Christmas! Perfect! I will be traveling with 18 others to India on December 29th. We will be delivering 2600 backpacks filled with blankets, bibles, toys, fruit, toothbrushes, etc! Most important we will be sharing with those there about what Christmas really means. Christmas is about God....think about that...God left perfection and came to earth. He didn't come to be served, or even worshiped. He came with one purpose. To carry the weight of the sins of the world. He bore them all on the cross and then died in our place. "The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life though Christ Jesus our Lord. Each of us has earn death. We deserve to live miserable lives, and die. God however, in is grace and mercy gave us the gift of Jesus. Jesus poured out his blood so that you and I could live...forever! I recently heard someone say "I can't trust in and worship a god that allows such pain and misery" Oh, but that is what we all deserve, however God chooses to bless us....all of us, believers or not! He allows to enjoy him! He allows us to come into his presence and soak in all that he is. Oh how I miss out sometimes because I get so busy with "life" that I miss out on the one that gives me each breath! My prayer is that you would remember the greatest gift of all. You don't deserve it, you can't earn it. Its free. GRACE. I am so excited about the trip but not the 15 hour plane ride. We will return on January 6th, and hopefully after a few days of sleeping I'll tell you all about it!

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Work, you better Work it Girl!

Ok, so I know that I have some friends who have BIG hearts. Those same friends also love to take pictures! Well do I have A-Mazing news for you! McMamma is holding a Rebel With A Cause raffle way. All the proceeds go to amazing ministries, and you could win a Cannon Rebel SLR Digital Camera! Woot Woot!! Follow the like below to enter!!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Ok Ok Ok...So I know that I give other bloggers out there grief about not updating enough. I'M SORRY! Now I understand. I'm single and have NO children and I haven't had time to write in almost a month!
.................................................................................
The last month has been a daze...where has the time gone? Well, first there was Thanksgiving preparations, then Christmas decorating and I'm currently in a production called "Army Lives" and practices have kept be busy... Speaking of "Army Lives" I'd love for you to come and see it. We are doing two free open seating and free...yes FREE performances on December 6th at 7:00pm and December 7th at 10:00am. Tickets are still available for our dinner theater performance on December 7th-10th. Tickets are $13.00 and include a GREAT meal. Let me know if you want tickets and I'll leave some at will call for you!
..................................................................................
Thanksgiving was great. I drove to spend the day at my Aunt and Uncles house in Statesboro. My dad and step-mom drove up and we ate yummy food and got to spend sometime together. My Grandmother lives in Statesboro now and it was great to see her as well. I drove back home that night to meet my mom to begin the Black Friday shopping madness. We have started a tradition of going shopping at the outlet malls at midnight. We found some pretty great deals. After hitting the outlets we decided to head to Wal-mart to check out the Christmas decorations. We arrived around 3:15am or so and there was no one in the store...as a matter of fact there were only a handful of cars in the parking lot. The friendly Wal-mart greeter informed us that the sale didn't start until 5am and we were not allowed to put anything in our cart until then! After a little investigating we realized that this no cart rule was only for the door buster sales. We went to the Christmas decoration section...loaded up the buggy and went to check out. On the way to the check-out stand we realized that the store was becoming crowded and there were people just standing around doing nothing...turns out they were hovering over their precious sale items. Mind you this was at 4:00am and they still had an hour to wait...We proceeded to check out and as we were leaving it was almost impossible to get out the door with all the crazy hovering, sale-stalking stoppers rushing through the doors. By the time we loaded the car and headed out, the parking lot was completely full! I'm no super shopper, but I tell you Black Friday shopping is pure entertainment!
..................................................................................
I'm still loving my new home. The Christmas decorations are up and they look fabulous! I even have 3....yes T-H-R-E-E trees! There is beautiful lighted garland on my stair rail, and lighted trees on my front porch....wait I guess that means I have FIVE trees! I love this time of year!

Monday, November 10, 2008

Not Me...No Way

I am not shamelessly participating in Mckmama's Not Me Monday as an effort to get more people to read my blog! Who in their right mind does that! That is totally prideful and selfish! I would never be selfish!

I did not shove clutter in drawers and under the furniture only minutes before company arrived this weekend. I don't have clutter! My house is perfectly clutter free!

I am not typing this post from my desk at work. I am completely focused on my job and would NEVER complete personal tasks at the office.

I did not take Caleb to Burger King on Friday and allow him to eat anything he wanted. I want him to eat healthy and would never encourage him to eat all of his french fries.

What did you NOT do this week?

Sunday, November 9, 2008

Let the Journey Begin...

I've been thinking. I know that is a dangerous thing at times so maybe I should say I've been reflecting. I've been reflecting on life. I know that my purpose is to glorify God by enjoying him forever, but at times that seems so vague. My life is a journey. There are times when I'm walking on the mountain tops, lost in the valleys, or wandering in the desert. There is so much to learn in this life through all of the stops along the way. This blog is my way of sharing my journey along the path of life. Let me catch you up on the Journey so far...

I was raised in a Christian home by a single mother. She made sure that my brother and I were in church whenever the doors were opened. My mom remarried a couple of months before my 10th birthday. As a family we visited churches to find one that we all enjoyed. After much searching, we joined a small 'country' church that had less than 100 people in attendance on Sunday mornings. Church was filled with potlucks and parties. The summer of 1988 my mother sent me to a camp in the North Carolina Mountains. It was at Camp Crestridge that I first realized that there was a major void in my life. Jesus was missing. Sitting in the front row of the open air chapel I asked Jesus to take control of my life and he adopted me into his family. I was truly a new creation. I remember the joy that consumed me. I was His! After returning home I was starving for more of Jesus. I struggled for the next several years in my walk with the Lord. I was never extremely rebellious. I didn't live a party lifestyle. I was never tempted by the stereotypical teenage struggles, but I did struggle. I struggled in my spiritual growth. I new what prayer was, and that reading the Bible was important, but I never had someone encourage me in my walk. Sure I went to church, but it seemed more like a social club where you went to hang out with your friends a few days a week...I continued my journey with Jesus...alone.

The fall of 1995 I started my freshman year of college. I was never a lover of education and choose my college based on where it was located...Nashville, TN! It sounded like a fun place, and there were a lot of opportunities for music there. I had heard of David Lipscomb University through my brother. He attended Basketball camps there. It was a pretty school and it was a Christian school. My college years were where, for the first ,I was totally on my own in my spiritual walk. My mom didn't make me wake up early to go to church. No one cared if I went to the weekly Bible study. Most importantly, no one told me what to believe. I grew up in church remember. I thought what my mom and my pastor said were true. I never doubted what they said, and honestly never checked what they said against God's word. I had a few room mates at DLU who had very different beliefs that me. It was so hard for me to meet people that I felt I connected with. I went to church with friends and disagreed with what I heard. This caused me to really dive into God's word for the first time. This was the beginning of true spiritual growth for me. God did not leave me completely alone though. My freshman year I did meet a wonderful girl who I still consider a close friend. We both decided that God led us to DLU for the sole purpose of meeting one another...and to learn how to defend what we believe with God's word.

After 2 years I transferred to a school closer to home in NC. I was able to drive home on weekends and began visiting a church that my brother joined. My parents and I joined a year after Walt. I am still a member of Concord and feel extremely blessed by the people that I have met there.

In 1999 I spend a summer in Panama City participating in a Campus Outreach Summer Beach Project (SBP). The theme was By All Means (BAM) "I became all things to all people that I may BY ALL MEANS save some" SBP was an amazing 10 weeks of spiritual growth. I was discipled one on one, learned the importance of scripture memory, and the Lord began to burden my heart for the lost. SBP was a turning point in my life.

After graduating from college I joined an team of 8 girls to teach English in China. This was the hardest and best year of my life! This was an amazing journey! God used this year to show me what it means to totally rely on Him. He proved himself faithful. This year not only opened my eyes to others need for Jesus, but it also taught how too look at people through the eyes of Jesus. I could go on and on...but I'll save that for another day.

After returning home from China I started teaching school in the states and loved the students and being able to impact their lives. After 6 years of teaching, I decided a career change was needed and the direction of my 'journey' changed. In the spring of 2007 I began working full time for Strong Rock Camp! Summer camp holds a special place in my heart. I met Jesus at a Camp. My life changed because someone took the time to see me as an individual, and chose to share their hope with me. I want to be apart of changing lives!

There are field trips on my journey of life. I still have a desire to see the nations turn to Jesus. I have spent 3 spring breaks in Brazil and I'm planning my first trip to India this Christmas! I'm so excited about the journeys of life! It is my hope that this Journey of mine would point to Jesus and lead others to him as well.