a Christian's Rant.

One thing i've been thinking a lot about lately is how we as Christians apply the Word to our lives and live out the gospel daily. it's not enough in this life to just proclaim "Jesus is my savior" but our lives have to prove that He alone is the worthy One, the One we live every day for and make every decision in light of. The call to live for Christ is so much more than tacking the American dream on to the gospel. If you want to know more about why this has been on my mind, this book is one of the reasons. I am going through it with my junior discipleship group at PC and it is convicting. I have found myself in so many conversations lately with people who plan out every detail of life and have reasons why they can and can't follow Christ in the is life. 2 Corinthians 5:7 says, "We walk by faith, NOT by sight." If you love and follow Jesus, what does this mean for you? For some Christian women, it means not working outside the home so that they can love and nurture their children in the Lord, not knowing how they will pay for a college education for the kids. But we walk by faith and not by sight. For others, it means taking a step out of their comfort zone to start a spiritual conversation. How will it turn out? we don't know, but we do know that we walk by faith in all that we do. If you look at the lives of the great missionaries of the past who reached out to the lost, who weathered illness and discomfort, who traveled to different cultures with new customs, what differentiates them from many Christians today? I believe it is that they didn't walk by sight, they did not worry about how God would provide for them but trusted in His sovereign hand and that "in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose". This has challenged me when i think about chasing the materialistic American dream. And while I do trust God, it is a daily battle for me not to choose to spend money on things that don't last, to live for today and not for eternity. In John piper's book Don't Waste Your Life, he pleads that we not get to the end of our lives and say, "I have wasted it! I have wasted my life!"...on working my life away, storing up possessions on earth that have no eternal value, pursuing the body of a supermodel...but that we would all live our lives as worship to the One we love. That we would experience the joy and freedom that come from giving everything to Him and walking out our faith every day.

My Daily Bread.

When i'm having a bad day, God always provides a little pick-me-up! Sometimes in nature, sometimes through a good sweet ;), and lots of times through cute wittle baby animals. Today I am stressed and overwhelmed with campus planning stuff with PC, sooo here are some encouragement pics!!!

"Thank Jesus There's a McDonalds!!"

.....that's what i said when we were leaving Honduras and heading back to the U.S. Knowing me, you'd know that i don't like Mickey D's, and given that we eat there 46578 times a summer with the 50% discount card at Myrtle, i am finished with my share of fries for the year by the time august comes around. But the golden arches were looking pre-tty good about that time, hey, it was american! Ok, so i am being a little dramatic but i really was glad to get some good fried food after spending a week at an orphanage with Jake's wonderful family! I got to go to a 3rd world country for the first time, got to go to an orphanage for the first time, and got to go on my first looong trip with the inlaws, without the hubby. Don't panic all you wives out there, it was a piece of cake with the McCoun's...it was just like being with my own family, i even bear-hugged Jake's mom and squeezed her hand tightly as the plane took off. ha, i'm serious. It was so much fun though, and here are a few highlights from it:

-wrestling with God over having to ride on a plane again (my biggest fear in life. period.) The way He answered: a rainbow when we got to the orphanage, and a rainbow when we got back to Atlanta a week later.

-spending time with the Skinner's, a family that moved from Gainesville, Georgia to give their lives to the orphans for the last two years

-hearing the faith story of the founders of Orphanage Emmanuel-they didn't even know spanish and they literally sold everything they had in the states and went to Honduras!

-painting a huge umm...warehouse thing...sweating is not my spiritual gift so i am grateful that God put me up to the challenge to "do everything without complaining" (Phil. 2:14)

-nightly devotions with the McCouns...soooo blessed by God to have in laws who love Jesus!

-finding internet on my top bunk so that i could email Jake at all hours of the night ;)

-the blessing of being taken out of the comforts of home to see that what i really need in life is more of the Lord, not more stuff.

It was a great week, and i would have gladly packed one of the kids in my bag and taken them home with me!! Buuut..i am so glad to have Jake back from South Africa and back in my arms! it was kinda tough to be apart for 10 days, not to mention get sick and go to the ER without my best friend by my side, but i was so excited on monday morning to see Jake that i couldn't even sleep much sunday night!! So, this week has been g-r-e-a-t. We have been able to rest and do some projects around the house, and i am working on my current project: a hand painted bedside table. i'm putting up a few pics from the past few days!

and, we're back..

We are back in our hot, humid and holy motel room at the mariner, for 2 nights. We got back today, and it's hotter than ever! We are really excited to catch up with all of the students and hear how their time has been for the last 3 weeks...but we are exhausted. one thing we always do before leaving home for a few days is complete a few last minute projects around the house like...oh, hanging a back door or reorganizing my grandmother's fine china. soo, we went to be around 3 and had to leave the house by 8 today. I am just excited to be down here again and to wrap things up! One thing i've realized about myself lately is how much my flesh craves stability with circumstance. every time we're at home i always want to stay and nest a while. But then i am beginning to realize more and more how even though we don't have the stability of being in one location much, we do have the stability of the Word and the Lord's affections for me are always there. Please pray for me that i'll believe that daily when i get discouraged.

One of my all time favorite singer/songwriters is Bebo Norman. If youve heard him, he's good. AND he's a PC grad. i'll leave ya with a quote by him and a link to one of my favorite songs by Bebo. I listened to this song every day when i was struggling through seasonal depression on a summer trip to south africa in 2007.

Bebo admits, “I have silently walked the last four years with a building and recently diagnosed struggle with anxiety. If I’m honest, it’s something that I’ve found a bit of shame in, and the irony is that it involves singing the songs I so dearly love to sing . . . It seems the older I get, the less I understand about this life, about faith and the struggles that come with it. But more importantly, I’m being shown that the older I get, the less I need to understand. ‘Pull Me Out’ is about learning more every day that what I really need to do in this life and in this world is to simply trust in a God who is indeed completely in control.”

In Your Hands

I didn't know I would love you when I looked into your eyes
But now I have a heart I cannot keep
And the greatest of fear is that you'll leave me here
Stranded in this water so deep

So don't you turn away from me
Because my heart and my hopes, they're in your hands
If I don't seem certain
It's just a common fear from a common man
But I am in your hands

Just so you know, I have never done this sort of thing before
I've never given up my very soul
But I have heard a voice like none I've heard before
And it's a voice that never grows old

Don't you turn away from me
Because my heart and my hopes, they're in your hands
And if I don't seem certain
It's just a common fear from a common man
But I am in your hands
I am in your hands
I know…I am in your hands

Drummer Can't Contain the Rock

See more funny videos and TBT Videos at Today's Big Thing.

Home again...finally.

Jake tiled the black and white tiles at the top!! It looks awesome!
My earring hanger from TJ.
The door Jake made for our crawl space.
My first home made peach pie ;)
My flower boxes :)! To fill it with flowers, i bought a pot of mixed flowers from Home Depot for 10.00 and it filled the whole box!
Us after we ran the Peachtree Road Race
Jake and I at Isle of Palms
Wow, i haven't updated on here in a few weeks!! We have been gone from the Leadership Project for about two weeks now, and it has really flown by. Last week, Jake and I went on vacation with my family at Isle of Palms. I loved going on a shopping spree with my sisters, going to a fun place for dinner every night, and just being lazy ;). It was soo fun to be w my sisters since we're best friends!! One thing we love to do every vacation is read a "beach read". I read The Wedding Machine, which was entertaining and hilarious, and it was supposedly a "women of faith" novel, but...definitely did not mention a thing about Jesus or anything. hmm...Anywho, Jake and I decided on a whim to visit with his aunt and grandmother in Atlanta and run the Peachtree Road Race on July 4th. It was soo fun!! If you know me, you know how i hate competition and even delight to fail at sports because i hate the idea of competing. But be proud to know that I didn't walk once during the race. By God's common grace, the weather was great and i was barely sweating until mile 4. We had so much fun running it together, i really think we could run a half marathon. So we finally got home on Monday night after a quick stop in Gainesville to see Emily, Jakes youngest sister, and watch some fireworks. We'll be home for about a week and a half or so, and we have lots of tasks to get done. Not gonna lie, one of the hardest things about spending the summer at Myrtle is that we inevitably return home to dead bugs and dead plants. I wouldn't change it for the world, i love what we do, but when we're here we make a checklist and get to work. Here's what we completed today:
Jake tiled the top of the shower it looks so good, i am so impressed that he knew how!
Jake hung flower boxes under the windows and i planted some flowers!
I got this awesome jewelry hanger from TJ Maxx!

Last Week!!

It's our last week here at the LP until we come back the last week in July to tie up the project...time has flown by!! This past weekend was parent's weekend at the Leadership Project, where the student's parents have the opportunity to come to Myrtle for the weekend and hear more about Campus Outreach, what we do at the LP, and spoil their kids by taking them out to dinner and doing their laundry hehe!! Jake's parents came last weekend and it was sooo fun for us, probably the most fun weekend we've had since we got down here! It was just so fun to be able to introduce them to the students we've been telling them about, and for them to get to sight see around the most wonderful city in the world-Myrtle beach!! just kidding, but it was so fun, not to mention Jake's mom brought us some delicious cupcakes that made my week!!! I haven't written on here in so long, so I thought I would put some pictures up of one of our friday night socials, the Theme Putt Putt social. We got split into different teams and assigned someone to dress like. Jake and I got the old folks home...again!! It was so fun to see what everyone looked like, and to get to know students we didn't know as well before.

Finally, I wanted to post another cheesy song to listen to on Youtube because it has really ministered to me when praying Gal. 5:1 "It is for freedom that Christ has set you free." A lot of times we say this but aren't quite sure how to experience the freedom that being a son or daughter of our King gives us. I love this song because it speaks to me how Jesus is our healer and the One who sews up our wounds and breaks the chains of our prison cells, allowing us to dance along with Him for the rest of our lives, no longer bound by others' opinions or our own self-doubt. "You will keep in perfect peace Him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in You. Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord, the Lord is the rock eternal." Isaiah 26:3-4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvIEJ_PmqJ8