Farewell

Well, I thought I would post one last time before leaving America. Today, my family and I participated in a African wedding. This week has been totally crazy with getting ready for my trip and with my parents helping the bride get ready for her wedding.

The wedding was good and the weather beautiful for taking pics at the part. There are three pics below from today. The first is of Gracia and my Mommy, the second of two of the ushers (my brother, Andrew, and a long time friend, Jeff), the third and last is of some brilliant flowers I couldn't help but snap a picture of.

Guess I'll end there, as I still have stuff to accomplish and it is now 3:05 in the morning:)

For me to live....

Two portions of scripture that I like are, Phil. 1:21 For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. and Matt. 16:24-26 Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. “For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?

I think that the first verse is a great life statement! Now the hard part is living it out. Many christian would probably say, and they might even follow through with dying for Christ but the real question is, will we live for him?! Sometimes, in life, I find it easier than others but I'm definitely still a diamond in the rough!

As for the second verse, Jesus used it to help me recently. One thing I find myself struggling with is wanting to have fame and fortune. It might sounds silly but it's easy for me to look at hollywood actresses and wish that I could have their lives. I think it would be fun to act for a job and to have a beautiful singing voice would be amazing. But God is faithful and He showed me that yes I could be an actress (whether I really would make it or not is a whole other issue:) but what is more important? Having fame and fortune (not that there is necessarily anything wrong with those) or investing in ministry? He showed me that those actresses and actors have their rewards and joy and pleasure now but with His work the rewards are long term. And might I mention, His way also seem to come with many joys and pleasures, from what I've experienced.

So, may God make all our live to be living examples of these two verses. That when we go to be with him, people can truly say of us that we gave up our lives to find them, we forfeited our lives to gain our soul, and for us to live was Christ and to die was simply gain!!! To bring greater praise and glory to God the Father!

Watch out Asia, 'cause here I come

I just wanted to post and ask for all of your prayers while I'm over in Asia. I will leaving on the 31st of this month and be traveling with BL until the 29th of Sept. I'm then spending my second month in Thailand with the Fongs until the 26th of Oct. Thanks so much for all the support in my life that so many of you give me. May God bless your lives this fall and forever!

Help me want to obey.....

Have you ever known something was the right thing to do but you still didn't want to do it? And then have you ever addressed that problem with praying Lord, help me to want to obey? I know that I have!

I was reading through some of the old entries in my journal last night, when I can across a reference to a verse that encouraged me. It's Phil. 2:13 and it says: For God is at work within you, helping you to want to obey him, and then helping you to do what he wants. (The Living Bible translation.) I found this very encouraging! It was reassuring to see what I was praying was actually biblical and God would want me to pray that.

This verse also shows me that God knows our weakness even better than we do. He understands that not only can we not obey him on our own but we can't even desire to want to obey him. I'm so glad that I serve a God that understands me way better than I do myself, (because all of us girls know how horrible difficult our emotions can be to figure out sometimes!) and is so gracious, loving, and understanding to me.

Thank you Lord for faithfully working on my stubborn hard heart helping me want to obey!

Wow, I think it's about time that I blogged again! I've really been bad about it this time.
Life has been very busy for me this summer! In fact, that's an probably an understatement. Okay a quick overview of my summer:

Go to Colorado for a week,
Come home to a flooded house for one night,
Leave for Wheaton College the next morning for a three week course,
Arrive home on the 4th of July and enjoy the fireworks with family,
Leave the following Monday for KS where BL was holding 2 conferences,
Come back home a week later and enjoy family and friends from out of state/country for around 2 1/2 or so weeks (I forget how long and I don't want to think that hard:),
Leave once again for a vacation in VA to visit family for a week,
Drive to MI for two more BL conferences and arrive home,
Enjoy my weekend before getting ready to leave for Asia for 2 months.

Life can sure be crazy! It's no wonder the time has slipped away!

I'm going to try and post while I'm in Asia, but we'll have to wait and see how often:) I would appreciate all of your prayers while I'm away! I will be going with a group of my friends to Singapore and Malaysia to hold some BL conferences there. We will be packing a lot into the time we have. After a month of conferences everyone will be heading back but me. The Lord has opened the door once again for me to go back to Thailand with a wonderful family from Singapore. I'm excited and looking forward to seeing my friends in the orphanage among other things! Please pray that God would bear much fruit in many lives, that the conferences would encourage the girls to live their lives totally for Christ, that we would be able to somehow minister to some Muslims while there, and that we would see God's hand move mightily, and whatever Jesus leads you to pray.

Thank you so much!