God can use anyone

So i don't have very much time to do a blog but i just wanted to say just this little bit. I have always known through reading the scripture that God can use anyone, but it wasn't until I actually saw it happen in my life i really believed it. He can use people dispite what they are going through, because in the end it is not about you in the first place. So I know this is something most people already know or have heard in one point in their life if they have been christian for long, but I don't think anyone really realizes how true it is until it God actually uses them to do something beyond their own ability and despite whatever hurts or struggles they are going through in life. I will probably elaborate on this later when I have more time, but this has been on my heart and mind alot lately and I just had to get it out.

Take time to have fun!

This is Mark and Chris. We took a little break in the walmart parking lot during our amazing race at the beginning of the year. We had a blast!

Everyday adventures...

So I arrived at the dream center this morning for church thinking by chance this would be a normal day. That is funny because there are no normal days at the dream center that is what i love about the place. So anyway I get there and we have a waterfall coming down in multiple places in our back building. The sanctuary side has a new rood so it was fine but the other building has not been fixed yet and it rained all day yesterday. So anyway the roof is leaking majorly in the room above the kitchen. Man, I just realized I should have taken a picture. So that is what we did an hour before church started was mop and shop vac up all the water on the floor and put trash cans where it was pouring down. We have other leaks in odd places as well with water stedily coming down. The roof guy is suppose to come tomorrow, so pray that he comes and he actually starts working on it instead of just coming and looking at it. That building does alot throughout the week and it is still just the beginning of the many things to come. I hate to see it like that. Anyway I know God has it covered I mean He is the one got the building in the first place. It is all good. So on the to do list for this week wash all the towels that were used today in drying up rivers of water. WOO WHOO!!!! I love what I get to do and I don't mean that sarcastic at all. I truly love what I get to do everyday! I hate the normal, I would go crazy in a normal setting whatever that might be. Alright that is it for now. Hey 3 posts in a row thats pretty good. Sorry I don't have any pictures of today it is just not the first thing you think of when you see a waterfall coming down inside. :) At least I don't.

I know this Long over due. But this was during the Hurricane. We were at the dream center. Not only did we run a shelter for a nursing home and assisted living patients we also painted Donna's office! We had alot of fun at the Dream Center as you can see in this picture. God did some amazing things during that week and a half there. It was my first time ever doing shift work for security! I will never forget that time in my life when God got me safely out of a hurricane not the one going on outside but the one going on inside of me. He is faithful and He knows where you are.

Its been awhile....

Have really been through alot this year in the internship already. I don't ever write on here anymore because so much is happening in my life its hard for me to gather thoughts to write about just a smidgen of what is going on. But I am trying to get back in the habbit of writing blogs. Because I don't know where I am going to be next year and I want to have something for people to find out what I am doing and what kind of things God is doing through me.

So I guess I will just start with the most recent big thing. It was the thanksgiving outreach. I loved it! The part I loved was actually getting back testimonies before the outreach was even over. I also loved being actually a part of the delieveries 2 days after the outreach. The interns got to deliver to families that didn't get any that registered late. It was great opportunity to be able to go to familes and hand them a thanksgiving meal for them to be able to cook on thanksgiving for their family. The best part about that was being able to pray for them. There was not one family that turned us down when we asked could we pray for them for anything. One lady even prayed for us after we got done praying for her. I love where God has me. I still can't believe how amazing He is and how he can use someone like me dispite MYSELF. He still gets the glory.

Over 400 familes were delieverd a thanksgiving dinner!! In less than 3 hours i might add.... We had alot of volunteers!! :) Thank you God for letting me be a part of something Amazing and is a blessing to so many.

My Heart

I already typed this up once and my connection got lost and the whole thing got lost, so I am not going to remember everything I wrote before but hopefully I will get the main point across.
Man looks at the outward appearance and God looks at the heart.

The real problem is who you are not what you face.

• What comes out when we get squeezed and crushed

This came out of some old notes of mine and it really got me thinking.....

What is in my heart? Does God have my heart completely? Am I holding anything back from God?

Well I know I would love to answer that God has my heart completely and I am not holding anything from Him. I would love to say that when I am squeezed and crushed God will flow out of me, but I can't say those things. And it is very hard for me to admit that.

I want be able to serve God with everything that is inside of me. I want to have a pure heart. That means giving up everything that is not pleasing to Him. My question is how do you give up something that you have held onto as long as you can remember? The only answer I know to that is......GOD!

I want to be able go the distance and do the things God has called me to do. I know that means I am going be tested and tested and tested because I will not walk in those things until God knows I am ready. So i want to get that point to whene I am squeezed and crushed, the only thing left to come out of me will be God's Holy Spirit. I don't want even one corner or crack to be filled with something other than Him. I know God is getting ready now. That is why..... I WILL NOT GIVE UP!

Empty me God! I want more of you and less of me.

Holy Fire burn away my desire of anything that is not of you and is of me! FILL ME WITH YOU!

What is in your heart?

Desires and Passions

So after church today I just sat in my car at the apartment because I didn't feel like getting out in the rain yet. So I sat and pondered everything I had just heard in church service today and thought about all the things God has placed on my heart. So I started writing....

I want to to have a heart that is willing and obedient to go and do to whatever and wherever God calls me. I have no idea what the future holds for me. I do know that the desire that are on my heart are not just there to be there but I believe there will be day that I see each one of the things God has placed on my hear to come to pass.

I have a heart for nations and cities! I want to love on the orphans everywhere and help them find their heavenly father. I want to go to the forgotten and the places most are too afraid to go to. I want to see hope brought to the hopeless and Joy to the depressed. I want to see chains broken from people who have been bound since birth. I want to see people fight for the freedom they thought they could never have. I want to love on the hurting, poor, and lost. I want to walk in the Holy Spirit and I want the Holy Spirit to guide each step and word that comes from me. I want to walk with courage and boldness like never before. I want show God's children how beautiful He thinks they are. I want them to see themselves how God see them. I want to see Hope, Courage, Faith, Love, Joy, and Peace brought to God's children. I don't want to get in the way of what God wants to do through me. I want to go the distance. And I want to go even when I'm scared.

I don't know what the future holds for me but I do know that it is not going to be no ordinary life with an ordinary job. :) God knows the desires of my heart and He knows I love an Adventure! :) Here I am Lord, send me!!

What I am learning...

Would I be found guilty of prayer and worship to God?
When God test our faith He often puts us in situations where we can't find any other way out but Him. -No Escape
I can not forget about the power of God. When we are obedient and trust God He wil show up.
The inexcapable platform of pain provides the undeniable proof of faith. God can bring us through unhurt.

Wow... God is...undescribable. There are never any words that can truly describe Him. Why do we so often decide not to trust Him? We have seen so many times before that He takes care of it all even better than what we had in mind. Sometimes we even find ourselves trusting strangers before we trust God.. what is up with that?

Stand up person in a Bow down World

Alright, this was sermon that was preached awhile back and it is a good one too...

Fear can play a part of living for God or bowing down to something else. There is always a second, third, and fourth chance to compromise. Are you going to take those chances? Here are some examples...

1. We can't let ourselves get killed. Will you deny Christ if it meant you would lose your life if you didn't? God has the expiration date not man.
2. This is a foreign land. Even though they have a different culture and different beliefs will you change yours to show respect to them or will you stay true to yours? There is always a line to be crossed.
3. Lets bow down and not mean it. Bowing down is a sign of surrender. God is a jealous God.
4. Just do it one time. That one time opens a door for the enemy to come in.

Fear the eternal fire rather than fearing the temporary fire. Let your faith be fireproof! Worship God while you are in the fire.

Deliverance came through trusting. There is no other God who can deliver like our God.

What you see...

Ministry is about what you see.
Are you going to see it the first time? You are going to have to see past the natural and see it right away. Your definition of ministry is going to be tested. You can no longer look at things in the natural, you have to look with spiritual eyes. Not everyone is going to see what you see. They are not going to see what God has shown you. But you cannot let that take away what God has showed you. Just keep praying that God sees it and try to see it like God sees it. I want to see things through His eyes. You also have to be careful of getting tunnel vision and take a step back so that you can see beyond what is in front of you. God is much bigger than just what is in front of you.

This was a message preached awhile back, almost a year ago. It still speaks to me. I so want to be able to see things they way God sees them. I want to see myself how He sees me as well as others. I want to look at God's children as He looks upon them. I know I will always be tested because I have chosen to follow God. Therefore the enemy will bring all kinds of tricks my way to try to trap me in confusion, blindness, and worryiness of what God can actually do in and through me.

Epic Worship Album

The new Healing Place Church album is here . . .EPIC WORSHIP! It was a LIVE recording from the Amplified weekend. The new album contains 13 original songs that can be found at the HPC online store. Check it out on HPC's website or itunes! I really do love the Album!! :)

Who Am I?

O.k. so I came across this in my journal today and I just felt like putting in a blog because it is so bold!

1. Who am I?
- I am a child of God
- I am a daughter of the Kind
- I am LOVED by my Father
- I am a princess
* She is selected
* Held in high regard
- I am a warrior
* We have to fight for God, family, and friends
- I am a fighter
* We can't give up on our calling
- I am a servant
- I am a follower of Christ

Wow.... There is more in the journal entry but I just wanted write about this for now. I mean that is some pretty bold stuff, don't you think? Why can we not walk in that kind of authority everyday of our life? God says we are these things so why don't we walk in these things? I want to be that warrior, fighter, servant, princess that God has called me to be! I want to fight for what I believe in! I want to follow Christ with everything that is inside of me! I want to fully except the LOVE the God has freely given to me! I'm sorry God! For not excepting your gifts! Why won't I except them? I want them..... I desire them.... something is still keeping me from excepting them fully though.

More Walmart Fun!!

Hard times...

Why do we make it so hard to trust in God? He proves Himself time and time again with one situation after another and yet we still find excuses not to trust that He will take care of us. It is hard to trust in Him fully but its even harder not to trust in Him fully. We are just blinded by logic and what the world says we should be doing with our lives that if we do anything other than that we are not being smart and its not going to work. I'm tired of being weak and not staying strong in what God has promised me and believing God will provide a way. I'm tired of having doubt in myself and what God can do through me. I'm tired of being pulled back into my old thinking habits. I'm tired of having joy torn away from what God has blessed me with..... my life! I want to be strong enough! I want to be bold enough! I want to walk in the authority God has placed in my life! I know God has given me all of those things, but why can't I except them? Why can't I use them? I'm tired of not excepting blessing because I don't feel I deserve them! If you are reading this... I'm o.k I just wanted to get some things out.

He listens and He knows...

So most of you know i almost had a near death in the family. It came at me as a shock and I truly did not know what to do. I have never had anyone die that was really close to me before. But God showed up! The doctors did not think my papa would make it and if he did they said he would be paralyzed on the left side. So far none of that is coming true! He is recovering and moving all of his body! All because our GOD listened to our prayers and cries for healing in his body and knows our hearts! :)

My Grandma and Papa have always been the people I have honestly looked up to my whole life. From when I was little I would always go to visit them during the summer and go fishing with my papa and ride horses at my uncles. I look up to them because you don't see many marriages like theirs. They truly put God first in everything they do and they have stayed together for over 60 something years. My Grandma is a sunday school teacher and she sings in her choir. My Papa is does pretty much everything around his little old church besides be the preacher, but I'm sure he could do that as well. They have just always been faithful with everything they have done in life and I really look up to them as spiritual leaders. So when I decided I was going to follow God and go wherever and do whatever He calls me to do. It meant so much to me when they said they were proud of me. Their little church has kind of adopted me as their missionary. They have supported me every step of the way. I love them so much and they mean so much to me.

Thank you ALL so much for continuing to keep my Papa in your prayers!!!

What FUN you can have with no money!

We saw an opportunity to have a little fun with the camera in Walmart so we took it. After the last hit, Mary Beth was getting ready to kick me in the head, but I told her that there is a walmart worker behind her!

Obedience...

Alright so I learned a really hard lesson the other night, but well worth it. I learned when you choose to obey God no matter if you understand or agree or not, He will give you supernatural strength to do the impossible. If you just make that decision to obey God, He will make a way. As I stood there friday night crying and wondering why I had to do what I had to do, God just kept telling me to trust Him. Even though it did not make since in my head, I knew it was something God wanted me to do and that is all that matters. I just needed to obey. I had to lay down everything! In order to go and be who God is calling me I need be completely surrendered, that means there should be nothing holding me back. Sometimes we don't realize we have strongholds in our life until we asked to get rid of them. There should be nothing in this world that means more than trusting in our God and following Him. ABSOLUTELY NOTHING! If you can come up with anything let me know and I will prove you wrong. There is no relationship, career, money, or even life that is more important than God. I mean for real He is the reason we have any of these things anyway. Without Him we would be slaves to death. Hmm... I think He is worth it. Is it hard? Umm... YES! Is it worth it? ABSOLUTELY!! If you choose to obey, not only will He give you the strength to get you through the things He is asking you to do but He also desires to bless you INDEED! :) The only question I have is how will I know its from God or not? Or when should I question Him or not? I want to be like Noah, that when God gives me a task I do not question... I just do it! I want to be led by the Holy Spirit, so I will know it is of God, so I will not have to question it. So even if I do not understand it, I will know it is from God so I don't need to understand. I want to just OBEY! No questions asked.

This is what happens when you have a 24 hour yard sale! :) What fun we had......

See Jordan was sleeping way too much and Angela decided she would wake him up by scaring him. Well... it did not turn out like she wanted it to.

Soaking it all in....

So I just got a chance to sit down at the computer and read over everyone's blogs and I am just in aww.. I mean really what is there to say, that has not already been said before? Words are definitely not enough to explain the move of God on people's lives.

I can't help but get frustrated sometimes because there is not enough time! I have such an urgency to the things God has called me to do but at the same time I want to spend time with my loved ones and soak up all the things God is doing in my life. There is never enough time, but I can't spend the time I do have worried about not having enough time. I just hope and pray I am able to do everything in God's timing and not my own. I try to rush things of the future, but at the same time want to remember every moment. I can not do both.

India was amazing! But I can't help but think I could have done a little bit more. I don't know what or even if I was suppose to do more. I just always wonder coming back from things like that if I truly gave my all. I believe there is always at least a little bit more that we can give of ourselves. That is why it is hard to do short term mission trips for me. I always feel there is still more to be done, more people to see, touch, heal, feed, and save. There is always more. But it is still all about God's timing, because it is not me they need to see, or me that needs to touch them, heal them, feed them, or save them. It is God himself and if I go in my timing it will not be Him, it will be me. And there will be no glory found that.

Silenced by God

So I'm sitting here on my couch, less than 2 hours away from leaving for India and I am just in aw. God is so good at what He does. Looking back on my life, it is so amazing how I can see things line up. I am just so thankful I made that decision to follow God no matter what! It has definitley been a hard journey so far, times when I really did not think I was going to make it, but God provided the strength to get me through it. I mean really I'm in Baton Rouge, LA! Who da thunk it! My family and everything/everyone I know is in Georgia and I decide to go 8 hours away to place i've never been, to people i've never met and live there for 9 months. It just makes me think, I never want to be moved by anything other than the Holy Spirit. I never want to go or do something out of my own fleshly desires. I know it is the Holy Spirit that led me here because it was so random and really last minute that I even decided to come here. It just hit me.... for the first time ever I truely trusted and obeyed the spiritual athority that God placed over me in coming here and look where it has gotten me. :) God really does place spiritual athority in your life to help guide and protect you. Thank you God, I will never be the same again because I chose to follow YOU! You continue to daily to do a new work in me. Never stop doing something new in my life, I know that means hardships and trials along the way but i'm learning how to find to the joy in those as well. I'M GOING TO INDIA!!!!!!!!!!! God I am truely in AW of you!

Don't Just let it pass by...

It is so easy to just do life. Life goes by so fast and I don't want miss any opportunity that God is putting in front of me. I don't want to get to the end of this life and look back and see all the blessing that God had for me and i just passed them up because I was worried about something stupid. So many times i get so consumed about things that should not even matter and then I let life pass me by without taking advantage of every moment. We are not guaranteed the next 5 minutes, so I do not want to have my last thoughts be of doubt and fear of whats next. I want to look at all the possibilities of opportunities that God has put right in front of me. Even if i may screw things up, it does not matter because it is not about me! I'm going to do everything I possibly can to take every opportunity that God places before me to honor him and bring glory to His name. I'm going to take advantage of this life on earth, so when I get up to heaven I will not be surprised to see an opportunity or a blessing that I did not take! He wants us to have life to the fullest! Are you going to take everything that He has for you or just enough to get through life on earth?

Terren the Chicken Man

Alright this is my friend in Atlanta doing the Chicken man! He is hilarious! Check out the couple that walks out of the restaraunt when he goes after them.

Guiding and Directing me...

So God is guiding me in a new direction and its really hard to grasp what i feel He is calling me to do. Never would i ever imagine myself in the position of a leader. But He is raising me up to be a leader of some sort and its really scary, but i have decided that I would go wherever He wanted and do whatever He wanted.

A little over 6 years ago is when i first got called to missions and I made a decision back then that I follow Him wherever He takes me. I also decided that i would go on short term mission trips every year until God called me to the next step of my journey. Because i didn't know exactly what He wanted me to do for missions, all I knew is that He gave me a heart to serve others in need and are hurting, so that is what I was going to do. I did that up until about a year ago, when God started tugging on my heart. He was ready for me to take my next step in the path He had made for me. So I knew it was getting closer to time of what God had called me to do, but I did not feel prepared enough. I decided to research programs that get you ready for ministry work and the mission field. Long story short I decided to come here and there was alot that happened in that decision, but that is not the reason I am writing this blog.

Coming here, I had in my mind that I would do the 2 years and then I would go out on the mission field over seas. Well "For I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord" and they were not my plans! My plans was to be a missionary overseas and that still may come, but for right now God is drawing me in new direction and that is to a missionary in my home town... (Atlanta, Ga.) I feel He is calling me to open a dream center there. I don't know when, but He is revealing bits in pieces to me at a time and it is looking like it is falling into place just how He planned it. Let me tell you it is really scary, because I do not feel capable at all of doing this and I know that is the whole point because if i was capable of it then I wouldn't need God. Its pretty cool because what I feel for overseas missions I am starting to feel for local missions and I never thought I feel as passionate as would overseas. But really where my passion is, is in outreach and you do outreach anywhere. I love showing God's love to people and catching them off guard. I just love to see people get blessed and to experience God's love especially for the first time! Man, i could go on for hours talking about this....you can ask my roommate Mary Beth. But I just wanted to share with everyone a little bit of what was on my heart. So I just ask that you keep me in your prayers that I don't back down no matter how unworthy I feel or how many times I feel like I can't do it, that I just continue to yield to the Holy Spirit and let Him guide me.

Transformed

So God is .... There are not enough words to describe how GREAT God is....
But anyway i just want to say God is transforming me into a new creation! He continues to mold me everyday and its a little weird at first because i'm not used to feeling this way, but its really cool at the same time. He has freed me from so many struggles, some i didn't even know i dealt with. I love working for my God! When He calls you to something, He will not only provide for you, but He will also make your heart and mind ready if you ask Him too. And that is exactly what He is doing for me right now He is getting me ready for where He is calling me next and where i'm going next my heart and my mind need to be in line with His. I can't wait to see what is on the other side of elevate!

Just getting started

Hey everyone! I officially have a blog now! I'm new at it so please be patient with me and i will figure it out as soon as possible, I am a fast learner. So I don't really have anything to post right at the moment, i just wanted to put something on here so it wouldn't look so blank. So anyway I guess that is all for now! Hopefully I will have a chance to write more later.