Salt

This morning i was reading in Matthew 5 about salt. We are the salt of the earth! We as Christians who shine the light of Christ to a dark world. But i was just challenged with the verse, cause if we loose our saltiness we are not good for anything but should be thrown out and trampled under mans feet. What a picture! All of us want to be good for something to have reason and for sure not be trampled by men. But if our lives are not salt and light to the world around us then that is how we are!

So there is my little sermon this morning!!! Wow it has been such a long time since yeah.... i posted anything. My life has been just so busy. Doing what? People ask all the time!! My response, hmmm well dating!!!! :) and then i think what else surely that is not all i am doing! But yeah when it comes down to it that is taking much of my time right now. Which i have no problem with!! :):) But no i am busy as well working here and there. I do some in home care for an older lady 3 days a week and i have been busy helping my mom with stuff at home. So i have much to do. And dating has been going great! But it is not without its trials of learning to work together and communicating!  And giving up of myself. I see how selfish a person i have become. And i realize that in any stage of life you are in whether it is the happy joys of dating or whatever God continues to work in changing me into the person He wants me to become!

 

This is us!!  My wonderful man and I !!!

Just got home last night from spending 4 days with him! Ah what fun!

"The most important thing in life is to learn how to give out love,

and to let it come in."

                                                                 -Morrie Schwartz

This quote speaks to my heart... How do i give love? How do i let love come to me?

I am learning. 

God help me, show me, lead me!

"Life is not about waiting for the storms to pass, it is about caring and loving your relatives and friends, while you can touch and see them, and they are still among us."

*I found this quote today and I instantly connected with it! I have been reminded so much of this thought lately. I want to love more, care more, and show the people I love my love for them. And not wait till the perfect moment or right time. That might never happen. We have no promise of our next breath.*

Thanking God for life

This morning i sit here and look out my window. The sky is gray, the rain is gently falling, and i got tea on the stove brewing! Such a beautiful, mysterious day! I love rain... But let me add in moderation! Because i LOVE the sun as well and to many rainy days can make one blue after awhile. But today i like it. Fits my mood! Not that i feel gray no not at all. But a perfect day to sit and read and think about the happenings of the past few days. My boyfriend ended up in the hospital on Saturday afternoon. I don't understand all the medical words and terms, but he got poison on his hand about a week ago and it got infected and somehow, something, yeah went wrong. I never before had such a helpless feeling come over me. When i got the call Saturday eve. that he went in i felt a million miles away. Not knowing what is wrong or if he is gonna die... And having no way of getting to him fast. God he is yours! I had to let go! I feel God has brought it to me to teach me something. Not sure what all yet but i feel it has reason. Cause nothing happens with out reason. But i am rejoicing!! He is still alive and feeling much better. Thank you God! 

I noticed i never mentioned his name in my previous post... :) you might be curious who this man is!!

Dervin Seibel from Pickens South Carolina

Now to my cup of tea! It is calling my name!

God is Good!

       Yes i am still here and i am still alive! Wow so much, so much has happened this past month. Almost to much for me and my brain to process and think through. And i thought when i came home from Bible School i had a lot to think about and process.Sometimes i wish i would not think so much... how does one stop thinking? But i am very excited!!! God has given me a huge gift, bigger and better then i could ever have asked for or imagined. So it all started like this... i met this wonderful man at Bible School, he was the asst. dean of men. I thought he was a very nice man and yet never imagined God would actually allow it to ever happen that we would get together. Why do i doubt God and his goodness? And his perfect plan for my life? This new phase of my life feels very new, risky, and i feel unlearned, and yet very secure in this being God's plan for my life now. And i am so excited!!! We had our first date March 25!
       My younger brother James got married on March 19 in Florida. So the whole family was down there together. A first for us! But in the midst of the joy of marriage and being with family, God choose to take my dear Grandma home to be with him. She was 93 years old, and died suddenly. We knew she had been going down hill the past month but we got the call Thursday morning (2 days before the wedding) that she is dying and in 1 hr she was gone. So that totally changed our plans. We had all been planning to stay down there for the following week and hang out as a family. But instead we came home on Sunday. So i had 4 days to enjoy the sunshine!!
        And yes God has been filling me up! In many different ways... in one way just being by myself and having him show me HE is enough!
        I am learning how to TRUST more, and live my life out of my control! Allowing God to have all control. I dare you to try it! Be ready for the ride of your life, and for God to take you many vulnerable places! I am learning to jump off the cliffs God brings me to and jumping into his arms!

home once again

Yeah i am home! Where is home these days? Hmmmm one has to wonder!!!
Yesterday I returned from being at Heritage for 7 weeks, and have been sleeping and thinking ever since!! :) It feels wonderful to be back in my own house and sleep in my own bed and just relax with no responsibility. Yet responsibility has a way of teaching you many hard things, and helping you grow!
I feel empty....
And have been wondering how to fill up again.
God fill my cup I pray!

Bible School Days!

I am now at Heritage Bible School as Dean of women!! AHHH not sure what that is to mean? ! :) The title sounds so .... ??? hmmm Well it is just like this i feel i have much to learn and grow in and i have a long way to go in my journey with God and suddenly i am stuck in this spot where... i don't have answers and i need them, and i don't have wisdom, but i need it, and so I feel ... i have so little to offer, so i say Lord take my loaves and fishes and use them to your glory and for your purpose.

Well we have made it through the first week of Bible School!! Praise the Lord!
We have a great group of students! And i am loving getting to know everyone and meeting all the new people! It is awesome to hear all the stories of each girl and to see their hearts. There are so many young people searching and seeking God and want what is right but there is such a hard pull there to follow the wrong spirit and the battle is just so strong! I am so thankful for my Creator and my Master to carry me and walk with me in the journey! Without him i would not be! So i continue to pray and i continue to cry out to Him for strength and for wisdom.

Homeward bound

Home? How will that be? America? What does it look like? What about all the poor friends i met? Is it fair for me to come back to my large house in vantage hills and drive down roads that are smooth? To go to church and have it be warm and we sit on benches that even have cushions? To have more than one sweater plus a few coats? Warm socks without holes? And then think i still need more things? And what do I do with all my things, other then store and fill a room in my house with what i don't use.   Why? Why? Why am I, are we so consumed  with things? And then we have Bible Schools to go to, bible studies to have, Sunday School, books to read... But what do i do with all of it? With all the teaching, all I have been given? I am afraid to admit what i to often do, just keep it all for myself. And don't use it as i could.
I just have much to process and think as i sit here at the airport and think of making this transition back to my world again!  

snow capped mountains

We have finally  been able to see all the mountains around us! It is totally incredible! 

 

 

Just another picture of the mountains. This day we just drove all around and went to all the view points that we could. We just could not get enough of the beautiful views! God's creation is so amazing. I am having a hard time taking it all in! It is pictures you would see in magazines and my small camera just doesn't seem to get the big picture. I want to just stand in awe so many times just looking and trying to grasp the beauty of it all!

And just us!!!!

Manju's village

THE SMALL PATH WE CLIMBED UP THE MOUNTAIN!!!

Manju's family lives in this little hut. One hut for the kitchen and the other had 2 rooms and very small. In that village they were considered homeless. Very sad situation. Manju has one little sister and one brother. Her brother is at an orphange.

The group of followers we had the whole time we were there!!

Down by the river...

OH and having the privalage of eating with our hands. And yes i did too!!! FUN FUN FUN!!

Manju the girl my sister is adopting came from this small village that we visited. Wow that was an experience!! We drove back in 2 hrs. The first half of travel was on decent roads, and the last half was on dirt roads with many potholes. And then when we got to the village we had to hike up the mountain to find where her mother lived. And that was amazing. We hiked about 15 minutes out of town looking for the place, asking as we went along. The path we had to walk on was not wider than 6-10 inches!! And straight up!! We met up with her family and then we walked around the small village. Walked down to the river with her mother and her little sister. We then went and bought some gifts for the family... rice and some clothes and such like. We had this big crowd of followers the whole time we were there. It was so interesting seeing yet another part of the world. But they were so poor... it was so sad, seeing all the dirty faces and sad looks in little childrens eyes, knowing they don't have much of a future outside of this small town. And then wondering how many other villages around i have not even seen who are a lot worse off. Where is my heart of compassion?I want to save them all. How can I? I feel so overwhelmed. How can i help so many? And why was i born where i was? It could have been me here in this village. It could have been you. What am I / you doing with what we have been given?

hospital visit

Today we visited the hospital. Lindy and i took a bunch of baby clothes and handed them out to mothers with new babies or ones having babies. It was incredible the smells and sights. Nothing clean and dirt everwhere. There were a lot of patients. Many just laying on the floor on mats. One lady in labor and sitting on the floor with many people around her. Seemed like her family and extended family and friends where there to  help or watch!! hmmmm don't know how these people survive. They seriously would think our hospitals to be palaces. Yet so many unhappy and unsatisfied people in America.  Why? We have so much and been given so  much. And why was i born where i was and not here or in some other land? We are taught so much on cleanliness and just so many things that i can't even begin to all say. I see so much each  day and am again so thankful for my heritage.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO EVERYONE!!! Thank God for all you have been given.

Finally some photos, but the night is late and the body is tired and the internet is slow so just 3 tonight!!

A beautiful view from some lookout spot. You feel  on top of the world here! You live totally on the mountain side. And they are steep mountains!! So driving around is a bit of a trust experience and don't look down and hope the car coming gives you space!!!! Oh and all the stuff that looks like rocks, that is houses and villages!







My precious niece and nephew!! Oh how I am loving being with them!!  







This man we see when we go to town... he holds a cup with some liquid and begs. So sad... he had flies all around him and his hands and skin on his stomache was all caked with dirt and filth.







The end of the week

Wow so much to see and do. Today is the first day the sun is shinning ! That is wonderful! It is so refreshing and maybe today we will finally get to see the beautiful snow capped mountains!!! The veiw from Lindys house is amazing! We came down to the vegetable market today. That is very interesting. I can't wait to go back by myself and spend more time looking and browsing the shoppes! Manju will go with me. She knows the town like the back of her hand.
Good times we are having!! We have been so tired and going to bed early. Maybe one of these days we will get our energy back!!!
God is good and faithful!!!

Arrived

We have arrived in the land of India!!!!!!!!!!
I feel in total shock at all the sites around me....
No way to discribe all the people, smells, trash, sad faces,.....
Wow never knew such a world existed! I feel so sad... why was i born where i was?
Had a great time unpacking all the fun things with my sister. Now we came to town to email and presently
there is some campaign going on outside with much yelling and screaming! Protesting or something....
Keep praying for us!

Here I go....

AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH
I can't believe what is happening!!!!!! Today i leave.....for India!!!!!!!!!!
Just my cousin Elvin and myself.
Pray for us:
for safety in travels,
for protection from all the evil around us,
God's blessing and anointing to be upon us,
that our lights may shine brighter and destroy the darkness!

"If you always do what you've always done, then you will always get what you've always got!"
-quote stolen from April (thanks April your life has been a blessing to me) 

Landing for 4 days

Home and barely have my feet down before i run off to India!!

Just got back on Thursday from a 12 day canoe trip with my youth girls. We did not canoe for 12 days, but had an awesome time! We spent 6 days on the Suwanne River in Florida, then drove down to Gator boys camp for a few days and helped out there. The Canoe trip was absolutely more than i could have asked for. The bond we felt after we got home was incredible and the things we worked though were not all fun easy things, but it was awesome to find freedom in areas that you were not aware were locked and closed and see others find freedom as well! I was stretched in many things. God did a great work in my heart in tearing out some ugly things that needed cleansed, and i am so thankful He keeps refining us and making us more like HIM!

Now off to India another part of the world..... Pray for me and i will try to keep you all posted with life

Surrender

I will never be able to out-smart the Lord 

     I can give up trying

I will never be able to hind anything from the Lord

     I can give up trying

I will never be able to second guess the Lord

     I can give up trying

My absolute wonderful option: ( in Christ Jesus)

     Completely surrender everything about myself and 

circumstances to him... Then simply follow the one who

loves me without condition and knows what is best for me!

  -Rich Davis

I like it a lot.... I try so hard sometimes... when all i need to do is surrender and trust!
And give up trying!!!!!!!!

Welcome!

Well not sure what i am getting myself into here...

but here goes...

The reason i have decided to start this blog is: so my many friends and i guess whoever out there, wants to know what is happening in my world! 

November starts a journey of journeys... hmmm is that what i want to call it? Yeah i guess it is! I have a 2 week canoe trip planned with my youth girls the first of November. Then i plan to take a trip to India to visit my sister who is living there. My cousin Al plans to go with me!! We plan to stay for 3 1/2 weeks and then i come home and am home for 2 weeks and then i head off to Heritage Bible School to be Dean of women for 6 weeks! ahhhh crazy schedule yet fun life!! 

So you can pray that i stay sane in all of this. I was wondering the other day if i am crazy to be so busy and wondering if my mind can handle all this stuff and God brought the verse to me : Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee!! WOW how true... when my thoughts and mind is stayed on Christ i am not overwhelmed by life!