How Many Girls Does it Take to Fill Up a House?

Think about it, how often can people say that they live with six other girls who aren’t related to them? Not many!

Some might think it would be crazy (and sometimes it is), but most of the time it is a blast! It is such a blessing, even more so because each of the girls love the Lord and desire to have a deeper relationship with Him. Each one of them challenge me in different areas of my life that need to grow or be refined. They keep me accountable to the lessons that I are learning and are beginning to apply in my life.

When any one of us girls are struggling, the rest all gather around and lift up the burdened one with prayer and encouragement. I have seen it happen many times during the almost five months that we have been here. Such a beautiful thing to see! This is another reason why living in a community of godly gals is awesome!

We cook, clean, sing, learn, work, and almost do everything together! Our discussion times about what we are learning in class is one of my favorite things ever! Every one of the girls see the lessons that we are learning through different eyes. When we discuss what we see and have learned, we all see what each person learned in the certain lesson! It’s great! I get so much more out of our class times that I would have if I was just by myself.

These are only to name a few of reasons why I enjoy being in a community of gals! The Lord has blessed me more that I deserve!

Thank you to my six roommates for making my life six time more exciting!

 

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Nerf Wars!

This past Saturday a group of us Gospel For Asia peoples went out to have a nerf war at a playground near one of the familie’s house. It was a great form of exercise, and I rediscovered some muscles that have long since been dormant in my body. Pushing through the pain, I must say that playing with nerf guns outside when it’s slightly windy is a challenge. I had near perfect aim…when we were inside…but then add the element of teams, adrenaline, and wind… I was lucky if I could hit one person each round!

Though I did find out that my husband and I make a pretty good team. We played where if you were shot, someone on your team had to come and tag you to unfreeze you, but if both of you were shot, then your team was out. So much like how a medic in Team Fortress 2 stays right by a heavy so you can annihilate your foes without much harm done to the dynamic duo, I was Tim’s medic and we made a really good team! (see you can learn life lessons from video games! Like how to survive in a nerf war!)

I’m looking forward to the next nerf war, and I’ve even brought my nerf gun to my desk at work, and it’s already played a big part in the sanity of our little web department. Here’s the story:

Adam came by to work on my computer and while he was here, I was playing around with my nerf gun. One of my co-workers sees Danny down the hallway and says “aw! Danny was just in the hallway… I know! I’ll email him!” So she proceeds to email Danny. Her email was something along the lines of “Could you come to the web department; if you can?” A few minutes later, Danny comes into Web and I release a stream of nerf darts at him. To which he says “I knew there was something up, my coworker would never email me that. I should have come around the other way so I could have seen you too! (referring to me standing near my desk out of view of the door)”

You know you work in an awesome place when you can shoot the vice president of the organization with a nerf gun and he thinks it’s cool 🙂

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Love One Another – Sounds Easy!

“By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” – John 13:35

Love for one another. It sounds like an easy task, especially if you are in a good mood, the person you are with doesn’t annoy you, and things are going as planned. However, we are not always in the best of moods, maybe the person you are with rubs you the wrong way, and the circumstances you find yourself in may be chaotic. How do you love someone then?

Lately I’ve been learning how to love people when I don’t feel like it, or would rather be alone. See, Christ asks us to sacrifice ourselves, and serve others in His name. If I am loving others with HIS love, then He will continue to replenish it, and as I continue to pursue Him, His love will automatically flow to others.

Love is not a feeling that comes and goes, it is a way of life, a choice. I certainly don’t “feel” like loving my enemies, but the Lord says to do so. It isn’t easy, but it is a commitment. It’s a full time job to love others, finding ways to serve them, listening when they need an ear, not avoiding them when you want alone time.

It is a hard lesson to learn, but I’m finding that when I choose to allow the Lord to love others through me, even when I don’t feel like it, it’s rewarding to see the other person smile. Sometimes they won’t even know it’s you that wrote that note, that you did the dishes because you know it’s less stressful for that person to live in a clean apartment. But really, we don’t perform acts of love for ourselves to get praise, we do it so that the Lord can love others and receive all the glory.

Anyways, thank you for listening. I am still in the process of learning this lesson, and am finding that unity between the Body of Christ is much more appealing than the separation that occurs from unbroken people.

Please pray for me that I don’t let my own selfishness get in the way of loving my brothers and sisters, my family, friends, and those around me. I will be praying for you too.

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The Worst Thing

This week the latest School of Discipleship class graduated.  It got me to thinking about my year and everything that went on.  Things were definitely challenging throughout the year. You definitely have to die to yourself, (you think they were joking when they put that on the brochure?) you have to follow a fairly strict schedule, you have to be disciplined…but the worst thing was having to go away. If I could have every one of my friends go throught the School of Discipleship I would. It was an amazing experience that I’ll never forget and an awesome time of growth, and the graduation made me think of the toughest ones.  Besides one failure, the worst thing was was saying goodbye to those at Gospel For Asia.

Top 5 things about being in the School of Discipleship

  1. Being taught how to live like Jesus by seeing the example of older brothers and sisters in the Lord.
  2. Times of worship, including personal prayer and Bible reading, as well as corporate prayer and worship through teaching and music.
  3. The community of believers that surround you – insta-family!
  4. Going to Asia and seeing the mission field!  (Boy, that’s too much to try to explain in one bullet point.)
  5. Class room times, home work, etc.  (The theory is taught and you see how it works in those around you.)

So, as I was saying, the hardest part was leaving.  When I thought about writing this I then realized that it’s also one of the best things because as much as God loves putting us through those seasons of teaching, He wants us to continue to grow because it’s our choice.  We can do things because we have homework assignments or because we really want to.  When you graduate and go home you get to really choose who you’re going to do those things for.

But good news!  Not everyone has to leave. 🙂  I’m glad to know that many of this past class will be coming back on full time staff.  Congratulations January class of 2012!

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Throwing Suds Around!

In January, I got to visit the mission field. It had been five years since I’d been there. During that time, I met up with an old friend, Gabriel, and this time I got to meet his wife and daughter. His wife is energetic and kind and makes amazing ginger tea. Their daughter, Faith, is two years old. When Faith was born she had a band around her kidney that restricted all blood flow; this meant she had to have that kidney removed. Having a kidney removed as an adult is a major thing, even more so for a baby that’s just a few months old. The prayer request reached us here in the States. Since she was my friend’s daughter, it hit especially close to home for me. The Lord’s hand was so evident throughout Faith’s surgery and she did fine. Her other kidney picked up all the work it needed to do. Praise the Lord! She is now healthy and incredibly smart, and she loves to sing. When I visited she knew about 30 songs in several languages. I know the Lord has a special plan for her life.

Spending time with people like Gabriel and his family made the trip really special for me. Getting to see how the Lord had grown and used friends during the five years since I’d seen them was encouraging. It’s just a simple thing, the reunion of friends, but it was a wonderful snapshot of all God can do in a life and how faithful He will be to complete the work He has begun in each of us. None of our journeys are complete; they’re just five years further along so it gave me a lot of hope, too, hope in all God will do in the future. It has nothing to do with us and everything to do with who He is.

I sometimes liken the part I get to play in building God’s Kingdom to the part a two year old plays when they help wash dishes. They might throw some suds around on the dish, but the adult takes care of the real work. This isn’t to say the Lord only gives us petty jobs; rather, He’s the one accomplishing the work, no matter how big or small. It’s His power and strength working through me, and doing it with Him is the greatest treasure.  Just like time spent with your two year old is the real treasure, not the twice cleaned bowl.

It’s Him enabling us to serve. It’s Him walking with us every step of the way. “He who called you is faithful; He will surely do it.” 1 Thessalonians 5:24

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