The Story God Wrote For Me

Running from God As I look back on my life I see many failures that could have been prevented, many times I should have said no and then I wouldn’t have gotten mad at myself later for not standing up for myself, and many times in the past I ran from God….what Ran from God? Why would anyone do that? Simple it seems easier. It is easier in a sense that the devil leaves you alone, you have no trials and you think you run your own life. Eventually the farther and harder you run from God the more life begins to seems pointless, the more depressed you feel and the more trapped you become with worldly things. Pretty soon you look around and wish you could go back to the way things were before but have no clue how to get back to that place. Where was that place? It was in the will of God, and the path God has laid out before you. How do you get back there? You get on your knees and with everything inside of you, you ask Jesus Christ for forgiveness, repent/confess all of your black and dirt...

The Muslims are in Ramadan, which means they are fasting from dawn till sunset around 8p.m. every day. Please pray that Jesus Christ will reveal himself to them. Please pray for all the missionaries in Niger, that God would be revealed through our actions and that we will be a light to the people of Niger. Please pray for the safety of our missionaries. Please pray for Jordan as she gets ready to leave to go back to the US on 8/31/10. Please pray for me as I will be moving into my own apartment and be living alone for the next 6 months. Pray for my physical, emotional and mental health. The past two weeks,  I have been physically drained and felt like I don't have enough energy to complete all that I must do and emotionally I'm exhausted. Pray that God will reach his hand down and give me strength, hope, peace, guidance, love and reassurance.

There are some things here that I normally wouldn't do in the USA but have begun doing while I'm here. 1. I've turned into one of those people. Yes the people I use to make fun of for drinking coffee every morning to get going.....yes I must have my coffee or I can't function...the ritual morning am shower just isn't cutting it anymore. 2. I make my coffee the night before and place it in the fridge. Some things don't change and me getting up an extra 15 minutes early just to make coffee is not happening. Improvising :) 3. I'm packing lunches for school. Something I haven't done since ummmmm forever. The lack of Mcdonald's, Taco Bell, Chickfila and Burger King has caused me to start planning ahead and making my lunch the night before....ha ha...tomorrow I will be feasting on whole potatoes covered with garlic and cheddar cheese, rice, kidney beans and possibly a piece of homemade white bread...yummy! 4. I'm having to use a daily planner whic...

Lovely title don't you think? For those of you who don't know the meaning of debridement it means "Surgical excision of dead, devitalized, or contaminated tissue and removal of foreign matter from a wound." Wounds are sometimes debrided with a wet-to-dry dressing. This means “A sterile Normal Saline saturated gauze is packed deep inside a wound and left for about 8 hours. After 8 hours the gauze is dry and the gauze is slowly pulled from the wound and debrides the wound by pulling out all of the pus and infection on the dried piece of gauze. Disgusting sometimes but necessary to promote healing. For those of you who don't know on August 3rd I got a motorcycle muffler burn and have been treating it myself. Last night I had to perform non-surgical debridement on the wound. Why? Because due to the thick burnt skin the wound was not healing properly and was delayed in being able to heal from the inside out. While it hurt extremely bad to do this myself, it was n...

This morning at 8am I started school orientation. We began by having worship and prayer. It is so amazing to be a in a Christian school atmosphere again. It makes me so thankful and miss Heritage Christian School (where I went to high school). Afterwards we received a letter and we were told to go find somewhere quiet, read this letter and have quiet time with the Lord for 30 minutes. WOW! 30 minutes planned for God on an orientation schedule? That’s awesome! Here is what the letter said they gave me: Praying the Scriptures (Lectio Divina) "Reading seeks for the sweetness of a blessed life, Mediation perceives it, Prayer asks for it, Contemplation tastes it". Lectio (Read) Gently read a brief passage from the Word of God, listening with the ears of your heart. Note what word or phase seems to call to you from the passage. Write it in your journal. Meditatio (Meditate) Slowly reread the passage, and repeat the word/phrase that God seems to be speaking to you in your ...

August 10, 2010 Today is a new day, praise the Lord! Encouragement floods through my soul and mind. I took my eyes off the Lord for one moment and suddenly the flesh took off and my emotions were depression and feelings of uselessness. My husband was quick to point out that I wasn’t trusting God completely. This of course made me bristle but after listening to him I realized he was correct. (I admit you were right Mike) and I realize I was trying to figure out my purpose here instead of trusting in God that he is leading me to the place he has prepared for me. I worked on my lessons plans with new gusto today realizing since it is the only main job I have here I would do it to the very best ability that I could. Jordan had mentioned prayer walking night before last and then last night on the phone Mike mentioned it to so after talking to Jordan we decided to do it this afternoon. With a good chance of rain, the weather unusually cool and armored with Christ we both begin doing somet...

I need prayer for discouragement. I feel like I'm either extremely happy or extremely sad the past week. I'm super happy to work with children and work for the kingdom of God but when I get back to the guesthouse I feel discouraged because I feel like there is something more to do. I know I am where God wants me but I question myself about what I am suppose to be doing while I'm here. I’ve questioned so much till I have turned into a hermit and not gone out to do things I know I should do to get out of this sadness. I'm thankful for Christian friends who encourage me and have made me get out and hang out with other Christians. I know it sounds so selfish to be discouraged after all that God has done for me but I just feel like I am failing him by not doing more for him while I'm in Niger. I'm blessed to have a room mate who loves God and offers her ears and encouragement for when I get discouraged. I'm blessed to have a husband who will get onto me and tell ...

Every human does it. We try to be perfect and act like we don’t have any problems in attempts to fulfill our “perfect reality bubble”. Why do we do it? Why do we have to put up a fake self to deal with others? Why? Natalie Grant’s song “Perfect People” describes it perfectly. God is the only perfect person! I think deep down each one of us wants to be accepted by each other. We think that if we are less than perfect we won’t be accepted and therefore we all act like perfect people who live in a perfect world. Secretly we cry ourselves to sleep at night, during the day we put up a fake and happy smile for the entire world to see when deep down we are dying and in need of help. So why not ask for it? Sometimes we are afraid our weaknesses will be laughed at and help will never come. A majority of the time it is because we are too prideful to ask for help we don’t want to humble ourselves to admit we can’t help ourselves anymore. What is the purpose of this Blog? I really don’t know the...

So I finished reading the entire book of Psalms last month and moved on to Proverbs. I felt this was what I needed to read next. However, during the first few chapters I just was feeling drained because I had to think so much about what Solomon was writing but I kept reading and also began reading in Genesis to have some "easier" reading. Anyways last night I got to Proverbs 12 and understanding dawned on me without having to cross reference and look at my Matthew Henry concordance. Verses 4, 15, 19 and 25 really hit me because they were for me. Small analogy here……sometimes we have to press on through something that doesn’t make sense in order to get the bigger picture in life. Sometimes it doesn’t make sense but in the end it will “click” to reveal a greater plan than you can ever image. God knows our thoughts and our hearts and has prepared the path for us to walk….just my thoughts :) Verse 4 - A virtuous woman is a crown to her husband: but she that maketh ashamed is as...

I was saved by God at age 14 but didn't live my life for Christ until recently. I have been married this July 20th for 8 years to my best friend and we dated 3 years before we got married. He sings in the Southern Gospel group Fresh Anointing (www.freshanointing.net) . I came from a family of six, my two sisters and my brother. I was living my life how I wanted to and not how God wanted me to and that all changed on June 30, 2004. I received an unexpected phone call that my only baby brother had passed away by accident. I felt so empty, alone and hurt that I rebelled and tried things on the world (ex: drinking to forget the pain). One night I begged God to just take me because I couldn't handle the pain anymore and the only thing God spoke back to me was "Go to nursing school". I had been in school off and on for 5 years and have previous student loans so I had no money to go to nursing school, my GPA was too low to be accepted but I knew God had told me to go. I went...

My time in Niger has been a spiritual journey that I can't even begin to explain to the human mind but I am going to try. This trip has involved many "firsts" for my life. First: I have begun to see the Bible in a whole different light, and I crave God's word now on a whole different level. I'm spiritually hungry for my daily Bible reading, time, and the verses I have read before take on a completely different outlook and meaning to me now. Other “firsts” are that this trip is my first time overseas, and the first time I have not lived within a few miles of family. It has been an amazing time. I realize I'm not alone but have found my best friend Jesus Christ, and he does stick closer than a brother. He gives me peace that no one else can give, he gives me hope, he gives me laughter I can't contain and he gives me the strength to continue when the world begins to pull me down. It is so amazing how much easier it is when you have JESUS by your side, trust h...