Ready for Fall Break!

My life has been absolutely crazy busy recently. Everything has started in the full swing.

I have started lab at the elementary school and I am in 4th grade this semester. I am going to be honest, I was nervous about this since I haven't been in an upper grade yet to teach in the blocks. However, it has been a great experience so far. I have taught 3 lessons and all of them have gone well so far. We actually have to ride a bus to and from the elementary school, because it is 45 minutes away from CSU. It is entertaining some days on the bus for sure though. It takes up a lot of time, but it is totally worth it. I really am enjoying my teacher (who happens to have grown up in Dville, so that is pretty cool) and the school is great as well!

C4C girls small group started up and we are studying the book of James. It has been great so far! I am so excited to see what all the Lord has in store for our group of girls as we continue this semester. Our volunteering at the women's and children's shelter also started up and it has been great to see new faces coming out and helping every Tuesday. Those children look forward to us coming every week and so it makes it totally worth going. C4C on Thursdays is going great as well, it has been wonderful to see tons of new people every week. I can't even get around to speaking to everybody that I don't every week. I think that is such an awesome thing!

I have been going home and teaching one of the middle school girls Sunday school classes and it is going great. I am enjoying getting to knowing the girls in the class better each and every week. I am so excited to see what all God has in store for me as I work with the middle schoolers this year.

In the midst of all of my crazy, busy life I have been thinking a lot about the C4C key verse this year.

Matthew 6:33

"Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and He will give you everything you need."

Even though I am so busy, above it all I need to remember to seek Him and He will give me everything that I need!! I love that verse!!

Fall Break is near-in a week Cameron and I will be visiting our newlywed friends Jessica and Luke in Cali! I am so excited! I will definitely post some pics and write about the trip.

Mighty to Save

"For the LORD your God is living among you. He is a mighty savior. He will take delight in you with gladness. With his love, he will calm all your fears. He will rejoice over you with joyful songs." -Zephaniah 3:17- (NLT)

"Your God is present among you, a strong Warrior there to save you. Happy to have you back, He'll calm you with His love and delight you with His songs." -Zephaniah 3:17- (Message Remix)

"The LORD your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing." -Zephaniah 3:17- (ESV)

I shared 3 different versions to show you different ways that the same thing can be said in different versions of the Bible. I like all three of these a lot.

You know the song "Mighty to Save" has been sung so many times, so many places.. I know I have heard it in multiple settings and it still means so much to me every time that I hear it. Our God is MIGHTY TO SAVE! He can move the mountains!! He is there to calm our every fear, our every doubt, our every worry... He is PRESENT at ALL times. I think sometimes we forget that He is always there. He is there when the people, places, and things of this world let us down and leave us feeling completely empty, hurt, lost, and so many other emotions. I think that this verse reminds me of more than just the Lord being MIGHTY TO SAVE, but a reminder of His love for us as well.

I just wanted to share that verse!

Snacking or Feasting?

So last weekend we went on the back to school retreat with the middle and high school students. It was a blast! There were 121 people total that went. We talked about being "full" and letting the Lord fill us up and make us overflow in the things in our lives. The speaker, Greg Key, gave different illustrations throughout the whole weekend. I am a visual person, so I definitely appreciated it. He had a loaf of bread on a table and talked about God being the Bread of Life. He asked if we were snacking on God or actually sitting down and taking time to feast on God. I mean how often do we get up or right before bed say, "Oh wait, I need to take 10 minutes to spend with God." I don't think we think about sitting down and just spending time with Him without running to our next thing in our busy lives. This hit me really hard, I know that I am guilty of just sitting down quite often and just doing my one little verse, prayer, and whatever else to get up and run. I want to feast on God instead of snacking.

I also began my senior year of college last week. I can't believe it is here! I am excited about this year as a whole. My classes so far have been good. I am trying to pay attention and not get too bored so early in the semester. We had our first Cougars 4 Christ of the semester and it was great. I have missed those sweet friends of mine.

What a break!

Over this break I have had lots of exciting things going on. One of them would be that we had a surprise anniversary dinner party for my grandparents, Poppa and Grammy. It was so wonderful to see all of the people that love my grandparents in Douglasville and family from out of town. It was not just a yearly anniversary, it was their 50th! That is a pretty big milestone in today's world. I have been fortunate to not just have Christian parents that have always taught me to be Christlike and be Christlike in their example as well, but I have been fortunate to have two sets of grandparents that have also. My Grammy and Poppa are very important people to me. They have lived a life full of travel, giving to others, helping others, working in the church, and so much more. I was happy to celebrate their 50th anniversary with them. I couldn't ask for better grandparents. I love them both!

Another wonderful thing that has happened over the past week is Cameron is now working as the middle school youth minister at our church. It was definitely a quick thing, but it has been such a God thing. It has been wonderful to see how God provides. The middle school youth are so full of energy and it has already been so fun to work with them. Sunday night we had a middle school event "One Crazy Night" where parents and their kids were both there. We played silly games, ate pizza, and kids brought their favorite dessert. It was awesome! I am so excited to see how God continues to use Cameron in that ministry.

My sister started her junior year of high school last week. It was funny to see her taking AP language with Royal, which I did. It brought back some wonderful memories of Leigh Anne and I playing sudoku and listening to music in Mrs. Royal's class, while of course paying attention. :) I also had the privilege of going to help with First Priority this morning. It was so awesome to see about 140 high school students worshipping the Lord at 7:45 in the morning!! That is definitely something that is so cool. I have never seen that many high schoolers at First Priority. If you don't know what First Priority is, it is a non-denominational Christian meeting that meets before school where kids come to worship and fellowship with one another. These kids all go to churches all over the county and they come together to worship before they enter the halls of their school. The other cool thing is in high school your mom doesn't make you get up as much anymore and get out the door, many of those kids drove themselves to school and they were there to worship the Lord before school. In one word it was AWESOME!!

I am getting excited about seeing my Cougars for Christ and early childhood friends next week at school. As much as I am not excited about school starting back, I am excited at the same time.. mainly because I am going to graduate so soon. I know after this semester means that I student teach and then I am done... so I guess that makes me excited too!

God is definitely teaching me a lot right now. He is teaching me that He will provide, and I need to remember that. He is teaching me that sometimes he shakes things up to remind me that He is in control and He will take care of me. Thanks to my sweet friend Mandi I remembered that!

This weekend I am going as a chaperone on my church's Back to School Retreat! It is going to be so awesome. We have 123 people signed up to go, that includes about 22 adults I think. Please be praying that God works in the lives of the youth there, that they may get refueled and pumped to go and dive into the rest of the school year.

Mini Summer Break and Senior Year of College

So this past weekend was so great! On Friday, I went with my sister to see Ramona and Beezus! It was so good! I loved it. That night I went to my grandparents' house to celebrate my Bob Bob's birthday with my family. We had a lot of fun! On Saturday, I went and hung out with Valerie at her house while they had a yard sale for a little while. It was fun! It made me laugh how many people tried to talk down the price on items that were already so low in price. That night Cameron and I had to pick some people up from our church that went on a medical mission trip to Guatemala. It was definitely cool to hear how God worked while they were in Guatemala. Sunday I had the privilege of going to see some of my IMPACT children at Stone Mountain after church. We had a great time seeing each other and catching up on the rest of the summer after camp. I didn't even plan this reunion one of my "children" Ellen did. It is so encouraging to me to see these youth care about each other so much that they actually want to stay in touch and do things together as much as possible throughout the year. I can say that as many friends as I made at camp we never did anything with each other after camp, but these youth did and that was awesome!

It is the end of summer semester! I am definitely relieved. I go to my last math class tomorrow night and then I am done, except for one online test that I will take this weekend. I am excited about a mini break from school! I don't go back until August 16th, so I am very excited about that. I am going with my mom, dad, my sister Caroline, her friend Bailee, and Cameron to the lake on Wednesday night. I am super excited about that! It will be my only vacation that I have had this summer.

I was thinking the other day about how this is it-this is my last year of college. I am a senior! I mean I knew this, but as it continues to get here it becomes more of a reality. One of my best friends Valerie graduates in December and we were talking about how it is here. It seems like just yesterday we were freshmen at the University of Alabama, but now we are seniors! It has been such a fun journey and I am so excited to see what this year brings. I can say that college has definitely made my walk with the Lord so incredible. I went off to school and made my faith my own. I grew up in church and went with my parents all of the time, but when I went off to school I chose to get involved on my own. It has been an amazing experience being apart of campus ministries at both Alabama and Columbus State. Cougars for Christ at Columbus has definitely made the biggest impact on my life, because I have been a part of it for a longer time. I actually did some activities with them before I was even a student at CSU. God has taught me so much and I know He will continue to do so this year and as I go on in my journey of life.

I found this verse today that I just really loved a lot and I wanted to share it:

"When the cares of my heart are many, Your consolations cheer my soul." Psalm 94:19

God is always there and brings JOY to us! :)

You're Not Alone

This past weekend Cameron came to Columbus and we went to Callaway during the day Friday to go to the beach they have there and go to the different gardens. It was fun! We also made chicken and rice on Saturday night! It turned out so good! We were super pumped about that!

This is the last week of my reading lab and reading class! Thank goodness!! I will only have my math presentation next Tuesday and an online anthropology test that next weekend, then I am DONE with summer classes!! Thank goodness!! I am so ready to enjoy a couple weeks of no school.

Recently I have fell in love with a song by Meredith Andrews called "You're Not Alone". When I hear this song most of the time I sit with tears streaming down my face. I think so many times we all try to find other things to fill us up when we are feeling alone and without anything or anybody, however we aren't! We have the ONE who is always there for us!! That is pretty cool! You should check out that song if you have never heard it before! The lyrics are:

I search for love
When the night came and it closed in
I was alone
but you found me where I was hiding
and now I'll never ever be the same
It was the sweetest voice that called my name
saying

You're not alone
for I am here
let me wipe away your every fear
My love I've never left your side
I have seen you through the darkest night
and I'm the one who's loved you all your life
All of your life

You cry yourself to sleep
cause the hurt is real
and the pain cuts deep
All hope seems lost
With heartache your closest friend
and everyone else long gone

You've had to face the music on your own
but there is a sweeter song that calls you home
saying

You're not alone
for I am here
let me wipe away your every tear
My love I've never left your side
I have seen you through the darkest nights
And I'm the one who's loved you all your life
All your life

Faithful and true... Forever
For my love will carry you....

You're not alone
for I... I am here
let me wipe away every fear... Oh yeah
My love I've never left your side
I have seen you through your darkest night
Your darkest night
And I'm the one who's loved you all your life
All of your life

Psalm 100

This week has been fun! My mom and I went to visit one of roommates that is working at camp, Kayla Martin on Monday. She is working at Camp Winshape in Rome, GA. It is such a beautiful camp and it was awesome to see where she has been serving this summer. Kayla gave us a tour and we got to see the beautiful scenery and buildings that are a part of Winshape. You can tell the Lord has been using Kayla this summer and it was definitely great to see that!

I am trying to get through classes, I am ready for the end of the semester. I have taken summer classes ever since I entered college. I am happy to say this is my last summer seeing as I graduate May 2011. That is what has gotten me through this summer, just knowing that I am a senior now and that graduation is coming.

I am going to Passion 2011 with Cameron in January and I just got really excited watching the little video that they posted. I have never been to the Passion Conference before, but I heard that it is amazing! If you are interested, you should look into going January 1-4... go to the website www.286generation.com for more information!

I wanted to share Psalm 100 with you today! I like this Psalm a lot! We always need to be thankful for the unfailing love he has. We need to let our lives be a testimony and worship Him at all times for the wonderful things He does for us!

Psalm 100

A psalm of thanksgiving.

¹ Shout with joy to the Lord, all the earth!
² Worship the Lord with gladness.
Come before him, singing with joy.
³ Acknowledge that the Lord is God!
He made us, and we are his.
We are his people, the sheep of his pasture.
⁴ Enter his gates with thanksgiving;
go into his courts with praise.
Give thanks to him and praise his name.
⁵ For the Lord is good.
His unfailing love continues forever,
and his faithfulness continues to each generation.