Pictures to share :)

here are a few pictures you may enjoy from this summer!

In other news, take a gander at my other blogs: alliesdipstix.blogspot.com and http://8wksthruasyringe.blogspot.com/

TIA:: the journey

Picture this: Mid-September/October: in Chapel, hearing about missions, and the Lord tugging on my heart. I pick up a description of all the countries where there will be trips and an application. Going to my dorm room, reading about these incredible missions, praying and praying and praying. Turning in my application with the country of Togo as my first choice, not even knowing where in Africa this country is, and not even hearing of it before that moment. A few days later, I get a phone call from my Team Leaders saying that I will be going to Togo in 8 months with a group of people I have never met. I was SO excited for the first meeting...but It was crazy for me to picture these seven other people and I going to a country we have never been before, for a whole MONTH! After the first meeting of all the missions teams, my team met, and my team leaders gave us something that I believe was very significant for the trip. They gave us baby socks so that we would have faith like a child, but not be childish. They gave us a lighter that represented walking in the power and the fire of God. They gave us a piece of candy that we may flow in the sweetness of our gifts. The next couple months of meeting together were awkward, each one of us wanted to go for our own reasons, and we were just 8 people who were going to Togo. There was a time where someone new came on the team, and someone who we had kind of gotten to know for a few months left. We started bonding as a team, praying together, fundraising together (with a car wash in 50 degree weather), and believing that God has orchestrated this trip beyond our control. We had some financial deadlines that we thought we weren't going to meet, like our 100% deadline, where we needed thousands of dollars the week before, and two of the guys needed $900 each when the clock had reached 5pm the day of the deadline. But God did a miracle, and donors gave GENEROUSLY!! And we praised the Lord for keeping us all on the team.

Joshua 3

My missions team's motto is Strong and Courageous. We are reading through Joshua, and the Gospels as preparation for our missions trip to Togo. As I was reading in Joshua 3 today, God really spoke to me. Joshua 3:7-17 says,
"And the LORD said to Joshua, “Today I will begin to exalt you in the eyes of all Israel, so they may know that I am with you as I was with Moses. Tell the priests who carry the ark of the covenant: ‘When you reach the edge of the Jordan’s waters, go and stand in the river.’” Joshua said to the Israelites, “Come here and listen to the words of the LORD your God. This is how you will know that the living God is among you and that he will certainly drive out before you the Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, Perizzites, Girgashites, Amorites and Jebusites. See, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth will go into the Jordan ahead of you. Now then, choose twelve men from the tribes of Israel, one from each tribe. And as soon as the priests who carry the ark of the LORD—the Lord of all the earth—set foot in the Jordan, its waters flowing downstream will be cut off and stand up in a heap.” So when the people broke camp to cross the Jordan, the priests carrying the ark of the covenant went ahead of them. Now the Jordan is at flood stage all during harvest. Yet as soon as the priests who carried the ark reached the Jordan and their feet touched the water’s edge, the water from upstream stopped flowing. It piled up in a heap a great distance away, at a town called Adam in the vicinity of Zarethan, while the water flowing down to the Sea of the Arabah (that is, the Dead Sea) was completely cut off. So the people crossed over opposite Jericho. The priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the LORD stopped in the middle of the Jordan and stood on dry ground, while all Israel passed by until the whole nation had completed the crossing on dry ground."
To set the stage, before this had happened, God promised Joshua and the Israelites the promise land. When they came to the Jordan River, I cannot imagine the disappointment. The Jordan was in its flood stage, which means the water was very deep, and the current was strong. But God told Joshua to tell the carriers of the Ark of the Covenant to step in the water, and the Israelites will be able to cross. The priests must have been so scared because one step into the water can toss you into the current. But they went past their "breaking point," obeyed God, and the Jordan was cut off, to create a dry path for the people to walk on.
In my life, throughout the past year or so, I have come to my breaking point several times. There have been events physically, spiritually, relationally, academically, etc. that have caused me to feel stretched to the limit. The picture I have in my mind of this is a rubber band, being stretched to its maximum. I don't know if you have ever felt that way, but I know when I do, I feel as though I cannot go any further, or I will be completely overtaken by the current of life. But God calls us to go one step further, to get past all the fears, and press on one more step, into the water. It may be dangerous, our pride may become bruised, it may cause some things to break off of us, but in the end, that is when the miracle happens. It is when we go beyond what we "feel" we can go and take that one last step. Can you imagine if the priests didn't take that step into the water? The Israelites would have been stuck on the one side of the river.
This really challenges me to go a step further, when I am stretched thin and am pressured from all sides. I know that on my missions trip, my team and I will be stretched like that rubber band, and we will be challenged more than ever. But the key thing is, will I take one more step? Because miracles will happen, but only when we are fully committed to the things and purposes of God.

I'll Set You as a Seal

"You won't relent until you have it all, my heart is Yours...I'll set You as a seal upon my heart, as a seal upon my arm. For there is love that is as strong as death, jealousy demanding as the grave. Many waters cannot quench this love." - Misty Edwards

I have always wondered, "What is the significance of the seal on one's heart and arm?" This song comes from Song of Solomon 8:6-7

"Place me like a seal over your heart,

like a seal on your arm;
for love is as strong as death,
its jealousy unyielding as the grave.
It burns like blazing fire,
like a mighty flame.
Many waters cannot quench love;
rivers cannot sweep it away."

One of the definitions of a seal in the dictionary is a mark, sign, symbol, or the like, serving as visible evidence of something.

1 Corinthians 1:21-22 says,

"Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come."

So, when I set a seal upon my heart and upon my arm, it is like saying, "I belong to Christ." I am making everyone fully aware that my first true love,. God, is relentlessly pursuing me. The reason why the seal is placed two places is because when I place the seal upon my heart, it is telling God that I am His, and it is a constant thing that I see. But the world does not see my heart visibly, and that is where the seal on my arm comes in. When we set a seal of God's ownership on our arms, it is an outward marking of God's ownership in my life. It tells everyone that I belong to Him, and His love is unquenchable, and it will never go away.

The Word of God

To start off my junior year of college, I wanted this year to be different from last year, especially spiritually. I prepared myself at home for it, and now here at ORU I am doing everything possible to prevent being lukewarm and to be steadfast in my relationship with God. One way God laid on my heart is to change the way I update my facebook status. Now, this may seem small, but lots of small changes add up to a big change. Instead of updating my "friends" on the unnecessary parts of my life that are frivolous, I have decided to write one status update a day, and only write a scripture verse for the day that God has laid on my heart. I also wanted to keep track of those scriptures, so that is what I will be doing on my blog. It will be really good to have 100+ scriptures recorded and it will show my ups and downs through my year without being too wordy and frivolous.

DAY ONE: "Create in me a pure heart, Oh God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me." (Psalms 51:10)

Are you looking?

I am on a 40 day daniel fast with my university....we are fasting meats and sweets (and more for me) through April 10th- which is the last day of a conference being held on campus that weekend called Empowered21.
God has really been "downloading" a lot to me during this time, and I want to share it, and will continue to do so.
One thing that He really empressed upon my heart last week was eyes. There's a big difference between seeing and looking. Seeing is a natural function of the body, while looking is purposeful. This challenged me to ask myself, "Am I just going through life seeing, or am I looking past the outward appearance and into the soul?" When I think about this, I remember this saying,. "The eyes are the windows to the soul."
Matt. 6:22 says, "The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light." Eyes are very distinctable. If you were to see only a person's eyes, you could probably tell who it was. Eye contact is so important, also. I feel like you can get a better understanding of who someone is and what is going on inside when you look into their eyes.
Brandon Heath's song "Give Me Your Eyes" gives us an outlook we should have as followers of Jesus. "Give me your eyes for just one second, give me your eyes so I can see Everything that i keep missing. Give me your love for humanity. Give me your arms for the broken hearted the ones that are far beyond my reach? Give me your heart for the one's forgotten. Give me your eyes so i can see."
Lord, give me your eyes so I can purposefully look past the exteriors into the interiors of souls and hearts. I want to see with your eyes and meet people where they're at. A lot of times we speak one thing but are feeling something totally different. How often do you see someone and you know something isn't right, but you ask them and they say, "I'm fine." God wants to give us that discernment to see past that, if we will only purposefully look for the opportunity.

home

TWO WEEKS!!!
Till what you ask? Fall break!!! It's crazy how time flies. The first two months at ORU have been great, even through the loss of my roomie and the time spent away from home. I never thought I would be so excited to come home for breaks, but I seriously am GIDDY with excitement every time I think of going home! I can't wait to spend time with my family, sleep in my own bed, see everyone at church, everything!! I wonder will Sophie, the family dog, even recognize me when I return? Will my room be the same? I can't wait to see my brother Peter run cross country as a FRESHMAN in HIGH SCHOOL, and hear all about what God's doing through my brother Collin as he's student leading at GRAVITY and in his cell group. I can't wait to sit down at the table for dinner and get a delicious home-cooked meal from my mom and sit out on the porch under the heater with my dad.

There's really no place like home!