BOSTON TOMORROW

I'm so excited about going to Boston tomorrow am. We have to wake up at the crack of dawn! :) We are leaving Greenville at 6am to drive to Raleighwood for our 9am flight. I am packed and ready to go. With a huge suitcase to check under the plane, a tote bag and a pillow for a carry on. Alex has been spending the night this week (she came down to help with the church children's consignment sale) so that has been nice. Except She got sick last night and still feels really bad. I hope she gets better soon. But it was nice for her to help me pack.

I got my hair cut today and ran a ton of errands so it's nice for all of that to be done!

We were supposed to post our expectations on the TenDays Facebook page, so here is what I posted:

Expectations:

-to be able to flow in the gifts of the spirit and for that to open someone's heart for the Lord. I think it would be so cool to pray for healing and see some healed or receive a word of knowledge etc.

- to meet some girls from political families or interested in politics themselves and for them to come to know the Lord I think it would be cool to meet someone influential!

-to bring more excitement for evangelism back to ECU. I love doing evangelim on ECU's campus so I am really excited to evangelize in another city- especially a northern city. I wanted to read all of these books to help with evangelism (More than a carpenter, the reason for God, I want to bear fruit...)before I left but haven't completed that! Will maybe take something to read on the plane.

-to learn about church plants and campus ministry plants This is something I am interested in long term so I really would love to learn all I can. This is also something I think that you would have to learn a lot about from hands on experience rather than just books.

-to have fun and bond with ECU friends! :) Super excited about everyone going.I'm sure there will be good times had by all! :)

PS:

-My endoscopy went well. The doctors found nothing!! They have me taking my medicine twice a day now instead of once!

-My car still has the big black smudge. Waiting on the check from OLD BAY Insurance to come in....

-FYI Ollies has many books, but no good study Bibles. Unless you want a Catholic one or one with Apocrypha. Not up my alley. Wasn't thrilled with Barnes and Nobles selection and when I wheeled into Gville's Christian book store they were already closed... So after break that's where I will be headed before 6pm :)

5 things:

First, I must say, I do need to get back to posting about the Bible. I have been reading for my quiet times but not for the mission to read it all the way through. Still in Job. I did lose my NIV study Bible though which has been quite sad. (The Elevate room at the church has swallowed it!) I checked out a Bible handbook at the library with lots of info, charts and pictures. This should do the trick until I replace my well loved lost friend!

Second, Our VCM Valentine's Bruch was a huge success. We had 80 girls total! There was plenty of food. The only glitch was that I set up the white chocolate fountain wrong and it did not cascade down, but it was pink! :) Melissa, Michelle and I all did well speaking. I was quite proud of all of us! We showed an Anita Renfro video and then had a panel. I wish there was more time for the panel but hopefully the girls questions were answered!

I am already thinking of ideas for next year! :) (More Pics on fb) This was such a fun weekend. Many friends came into town and I wish I had more time to spend with each of them! Jenn, Alex, and Lindsey and Bryan need to come back to Gvegas soon! :)

Third, last Friday I was in a car accident. Well I should say a car pulled out in front of me while I was driving through an intersection. The accident was unsettling but no one was hurt and my volvo will be repaired soon, by the other person's insurance. (She is at fault for failing to yield at right away.) I have often thought about what kind of car I would want to get when my volvo dies. Now I am not sure. Before, I always thought about a nice sensible navy blue honda accord or a really fun Lilly Pulitzer Jeep.

Now, I'm thinking another volvo. Even though car insurance and parts are more expensive on a foreign car, I love my Volvo. We hit the other car pretty hard and I really thought my volvo would look like an accordion. But only the bumper needs fixing. The pictures of the other car don't really show how far in my car hit it. But anyway just glad we were all fine and my car will be fixed soon. (PS a friend was in the car and we were going to talk about Jesus when the accident occurred. So I was pretty p. o.ed we didn't get to do that!)

Fourth, today I am sick with a mini stomach bug. The past few hours have included, laying on the couch under a quilt, lots of clear liquids & the sound of music. Hopefully I will be feeling better soon. Aunt Flow is here so she will be keeping me company! My mom also comes Sunday. I have an upper endosopy scheduled for Monday morning to see what is going on with my acid reflux. So hoping all that goes well and am interested to know what is going on in my tum tum!

Fifth, I am going to Boston, Mass next weekend for a TENDAYS mission trip! This will be the second mission trip I have been on since I have given my life to the Lord in college. Last year I went to Baja, Mexico. I am really excited about this trip b/c it is stateside and will be a totally new experience. I am also interested in helping with church plant/campus ministry plants in the future so I think this will be a great experience for that!

The trip is from Saturday to Saturday. We will be helping with a church plant. Boston is one of the most unreached cities in America. A lot of the existing churches have been turned into restaurants and night clubs. Only like 2 % of the pop there goes to an Evangelical Church. But the EN church we will be helping with has already launched their first services and has seen growth! I am excited to help and evangelize up there!

We have been doing much more evangelism on the campus of ECU which has been so exciting! I have meet so many girls and am excited about where the Lord takes these relationships! The "God Test" is the tool we have been using. It is really effective and when you are finished you can either share your testimony or the Gospel. I usually do a combo of both. I hope to blog about Boston while I am there, so I'll see if that happens! ;)

All of my support for the trip came in! I could share several cool testimonies about that. One though is that a church wanted to support me $250. When I called to follow up they wanted to give $500! So that puts me over the amount I needed!! Hopefully the extra funds will be able to supplement other people's needed funds. :) So excited to see what God will do "Up North" b/c He has been so faithful to provide the resources necessary for me to be able to go! :)

Southern Sayings

Last night a few girls came over for a "anti superbowl" party. We did watch the halftime show then watched The Blindside. The girls brought up that they had never seen Steel Magnolias. This is one of my favorites! I have grown up loving this movie! So today for my day off, I watched it.

This movie reminded me of all of the phrases my grandparents used to say. I miss Memaw & Da a lot. They lived ten minutes away from our house out in the country so we saw them a lot. They would often take Carrie and I out to dinner to the K& W, the J & S, Stamey's BBQ, Short Sugars in Reidsville, and Libby Hill. I miss so many things about them. But watching these type of movies reminds me of the things they used to say and do!

Here are some of the phrases I remember:

-Let me give you a little piece of money (any amount of money was a little piece of money)

-He's got of a lot of gall

-John Brown it

-Big lady= for a lady showing off

-Don't know him from Adam

-Cry me a river of tears = Da used to say this if we were crying too much about something.

-Eyes are bigger than my stomach

-To be ugly= to be mean

-Off galavanting around

-Get all gussied up

-She's got some nerve

-Tuckered out

-I swannee (my favorite old lady saying!)

-Light in the Loafers= a gay man

-Don't go bizzerk

-I declare

-Ale Law- this means oh my goodness...

-You don't have to tell everything you know= Da would always tell me this b/c I talk a lot! Nothing has changed!

-Youngin

-Give me some sugar (miss Memaw saying this!)

-I could jerk a knot in ..... = to hit someone

(Fifth grad picture. I remember thinking this shirt looked so grown up!)

Thinking about these sayings, reminded me of my 5th grade teach Mrs. Smith. She is from Tennessee and here are a couple of the phrases she would say:

-Up the creek without a paddle = out of luck

-Who the sam hill is that??

I love southern sayings! :)

______________________________________________

I thought of one I wanted to add:

-My sister and I went on many car rides with Memaw & Da. When we would drive by a really pretty big house out in the country, especially a white wooden house, Memaw would say "Many a fine meals been cooked there." Miss those car rides...

My Mannerism!

So I'm speaking at the Valentine's Brunch our ministry is putting on. I used the webcam to record myself to practice a few times. It was really funny watching myself. I haven't seen a video recording of me in a lonnnnnggg time. Here is the response to watching my video. I never realized some of my mannerisms. Wow! This is what you all get to see and love all the time! :)

Job Chapters 1-20

So I haven't been writing about what I have been reading about Job at all! This is largely due to the fact that this has been a really hard book to read through. Since last February I have gone through the hardest, most heartbreaking, painful, confusing thing I have ever gone through...

So all that to say that I haven't been super excited to sit down and read about Job's heartache. But tonight I realized enough is enough, I have to just keep reading and get through it so I can read the rest of the Bible! I am so off "schedule" but I am just going to keep going! :)

While reading Job, I can't help but think "this guy has some pretty bad friends!" Lately I have been preparing to speak at the Valentine's Brunch that our campus ministry puts on. I am excited about it but nervous too! ("say a little prayer for me" ((singing voice))

So to prepare for my topic of "Singleness" I have been listening to Lynette Lewis podcasts! I love her! I really admire her b/c

a.) She is such an awesome woman of God

3.) She is bold

e.) She is super feminine

z.) She is all of these things but can still hold her own around men w/o being a feminists or "take overish"

This past September I went to the Pure Life Conference which she hosts. And her message the first night was phenomenal. I listened to it again over the past two days and was in tears! She talked about 4 different friends you need through life. One category I'm thinking about tonight is of "Break Through Friends." Friends who will take you to Jesus when you can't get to Him yourself. She said their were seasons of her singleness in which she was so broken and dry she couldn't even read the Word or find the right scriptures. She talked about the "Mat Friends" from the Gospels. (Mark 2 & Luke 5).

Luke 5:20 says "When Jesus saw their faith, he said, "Friend your sins are forgiven." I want to be that kind of friend who does all I can to take my friends to Jesus, even carry them on a mat and tear into a roof! I don't think Job could say the same for his friends!

It makes me think what kind of a friend am I to others? Do I encourage people, build them up, help them rise to the next level, & when they really need it do I pull them up? I love my friends but want to be more cognizant of speaking life to them!

More thoughts on Job to come, but for now a little pic of my reading buddy!

Getting Back in the swing & Smelling Good!

Sorry I have been a little MIA! "Work" aka campus ministry stuff is back in super full swing now! :) I will continue writing about the Bible! I am now in Job. It has been hard to think of what to write about Job, but I will post about that soon!

Right now I wanted to blog about something of no eternal value.... Perfume!

Perfume is always a big Christmas gift for people. So smelling people's new scents is always fun and reminds me of all of the perfume I have worn in my life. And thinking about each perfume, brings memories of each time period!

Here is my perfume timeline:

First one I remember wanting and asking for was Vanilla Fields. This was from Middle School Days. I still can't believe I used to wear this! This reminds me of Mendenhall Middle School, lockers and wearing overalls!

This was 8th grade! I wore those braces a long time!

Next came Tommy Girl.

This is also from that middle school, early high school era! Would love to smell it again just to bring back memories! :) It makes me think of shopping at the Dillards at the Carolina Circle Mall when it was closing. The store looked like it was abandoned and there were just racks of clothes from every season to sift through. It was fun but took forever! We would take my grandmother Memaw which slowed the process tremendously! :) Anyway, I did buy one "prom dress" from there that I wore to a twerp dance for $60. (Found a picture of the dress, wish Hunter & Jesse weren't cut out of the pic)

Around this same time period came my love for Gap Scents. Grass was intriguing. But who would want to smell like that? Om was interesting as well! My favorite was Heaven.

I wore Heaven for a long time off & on. Even in college, and this past fall I bought some at the outlets in Myrtle Beach. My sister always wore Dream. So this one is dear to my heart too.

Not sure when I started wearing Happy. But it was a favorite for a while. It is such a "sweet" scent. This one went to ECU with me!

I think Gap So Pink came next. This was def. a "college scent." It reminds me of Lindsey Duvall, now Vaughn! (Except her love affair was with Ralph Lauren Blue.) I lived with her at the beach with her grandparents one summer! So I'm sure we bought it at the Myrtle Outlets. It reminds me mostly of crazy class stories, staying up late writing papers and the like! :)

Then came a love for "fancier" perfumes! Coco Chanel Chance was delightful! This reminds me of living in the ZETA house and getting dressed up for all of the cocktails, the Deb ball, and Lindsey and Tamie for sure!

My love for Ralph Lauren Cool started at our an Every Nation World Conference back prob in 2005 ish. I remember walking down the Down Town Disney shops with Heather and probably Lindsey and Erika. We popped in a perfume shop and I fell in love! I didn't actually buy it until a few years ago but luckily found it at Ross, love it, and still wear it to this day. I wear it more in the summer.

Not sure why, but the next scent I bought was the Lacoste Pink. Not as pretty a scent, but wore it some. I def had this during my student teaching days.

The only picture on my computer of around that time!

My current fave is this hot mama! Coco Mademoiselle. This was a Christmas present from my parents two years ago. I wear it a lot in the winter and is such a "pretty" & grown up scent to me! Fitting because I am both of those things! :)

I feel like I'm getting old. Is it possible to have worn this much perfume? :)

Ps tried adding more pictures but was having a hard time, will do it later! :)

Genesis 11: The Tower of Babel & Deism

A little background about me:

Born 1984= 26 years young!

Student at East Carolina Fall 2002-December 2006

Raise support (aka raise salary) for internship in campus ministry Jan -March 2007 (In three months God provided $15,000!!! This was so much confirmation that I was to go into campus ministry! Looking back I think about how much I have grown since then! I was so scared to raise support but God was faithful!)

Internship in campus ministry March -December 2007

Live at home in Greensboro for one month Jan 2008

School of Every Nation School of Campus Ministry Feb-April 2008

Raise support for full time Campus Ministry at East Carolina April 2008- August 2009 (16 months! God was faithful and I really am so glad for all of this time to grow and mature.)

August 2009- Now working full time Campus Ministry at East Carolina!

All of that to say, when I was at the EN school of campus ministry, we read a book called The Universe Next Door by James Sire. It was so over my head and Elissa, my roommate at the school and I would read it and then meet with our other friend Joseph for him to tell us what we just read! (PS, I loved the school and all of the other books we read were wonderful and insightful, this one was just too intellectual for me!) :)

Anyway, the book talks about different worldviews. (Prepare yourself, I may butcher this, but I think you will get my point.) One of the worldviews we read about was Deism. The book describe this worldview like a pocket watch, that God created the world and then left us on our own, never to come down, or even care about us. Obviously this is not the way I view God, or the way God is!

Reading Gen 11 about the Tower of Babel made me think about this. The people were being prideful and God came down and confused their languages. God gives a spanking for the people's own good.

Timelines of genealogies: